The news is starting to get a little old at this point and common sense says it shouldn’t even be addressed, but Matt finished his recent article about Scott Downard being disqualified from the Cowtown Marathon after running with somebody else’s bib by mentioning that the win was reassigned to Kolin Styles and saying, “But we all know who the real winner is.”

Well yes, we do know who the real winner is. The real winner is Kolin Styles.

If Scott Downard had jumped in a car and skipped 5 miles of the course before hopping out and finishing first, would you still consider him the winner? If he started an hour before the official start and crossed the finish line first, then would you consider him the winner? If he hopped on a plane to London, managed to get by security, and then finished before everybody else in the Olympic Marathon, would you consider him the winner?

My guess is that you would not. And if you wouldn’t consider him a winner, then why would you consider him a winner if he cheats by running in a race while pretending to be somebody else?

Let’s look at other sports. Football is popular. If somebody crosses into the endzone with the football, but had to grab somebody by the face mask to get by, or had to go out of bounds first and then run back in, should they score a touchdown? Because as I seem to recall, they will usually down the ball and the touchdown won’t count.

Bandits are a real headache for race organizers. They use resources that aren’t intended for them, they threaten race cancellation for permit violations, and they screw up results when they use somebody else’s bib number.

A race that I put on recently had a few bandits. That meant that runners who should have gotten awards didn’t know about them and left without them. After spending 2 weeks after the race sorting out the mess, if they wanted their award they then had to go out of their way to pick up their award. Had we not ordered 27 more awards then we actually expected to give out, then 25 people would never have even won their prize because other’s had stolen them.

At Cowtown, the situation was figured out relatively quickly and Scott admitted that he cheated. But he also stole Kolin’s opportunity to break the tape. That’s a good feeling, to finish a race and realize you’ve won. Finding out after the fact is better than never realizing it, but it still doesn’t have the same impact.

Bandits also pose a safety hazard in case something happens on the course. Sure, everybody thinks that they are invincible, but accidents happen. Most runners don’t have any identification when they race other than their bib number. If Scott had gotten hit by a car or had a seizure, then he could have had inappropriate medical attention applied to him by emergency responders. Getting a phone call telling you that a spouse or father or child has been killed or hospitalized is never pleasant, so why would you want to risk giving that call to somebody else’s loved ones?

Following the rules isn’t very difficult. If you break the rules, then you don’t deserve a place in the results. Somebody fast enough to run a 2:31:40 marathon has probably been running and racing for long enough to know that, especially since it should be common sense even to somebody running their first race.

If he had felt the need to run the race under somebody else’s name, he should have at least had the decency to not cross the finish line or to DQ himself after he won rather than waiting for the race organizers to figure out that he was an imposter. Even better would have been to not run, or to contact the race director and ask for a bib.

It may come as a shock, but most race organizers are more than happy to offer comped bibs to runners that have a chance to win a race and provide some good competition up front.

My stance on bandits may be a bit extreme, but I consider a minimum 1 year ban from the race more than justified for somebody that intentionally cheats. Glorifying those runners through your position in your local media does a disservice to your community and portrays the wrong message to the non-runners and kids that might read your article.

Hat Tip to the Marathon Junkie for sending me the article.

• Day #1 – Thursday
• Day #2 – Friday
• Day #3 – Saturday
• Day #4 – Sunday

As of right now, only 2 people have commented on all of the updates, so your chances of winning could be quite good.

If you’d like to listen to today’s update rather than watch it, download the mp3 here.

Today was the 3rd and final race of the Bradbury Mountain Snowshoe Series. I didn’t run in any of them this year, but I did get out to take photos today. Everybody looked like they were having a lot of fun, and while Judson Cake was no surprise for the men’s series winner (as he has blown everybody away in each of the races), the women had an upset win by Gnarls Barclay after series leader Danielle Triffitt came down with a bug and wasn’t able to make it to the final race!

Prizes included IceSpikes and the Frontier Cafe gift certificates, home made cookies, and for the series winners there were cupcakes and free entry into the summer series. The number of people who ran all 3 races rose from 19 to 28 this year, well represented by the ladies, and each of them won a Bad Ass t-shirt made by Atayne. There was also a raffle sponsored by Dion where the winners got one of 2 hats, a sweatshirt, or a free pair of racing snowshoes.

You can learn more about the series at the Trail Monster Running website if you are interested in running or in exploring one of our other races that we offer throughout the year. Next up is the Pineland Farms Festival of Races.

Today was also day 4 of the 1 More Mile Challenge. Click over to the blog to check out my progress and get a blow by blow for my own activities at the race, as well as to enter the contest for the free book! (If you prefer audio to video you can get mp3 of the update here…)

If you want to win a copy of the book, today’s update can be commented on at:
http://www.1moremileforsunshine.com/442/day-3-flooded-driveways

You can also listen to the update by downloading the mp3.

http://www.1moremileforsunshine.com/438/day-02-hanging-out-with-the-ducks

(You can get the MP3 of today’s video update here)

When I ran the 1 More Mile challenge back in 2010, we had a pretty rough Winter with a lot of less than ideal running weather – snow, rain, heavy fog and the like. Then I stopped running the challenge, and the rest of the Winter was very mild with only a few more days that snow fell and it didn’t last more than 24 hours.

Today I began the challenge again, and we’ve had a very mild Winter this year. Very little snowfall…so little in fact that it’s been only at the last minute that the local snowshoe races (the ones that weren’t cancelled) were able to decide if they had a course that they could justify wearing snowshoes on. But, that changed, with 8 or 10 inches of snow today and more expected this weekend. All because I had to run 1 mile today…ha ha ha!

You can see my video update, as well as enter this week’s giveaway contest, at the 1 More Mile website. Here’s a link to today’s update:
http://www.1moremileforsunshine.com/429/day-1-a-new-start-beautiful-weather-and-a-contest

If you’d rather just listen to the audio from the update, click here to download the MP3.

The ultralist agreed with him, and with their help Big now has a great home. It wasn’t an easy transition, though, and after a group of strangers from around the world helped Laz to adopt this dog and get him the care that the dog required, he felt that he should update everybody on how the Big Dog was doing.

Fast forward a few years, and you can now read Big’s story in one convenient package! As the second book published by my imprint, Trail Trotter Press, My Name is Big follows Big’s rescue, adoption into a permanent home, re-abandonment and finally making his way back to Laz’s farm for good.

There is some running in the book, and there is a lot of inside information that a casual reader might not notice that you would as a runner, but this book will appeal to all kinds of dog lovers no matter how active they are.

After the book was announced yesterday afternoon, it had reached multiple Amazon Best Seller lists by the end of the day! At one point, it was ranked #432 out of all books selling on Amazon, and was the 6th best selling Dog book, even outselling 2 of Cesar Milan’s books! (He’s the Dog Whisperer…and yes, I had to look that up!)

This book is a fun read and would make a great gift for any dog lover in your life.

(Please note that as the publisher of the book I obviously have a financial interest in it. You can learn more about the book at Amazon.)

I didn’t make it through day 25 last time, but my friends rallied around me on the 31st to get the missing miles in and I was able to end on a high note and raise enough money for a family to attend Camp Sunshine.

Now that I’m full time with Run to Win, I’m better able to get my running in during daylight hours when there is less traffic and safer conditions.

Seems like a good time to start it again, doesn’t it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGX2jU8KhDQ

Beginning on March 1 and running through March 31, I will be running the challenge again and I’d like for you to join me. Here’s how you can help:

1. Run the Challenge (sign up below)
2. Donate to Campsunshine
3. Get Camp Sunshine Media Attention***
4. Promote Your Products with Prizes (contact me if you have something)
5. Come Run a Free Race with Us (details to be announced)

Learn about the original challenge and follow the progress of the new challenge at the website:
1MoreMileForSunshine.com

One of the most disturbing stats that I saw on a quick glance through the report is that 40% of the time, Americans are traveling less than 2 miles. However, 62% of the trips that were less than a mile were by car, and 87% of the trips between 1 and 2 miles! Sure, sometimes you need to carry a lot of groceries home, or the weather is bad you’re afraid that you’ll melt. I can understand that. But if it’s a nice day and you’re just going to visit a friend down the road, or if you live close to where you work, why not walk?

Economically, bicycling and pedestrian related projects will normally create between 11 and 14 jobs per $1 million spent, compared to 7 jobs created for highway projects. Despite cost/benefit analyses showing that every dollar spent can result in $11.80 in benefits, states are spending less than 2% of their federal transportation dollars on projects that will encourage people to commute under their own power. That’s just one of the reasons that biking and walking levels are down 66% since 1960 and is probably a contributing factor to a growth of 156% in obesity levels. In fact, between 1966 and 2009, the number of kids walking or biking to school went down by 75% and the percentage of fat and overweight kids has increased by 276%.

Did you know that 6 of the 10 states with the highest levels of biking and walking also have the lowest levels of bicycle or pedestrian fatality rates in traffic accidents? On top of that, in 7 of the 10 states where you are most likely to die in a traffic accident from getting hit by a car you’ll also find the fewest number of fellow bikers and walkers.

Maine is one of the better states to live in if you enjoy moving under your own power, which just gives me one more reason to be happy that I live in Vacationland all year. How does your state rank? You can find out by checking out the report at: People Powered Movement.org

Leave a comment below and let me know how you rank where you live.

Finish Line at the Houston Marathon

It was a great weekend. I knew it would be something special when within a few hours of getting there last Thursday I’d already met up with a half dozen people I knew (and all at random, none of it was planned.) That night, my wife and I crashed a local running club’s pasta dinner (okay, we were invited, but it’s more fun to say we crashed it.) The next day, we met up with a friend of ours that was also in town to take a tour of the Johnson Space Center, and then I spent the afternoon at the Expo trying to drum up business for my book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KneUwacajQw

Download This Video: MP3 – Watch on YouTube

Women at Olympic Trials

That afternoon, my wife and I decided to run to Rice Village for lunch, which was about a 5 mile jog from where we were staying. We actually went to the Chocolate Bar first to get some ice cream, then went to lunch. Rice Village strikes me as being similar to Freeport if you cut Freeport in half. After lunch, Erin took the train back downtown and I decided to run through Herman Park and then back to our hotel, making it about a 13 mile day right before my marathon.

Meeting Brian Sell

Erin wasn’t too happy that I’d been up drinking until 11:30 the night before my marathon, but it doesn’t seem to have affected me too much. I felt fine the next morning, made it to the starting line early enough to get a photo with the Maniacs, and seeded myself around the 3 hour pacer since I honestly had no idea what sort of pace I’d be able to run and figured the best I could do would be 3 hours and a few minutes.

A few miles into the race, Gary Allen was running next to me and spotted me, so we decided to settle into 6:50/mile pace for the next hour since Gary’s “A” goal was just to break 3 hours. Of course, that never happened. We were busting out 6:43s no matter how hard we tried to slow down, and this turned out to be one of the best paced races I’ve run at this distance. Overall, I ran a 56 second negative split and my 5k splits only varied by a second or two per mile. At the end of the race, I got passed by a couple of people in the last 4½ miles, but I passed 25 people. My final time was 2:55:40.

It was a lot of fun, even if I don’t really care for all that concrete that they use for roads down there. I don’t think I’ll be very likely to go back, as I also prefer smaller races, but it was worth running for sure.