Cheating

So I got this harassing email from my sister yesterday, angry that I haven't blogged in a while.

The resemblance to me is uncanny.

I'd apologize for that, but nah. I just don't want to blog. And that's okay. I appreciate that she enjoys my blog - and thank you to both of you who actually still check back here, what with my erratic posting schedule. But I haven't been running much, and I'm facing the dual reality that a) I'm very, very okay with that in the short term, and b) it almost definitely means that I won't be doing the ultra I'd planned on in October - and I'm okay with that, too.

I'd like to be running more, sure, and I've been feeling kind of depressio lately, which is probably a direct result of not running. But I'm waiting for the day when I wake up super super excited to run to return to it. I think that day is near. This isn't one of those periods where I need to be forcing myself to do it, and that's okay. (If I keep saying that it's okay, I'll start to believe it, right? RIGHT?)

So anyway, my sister tells me that I need to blog. She even goes so far as to send me blog ideas. One of them was Kip Litton, the marathon-winning Michigan dentist who is actually an elaborate cheat. The New Yorker wrote an amazing story about him recently, finally exposing the extent of his deception in a major publication instead of on the pages of letsrun.

Her second idea was another cheater, also fresh from the pages of letsrun. I told her that if she cared so much then she should just write about it (you can be a full-on brat and speak petulantly like that to your siblings). And she did. Here, after that lengthy intro, is what my sister has to say:

Connie Mendoza, a rather fit looking master's runner from California, cheated at the San Francisco marathon recently and won the master's division.  Cheaters suck, especially when they are cheating someone out of a well earned award.  But 539 comments on a Letsrun.com thread?  Really?  Why do people who have nothing to do with the situation care so much?  I didn't read the entire discussion, but from what I gather it gets really interesting around page 19 when the (people who have nothing better to do with their time) contributors discover the SF MEN'S MASTERS WINNER also cheated!  hah.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=4761190

So, moral of the story, James Kalani and Connie Mendoza are cheaters.  Hundreds of letsrun.com disciples make it their current life's mission to discuss this at length for no apparent reason.

I'm not sure I agree with my sister entirely. First off, I totally absolutely adamantly like really really disagree with her body policing. What's the relevance of Mendoza being "fit looking"? She legitimately ran a 3:06 marathon - who cares if she's "fit looking" or not when she can run that fast.

And then... letsrun. Yeah, they're obsessed. Ahem. But she cheated. And that's not cool. She not only cheated by cutting the course, but in doing so she knowingly cheated someone who deserved it out of a hard won award. Personally, I'm glad that there are people there who've taken the time to expose this. And, could you not argue that my sister has nothing better to do with her time than to harangue on the letsrunners for haranguing on a cheater?

Phew. If you've stayed with me this long, thank you again. Here's a reward: a photo of me (tiny, in back in the red skirt) running down Bleecker Street as part of Claire's Beer Run last Sunday.