New Yorker article on marathon cheat

[Serafina8]

I know it's an impendingly busy time for we athletics fans, but I just read a fascinating New Yorker article on (alleged ) marathon cheat Kip Litton that I can't resist recommending. (I had never heard of the guy -- I gather from the article it was a big thing on Letsrun -- but found the mystery surrounding his methods very compelling.)

It's in the August 6th issue (I picked it up on the newstand, the link to the online version is:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/06/120806fa_fact_singer
-- n.b.: I think you may have to be a subscriber or register to read the full thing there

[mcgato]

I hang out on letsrun a lot, so I am vaguely familiar with Litton. There were numerous threads started over there about him, but they always got deleted. Someone finally convinced one of the brojos to have a single thread about it that doesn't get deleted. It has almost 4500 replies so far. It is so huge that I probably haven't even opened it.

[Conor Dary]

I just finished reading it. And yes, unfortunately, you have to be a subscriber.

Well worth reading, even buying the issue, though it is a long article. I thought it would be just another story of a guy who cheats on race courses. There have been oodles of those over the years, but this guy takes it to an entirely new level, what with the chips these days and photos I didn't think was possible. He spends a lot of money on hotels, airfares, etc. to fly to races all over the country, just so he can game the system and get a little masters prize he didn't deserve. He even made up an entire race that he won!

The irony is that he isn't that bad a runner. Apparently he has actually run a few marathons in the 3:10 - 3:20 range, which isn't bad for a 40+ guy. But to pull off this elaborate charade just to get 3rd in a masters race with a 2:50 time seems pretty weird.

Lots on Letsrun in the story, about their investigative work by posters, but also shows the really dark side of what gets posted there. Some very nasty folks there...

By the way, there is no alleged about this guy. The evidence from reading the story is the guy is definitely a fraud.

[Master Po]

It is a fascinating story about a weird case. If you don't have a subscription to The New Yorker, this blog:

Study of Kip Litton Running Performances
http://kiplitton.blogspot.com/

will give you all the data that formed the background for the story.