Every year, supposed finishers are disqualified from the Honolulu Marathon for cutting the course or discrepancies in their times.
Sunday’s race garnered attention when the marathoninvestigation.com website Opens in a new tab published a story Tuesday with a list of names and photos of suspect finishers. The post included their missing marks from timing mats placed along the course and images of them showing off their finishers’ medals.
President Jim Barahal is aware of that site but said it’s routine for his staff to review results after every race, checking for discrepancies. There’s usually a handful of finishers in the 22,000-plus entries who are flagged and subsequently booted from the result database. It’s also something common in big marathons, he said.
“Our system is our system,” Barahal said. “It’s an inclusive event. We welcome folks. We can’t really judge intent on these things. We think our system is strong enough where if someone cuts the course, we’re going to know about it.”
In 2007, problems with a new timing system led to inaccurate or incomplete split and finish times in the rain soaked marathon. Race officials later used video to verify finishing times after nearly 2,000 finishers were not originally recorded by the system.
Derek Murphy wrote in an email that his site marathoninvestigation.com draws attention to cheating that occurs in races, whether it’s course cutting or bib swapping. In some instances, runners used dubious means to attain qualifying times to get into major marathons such as Boston or New York City. The Honolulu Marathon is open to anyone.
Barahal noted that the site isn’t affiliated with his race, nor is it a governing body of the sport. Any action taken by his staff is independent of anything published online.
“It’s not an official website from some sports governing body,” Barahal said. “It seems to be one guy out there who decided this is what he’s going to do, to monitor seemingly all marathons. But it’s by no means an official website. It has no official standings, it’s not part of the sport or governing body of the sport.
“Any decision we make or don’t make has absolutely nothing to do with that website. We have no relationship with that website. We have no connection with that website and no communication with that website. We don’t support or condone that website, or use of photos or anything he does in any way.”
There are eight timing mats along the 26.2-mile course that stretches from Ala Moana to downtown to Waikiki to Hawaii Kai. Each runner has a timing chip in his or her race bib and times are recorded when a runner crosses each mat. There is also a live results site so each runner can be tracked by anyone on the Internet.
“The idea that people will not pass through timing mats is something every race deals with,” Barahal said. “The fact was our results were already reviewed by our timing team and a number of runners were disqualified based on the discrepancy in their split times had nothing to do with that website. It’s a process we do every year and so this is completely independent of anything on that website.”
With runners going out and back on Kalanianaole Highway, it’s likely someone crossed over a lane, performing a quick U-turn for the finish. But Barahal said the out-and-back course is one of the beauties of the race where runners see the professional runners go by. He cited the loud applause Lawrence Cherono received as he ran down Diamond Head Road as others headed up that stretch.
“People go crazy, it’s beautiful,” Barahal said. “We love that part of that course.”
Barahal doesn’t believe it was anyone’s intent to cut the course to win their age division. But the moment someone crosses the finish line, the timing system filters the result into categories based on age and gender.
“It’s very easy to see when it doesn’t match up and it’s very difficult for somebody to say my time is legitimate even though I missed all the timing points,” Barahal said. “That just can’t happen. It’s not going to happen.”
