Vivian Foley finishes 2nd M55 in 2026 Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon is one of the most prestigious marathons in the world with many runners needing to achieve a certain qualifying time for their age group before they can enter.

The 2026 event was held last Monday the 20th of April and there were approximately 29,000 finishers.

Cork runner Dr Vivian Foley managed to get on the podium in the very competitive M55 category with a second place finish and a time of 2h 37m 57s.

In 2025, Vivian managed to secure four national titles in the various Irish Championships from 5-miles to the marathon. See previous post.

Guest Post: FIFTY YEARS AGO – WHEN AN IRISHMAN WON THE BOSTON MARATHON ...by John Walshe

In this guest post, John Walshe looks back at the 50th anniversary of Neil Cusack winning the 1974 Boston Marathon with an additional piece about Bill Rodgers' win the following year.

FIFTY YEARS AGO – WHEN AN IRISHMAN WON THE BOSTON MARATHON

By John Walshe

This Monday, April 15th, sees the 128th Boston Marathon taking place. The date will also mark the exact 50th anniversary of a historic triumph by an Irishman on that celebrated 26.2-mile point-to-point route from Hopkinton to Copley Square.

Patriot’s Day - on which the marathon is traditionally held - in 1974 coincided with Easter Monday. On that fine April evening a brief announcement at the end of the nine o’clock news on the black-and-white television stated that an Irishman named Neil Cusack had won the famous Boston Marathon.

Neil Cusack winning the 1974 Boston Marathon in a time of 2:13:39.

Although only 22, the Limerick man was no stranger to Cork athletics fans. Two years before on a Sunday afternoon he had won a 10,000m road race (the acronym ‘10K’ hadn’t yet been invented) organised by the Midleton club on a six-lap course around the town.

That March Cusack had returned from East Tennessee State University where he was on scholarship to represent Ireland in the International Cross-Country at Cambridge. The marathon potential was already evident the previous December when, in his first attempt and a few days short of his 20th birthday, he won the Peach Bowl Marathon in Atlanta by almost seven minutes with a time of 2:16:18.

Later in that year of 1972 he would set an Irish 10,000m record of 28:45.8 in the heats at the Munich Olympics. Before leaving for Munich, he made another visit to Midleton where in a novel mid-week 10,000m road and track race he defeated locally-born Mike Keogh, back from the US for the Olympics.

On his return to the US in the autumn Cusack became the first Irishman (and one of only three in all) to win the prestigious NCAA Cross-Country. On that day at Houston he led an all-Irish team known as ‘The Irish Brigade’ to a second-place finish. The team consisted of himself, Eddie and PJ Leddy, Kevin Breen, Ray McBride and Frank Greally who would go on to create Irish Runner magazine.

Three of Ireland’s greatest athletes at the 1975 Tullamore road race: Neil Cusack, third; Eamonn Coghlan, first; John Treacy, second.

After a stellar indoor season in early 1974, Cusack arrived in Boston in top form, both physically and mentally. “I remember travelling up to Boston from Johnson City having my mind already set on winning the event,” he would relate to Greally in Irish Runner many years later.

“I was young and confident and I had no fear of the distance or the opposition. I didn't put any limits on myself back then and running that first marathon in Atlanta gave me an insight into what it was like to tackle the distance," he said. "Going into Boston, I had no fear." 

The night before, Cusack remembers sitting in his hotel room in the city sewing a shamrock crest to the string vest that he was going to wear. "Ron Hill, who had won Boston in 1970, had made the string vest a popular piece of running apparel for marathoners and I had my Dunnes Stores version with me in Boston.”

That Patriot's Day, Cusack was on target for a 2:09 performance going up the infamous Heartbreak Hill between 18 and 21 miles but the pace found him out over the final miles. He still recorded the third-fastest performance over the iconic course as his 2:13:39 gave him almost a minute to spare over Tom Fleming in second (2:14:25) with Canadian Jerome Drayton taking third spot (2:15:40).

Nowadays the winner at Boston can expect to gain in the region of $150,000 in prize money, plus bonuses and expenses. But like Hill four years previous, all Cusack received was a medal, a laurel wreath and a bowl of stew. The big money in road racing was still a couple of years distant but Cusack’s class can be seen from his victory at the Newark Distance Run over 12 miles the following year.

There he defeated Bill Rodgers by 10 seconds in a time of 58:38. The following month Rodgers would win the first of his four Boston Marathon titles, setting an American and course record of 2:09:55, thus making him one of the first (and richest) superstars of the sport. A year or two later he had his own running store along with his own line of running apparel.

Cusack hit another high when he won the Dublin Marathon in 1981 in 2:13:58. He competed in two Olympics, 1972 and 1976, and represented Ireland in the World Cross-Country on 13 occasions. In the 1982 Ballycotton ’10’, the Limerick-man came home first of the 429 finishers in a course record of 48:01. He would run a second faster a year later when finishing third (48:00) behind Jerry Kiernan (47:04) and Ray Treacy (47:42).

For this year’s Boston Marathon Neil and his wife Imelda have been invited back to celebrate that day all of five decades ago. He has been given the special honour of being the official race starter for the event, which now boasts an entry of 45,000. 

* As a footnote (pardon the pun) to that famous victory, a glance at Cusack’s shoes shows he was wearing the Tiger (now Asics) Marathon racing flat, probably the most popular of the few racing shoes available at the time.

They had a simple blue nylon upper, stitched to a white rubber sole that was - compared to the ‘stacked’ shoes of today - only about a quarter-of-an inch thick, with maybe a half-inch under the heel. Looking at an advert in Athletics Weekly of the time, they retailed for around five or six pounds sterling in the UK, about €75 in today’s money.

In the early 1970s, Nike was just getting off the ground in the US and there is a fascinating story concerning Bill Rodgers’ victory in that Boston Marathon of 1975. An unemployed school teacher, he had returned to competition after a two year layoff and had surprised even his coach when finishing third the previous month at the World Cross-Country in Morocco. 

This impressive performance caught the attention of many in the running community, including Steve Prefontaine. ‘Pre’, as he was known, was then at the height of his running career. He had set every American record from 2000m to 10,000m, along with a fourth-place finish in the 5000m at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Prefontaine was also an employee of an athletic shoe company started by his college coach, Bill Bowerman. That company was Nike. On April 9th, Steve Prefontaine wrote a letter to that relatively unknown, but up and coming runner named Bill Rodgers. The typed letter, hand-signed by Pre, went as follows:

Dear Bill,

First of all congratulations on a fine race in Rabat. You have really improved this last year and hopefully will continue to until the Olympic games.

The reason I'm writing is because Jeff Galloway told me you were interested in training in our shoes. I'm sending you a pair of Boston 73's and a training shoe. Any comments would be greatly appreciated. Just feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Wishing you continued success for 75.

Sincerely,

Steve Prefontaine

Because the shoes were a bit on the large size, Rodgers had to stop twice in the final few miles to tighten his laces, to the surprise and awe of the spectators and press. Despite this he still crossed the line first in an American record of 2:09:55.

The following month, on May 30th at the age of 23, Steve Prefontaine would tragically die in a car crash.

***

Previous posts by John Walshe HERE

Guest Post: FORTY YEARS AGO - WHEN ‘C’MON AGHADA’ WAS HEARD ON HEARTBREAK HILL ...by John Walshe

FORTY YEARS AGO - WHEN ‘C’MON AGHADA’ WAS HEARD ON HEARTBREAK HILL

(By John Walshe, Midleton & Dist News/Youghal News, 20/04/2023)

On Monday last week, the famous Boston Marathon took place for the 127th time. Nowadays, travel to overseas marathons is commonplace and Boston is undoubtedly on most runners ‘to-do’ list.
 
It was all so different 40 years ago but that certainly didn’t deter two determined Aghada men, Barry Moran and John Motherway, to set out on what was the experience of a lifetime.
 
Both share a common love and a lifetime of service to the GAA at local level and further afield. This has ensued in a friendship that now encompasses half a century, but each followed a different route which would eventually lead to the streets of Boston in 1983.
 
As Barry explains, for him it all started with a bet: “I was sitting in the mess room at IFI in Marino Point and there was an article in a magazine saying that Telly Salavas [actor who played Kojak] runs six miles a day in 36 minutes. And I said, in my own inimitable style, ‘anyone could do that’, and it started from there. I had four weeks to train and they measured out a course between Lower Aghada and Whitegate and I duly broke 36 minutes, I even broke 35 minutes with a time of 34:50.”
 
Then, a work-mate of his, Willie ‘Batty’ Cronin, who had served in the American army and was an experienced runner, suggested they should try a marathon. Barry hadn’t even heard of a marathon at that stage so he did a few long runs with Willie before heading off to the 1981 BLE National Marathon in Cork. This started and finished at the County Hall, comprising of 13 miles out to Farnanes and back – plus an extra 385 yards which proved to be his undoing.
 
“That’s where I went wrong, we were going fine up to halfway but on the way back Willie got cramp and had to drop out. I carried on and got to the 26-mile mark in around 3:25 and thought I was finished. So I sat down on the road, in the pouring rain. I was there for about three-quarters-of-an hour until a fellow cycled out and said ‘come on in, we want to go home’. I had to get up then and I finished in 4:18, the only time I was ever outside the four hours.”   
 
John Motherway was born in Butlerstown, Barryroe, in 1943 and moved with his late wife Anne to Aghada in the early 1960s where he worked for Kosangas in nearby Whitegate. “One day, a fellow I knew came in to me and said he was running the Dublin Marathon. So I said I’d have a go myself, although I had never run on the road but I was fairly fit from refereeing. As I was friends with Barry, I started off with him, even though he nearly killed me at first.” 
 
The hard training certainly paid off as both crossed the line at that 1981 Dublin City Marathon a second apart, 3:35:27 and 3:35:28. The following year, John had improved to 3:10 and by now both were regulars on the local running scene. But it was a chance remark while out on a training run that provided the spark which led to Boston.
 
“We were out running in the middle of nowhere when Barry said he was after reading in the Irish Runner magazine that the Boston Marathon was the oldest in the world. I said we should do that sometime and he agreed, as we both had relations in Boston. When I got home, I mentioned it to Anne and she said ‘the sooner ye do that the better, because God only knows if you’ll be running this year or next year’. So the following morning I rang my cousin in Boston and that’s where it all started.”
 
With the marathon scheduled for April 18th, Barry and John traveled out a week before - and wouldn’t return until May 1st. The hype was already in full swing when they arrived and the Aghada duo were soon part of it with an interview on the ‘Sound of Erin’ radio show. One of the presenters, John Varian, was from Cork and they were also asked back the Saturday after the marathon when John obliged with a rendition of ‘The Banks’.
 
“On the morning of the marathon, we were bussed out to Hopkinton where it begins,” says John. “We were there in a big high school when a fellow came along and asked ‘where are you guys from?’ I said we’re from Ireland and he said we were the only fellows with a bit of common sense as we had our ‘street clothes’ on. It was freezing at that time but we were lucky enough with the conditions later on.”
 
That Boston Marathon of 1983, which had a total of 5,372 finishers, proved to be a historic occasion. Joan Benoit – who would go on to win the inaugural women’s Olympic marathon the following year at Los Angeles – ran a world’s best time of 2:22:43. Greg Meyer took first in the men’s race in 2:09:00, making it the last time the host country has provided both winners on the same day.
 
“The crowds were unbelievable,” recalls John. “I suppose the only thing you’d be conscious of is getting carried away and not finishing after going all the way out there, if you were in Cork or Dublin it wouldn’t be so bad.”
 
“There were two things that happened to me that certainly gave me a great lift,” explained Barry. “Firstly, when we came to the top of Heartbreak Hill they rang a bell to say you’ve conquered Heartbreak Hill. It’s not just one hill but a series of three hills. And just after the bell, a roar went up – ‘C’mon Aghada’! It was Joe Brice, who I had gone to school with and it gave me a tremendous lift. How he picked us out of the thousands, it was unreal.”
 
Joe Brice, a native of Aghada and a member of Midleton AC, was an Irish international discus thrower with five senior national titles to his credit. He had gone to the University of Lowell in Massachusetts on an athletics scholarship in 1976, the first of a number of Fr Liam Kelleher’s athletes to take the scholarship route.
 
However, Barry’s uplift was short lived: “I was going very well and on for a time around 2:50. When I came down from Heartbreak Hill, there was a fellow with an Irish flag and I veered over to him and said ‘keep your flag flying’, and was that a mistake. He jumped up on my back with excitement and next thing I was on the ground with one of the knees cut, and that ended my marathon, although I carried on to finish in 3:10:14.”
 
John crossed the line in an official 3:28:10, and he had an extra incentive over the final few yards. “I was coming down and could see the line when there was an announcement that there was two minutes left for official finishers, you’d get no medal if you didn’t break 3:30.”
 
With a recall that’s as clear as if it was yesterday, it’s with a mixture of nostalgia and gratitude that both look back at that eventful trip of four decades ago. “I suppose the great thing is that we stayed together over there with my cousin, it was like home from home,” says John. “And it all happened totally by accident; I didn’t even know there was a marathon in Boston.”
 
Leaving the last word to Barry, he admits that all the credit must go to John’s late wife, Anne. “We wouldn’t have gone only for her. She said ‘if ye want to go, go now’. And be mindful, she had four small kids at that stage and to tell her husband to go away and run the Boston Marathon was a fair thing to say.
 
“But off we went, and what a time we had.”

A list of previous guest posts from John Walshe can be seen HERE

Cork runners at the 2018 Boston Marathon

One of the most famous marathons in the world is of course in Boston and the 122nd edition was held last Monday the 16th of April 2018.

These are the runners from Cork who took part....

427    Smith, Mark    40    M    Cork         IRL    2:43:39
2554    O'Regan, Stephen    35    M    Cork    IRL    2:49:43
5544    Lyons, Alan    39    M    Cork         IRL    3:00:48
2079    Hogan, Aidan    44    M    Cork         IRL     3:06:03
1184    Cotter, Liam    52    M    Cork         IRL    3:11:34
426    Foley, Vivian    48    M    Cork         IRL    3:11:51
2567    O'Herlihy, Colin    47    M    Co. Cork    IRL     3:16:36
10422    O Donovan, Fergal    45    M    Co Cork    IRL     3:20:42
11322    Magner, Aidan    47    M    Cork         IRL     3:24:45
7144    Crowley, Ken    43    M    Cork         IRL     3:28:14
6607    Murphy, David    40    M    Cork Ireland     IRL    3:31:27
3094    Forde, Michael    38    M    Cork         IRL    3:34:38
6912    O Meara, Fergal    49    M    Midleton    IRL    3:35:55
20427    Gilroy, Helen    52    F    Cork         IRL    3:35:55
17802    Lynch, Liam    60    M    Co Cork         IRL    3:37:43
8741    Mclean, Gerard    47    M    Cork         IRL    3:39:18
19875    Walsh, Helen    43    F    Cork         IRL    3:39:41
19685    Crowley, Lisa    44    F    Cork         IRL     3:43:55
17764    Sheehan, Louise    44    F    Co. Cork    IRL     3:49:47
20837    Marshall, Ger    60    M    Cork         IRL     3:55:31
30392    Fitzgibbons, Sheila    51    F    Blarney     IRL    5:15:14
30471    Devlin, Killian    39    M    Midleton    IRL    5:30:29
30419    Butler, Patricia    38    F    Carrigaline    IRL    5:30:29

Boston Marathon's first woman finisher Kathrine Switzer competes 50 years later

 

Back in 1967, the Boston Marathon was an all male event and women weren't allowed to compete. A then 20 year old Katherine Switzer entered using only her initials K. V. Switzer and ran. The iconic photo above shows the moment the official, Jock Semple, tried to remove the number and force Ms Switzer from the course. She finished the race in an unofficial time of 4h 20m.

Fifty years on, aged 70, Katherine Switzer ran the 2017 Boston Marathon wearing the same race number '261' that she wore all those years ago. This time, she wasn't alone as she was joined by more than 12,300 women who started the race. Her finish time was 4h 44m...pretty good considering she's 70!


Link...
Katherine Switzer...the first woman to enter and run the Boston Marathon

Irish results from the 2017 Boston Marathon

The 2017 Boston Marathon was held on Monday the 17th of April and just over 30,000 people completed the famous 26.2 mile course. There were 177 Irish runners listed in the results and they are shown below.

If anyone knows of any runners from Cork in there, let me know and I'll highlight them.

Cork runner Una Plant from Kinsale goes sub 3 in the Boston Marathon

Una Plant from Kinsale is a regular on the local race circuit in Cork and ran a 2:56 in the New York Marathon last November. She was in action again at the Boston Marathon on Monday and secured another sub 3 hour finish!

Una's time was 2h 59m 05s and finished 5th F45 out of what is a huge field of 30,741 runners. She was also the second Irish woman home, second only to 28 year old Joyce Miller who lives in the US.

Orla Crosbie of St.Finbarr's AC in Cork also posted a fine time of 3h 18m and was 20th F45.

1496 Miller, Joyce R 28    F Beaufort SC USA IRL... 2:58:11
2948 Plant, Una    45    F Kinsale      IRL... 2:59:05 ...5th F45
7245 Crosbie, Orla M     F Cork      IRL...3:18:25 ...20th F45

Una Plant Murphy with the winner of the women's race Atsede Baysa of Ethiopia (2:29:18)

Addendum : Joyce Miller (Joyce Curtin) has also been in touch. Joyce is from Killeagh in East Cork and used to run with Glenbower AC. She moved to the States on a scholarship and got married there. .

Reigning Boston and Chicago Marathon champion Rita Jeptoo fails drugs test

It was announced yesterday that one of the top Kenyan marathon runners Rita Jeptoo had failed a doping test. In a statement, Athletics Kenya said..."The result of the 'A' sample for the athlete has indicated the presence of prohibited substances."

33 year old Jeptoo won the Boston Marathon last April in a course record time of 2:18:57 and also won the Chicago Marathon in October in 2:24:35. She has previously won the  Boston and Chicago marathons and also  won marathons in Stockholm, Paris, Milan and Lisbon.

She was due this weekend to be awarded $500,000 for winning the yearlong World Marathon Major Series. In a statement, the organisers of that award said......."World Marathon Majors is disappointed to learn that Rita Jeptoo has apparently had an A test that proved positive for a banned substance under IAAF rules. World Marathon Majors has been at the forefront of the fight against doping in our sport and has a rule that no athlete can win the World Marathon Majors Series title, who has been in breach of IAAF anti-doping rules. WMM events were the first major events to confirm that all elite athletes taking part in their events would be blood tested and have consistently called for wider testing by others. Additionally, WWM has previously agreed that any athlete found guilty of a doping offense will not be invited back to its races. As part of that fight against doping, WMM has been giving support and financial help to the IAAF anti doping drive and helped fund a wider programme of out of competition testing…At present there has been no decision in this case by the IAAF, including in relation to sanctions, and as a result WMM is unable to comment further until that determination has been made although in the circumstances it has been decided to postpone the WMM Awards Ceremony that was due to take place on November 2, 2014."

All this of course puts the spotlight on countres like Kenya and the level of drug testing they do on their national athletes. In 2013, former top Kenyan athlete Moses Kiptanui claimed that doping was rife amongst Kenyan athletes. In total, 36 Kenyans have been confirmed as failing tests in the past two years.

Report on the 2014 Boston Marathon from Ronan Boland of Eagle AC...

I've just put a report on the 2014 Boston Marathon by Ronan Boland up on the Eagle AC website. I think anyone who plans to do this event in the future should find it of interest... http://eagleac.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/28th-apr-report-on-the-eagle-ac-trip-to-the-2014-boston-marathon/    

Bandits at the 2014 Boston Marathon

In the US, a number of people run in races without numbers and they are generally named 'Bandits'. This most of happens when entries are restricted or when there entry fee is very expensive.

The Boston Marathon attracts a fair number of these runners every year but with the heightened security following last years bombing, running without a race number this year was going to be very difficult.

After the marathon last Monday, one runner got a bit of a shock where she found that there were multiple photos of her 'number' up on a commercial photo website. As you can see in the photo above, all five runners have the number 14285.

The woman in orange on the left is Kara Bonneau and the legitimate owner. The other 4 are so called 'bandits'. It is suspected that her race bib was copied and reprinted after she put it up on the social media website Instagram last week.

This story has been doing the rounds on running sites over the last few days and the organisers said that it happens every year and strongly discourages it...."It's not a security issue–it's just that someone has a fake bib, and they get onto the course and run the race,. We're looking more into the situation. The race was just a couple days ago, and we're still managing the event itself and the 36,000 official runners in the race."

Wonder if it happens on this side of the water?

Irishman Neil Cusack won the Boston Marathon 40 years ago this weekend...

On this weekend 40 years ago in 1974, Neil Cusack from Limerick won the Boston Marathon, the  oldest and one of the most famous city marathons in the world in a time of 2:13:39.

With the 2014 Boston Marathon taking place on Monday the 21st of April, a number of publications have been looking back at that win 40 years ago.

In the Irish Examiner, Kieran Shannon has a very good interview with Neil Cusack and it can be seen HERE

In the Johnson City Press in Tennessee, Tony Casey has an article HERE

Former winner Neil Cusack plans to run 2014 Boston Marathon ...

Neil Cusack, the only Irish man to win the Boston Marathon has announced that he plans to run the 2014 race as a gesture "to those who died and were injured, their families, and all the great people of Boston".

The 61 year old Limerick man won the Boston Marathon back in 1974 in a time of 2:13:39, the only Irish man to win the race. 2014 would also be the 40th anniversary of his win.

In an interview, he said....."I'd make a prediction that next year's event will be absolutely unblieveable, and I'm glad I'm going to be back there, because they'll want to show a total good feeling about the event, and the Americans will be behind it 1000%. I think it would be an idea for other champions to do as well. Imagine 10 or 12 of us, running together, and just get through it, together - it'd be a nice gesture. I am in good shape and go for a run every weekend. The Boston Marathon is a national treasure and I was devastated to see the horrific scenes on the TV. I remember the day of my win like yesterday — I was attending the University of East Tennessee. When I got to Boston I took a shamrock emblem from an old vest and put it onto the one I was wearing in the race to show I was Irish. I was cheered all the way along the route. What a day. They are a great people and a great city. To run next year would be a gesture to show how all our thoughts are with them. I think there will be a massive surge of support for the city when the race is held in 2014 and I plan to be there at the start with all the other athletes. Boston has given so much to me and I want to give something back.”

Neil Cusack represented Ireland in the 1972 Munich and 1976 Montreal Olympics. He also won the Dublin marathon in 1981.

Neil Cusack winning the 1974 Boston Marathon

Entries for the 2013 Boston Marathon full

The Boston Athletic Association said last Thursday that registration for the 2013 race has now closed. More than 20,000 runners who met a new, more difficult qualifying standard, signed up since registration opened on the 10th of September.

Other runners still have a chance to participate as part of a charity program that has raised more than $150 million in the past 25 years.

The Marathon was forced to change its registration process two years ago after a rush of applicants filled the field in eight hours. That broke the previous record of 65 days.

The 117th Boston Marathon will be Monday, April 15 2013.

Katherine Switzer...the first woman to enter and run the Boston Marathon

The year...1967. The widely held belief at the time was that a woman could not run a full Marathon of 26.2 miles and that short distance races were more appropriate.

However, 20-year old Katherine Switzer had some different ideas. Having trained with the men in her club, she believed she could run a Marathon. Having checked the entry conditions for the Boston Marathon, she could find no mention of anything preventing a woman from taking part so she registered under the gender-neutral "K. V. Switzer".

During the race however, Jock Semple, a race official attempted to remove her from the race, and is noted to have shouted, "Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers." However, Switzer's boyfriend, who was running with her, shoved Semple aside and sent him flying. The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines. Her finishing time was 4:20 minutes.

For her trouble, she was banned from all races by the Amateur Athletic Union even though she didn't break any rules. In time though this was overturned and Switzer would go on to win the 1974 New York City Marathon, with a time of 3:07:29. Just eight years after the famous incident, Switzer returned to Boston again in 1975 to run a personal best time of 2:51:37.

In the BBC Word Service Witness programme last Saturday, there was a 9 minute audio clip about Katherine Switzer. You can hear it HERE

Cheating to win a Marathon...

Following on from the last news item with Rob Sloan cheating to finish 3rd in the Kielder Marathon in England, here is a piece about a more infamous runner...Rosie Ruiz.

Back in 1980, Rosie Ruiz 'won' the Boston Marathon in a time of 2:31:56 setting a new course record in the process. This was a 25 minute improvement on her time in the New York Marathon when she 'finished' in 2:56:29.

After her victory, she was asked by a reporter why she didn't seem fatigued after the grueling race? She replied "I got up with a lot of energy this morning."

Here is a video clip of her running in Boston...


However after the race, cracks began to appear in her story. No one could recall seeing her out along the course. The other leading women didn't see her. Jacqueline Gareau was told that she was leading the race with 18 miles to go, while Patti Lyons was told she was second at the 17-mile mark; Ruiz couldn't have passed either of them without being seen. Several spotters at checkpoints throughout the course didn't remember seeing her in the first group of women. She also didn't appear in any pictures or video footage. She was also spotted joining the race from a crowd of supporters about 800 metres from the finish.

After the race and with all of the subsequent publicity, a photographer came forward to say she had met Rosie Ruiz on the subway during the New York Marathon and had walked with her from the subway to the race. She lost touch with Ruiz after that, but came forward when the news of Ruiz's dubious Boston win broke. New York Marathon officials then launched an investigation of their own, and couldn't find any sign of Ruiz near the finish line. Based on this and other evidence, New York Marathon director Fred Lebow disqualified Ruiz from the 1979 race, saying she could not possibly have run the entire course.

Later that week, the Boston Athletic Association disqualified Ruiz. Jacqueline Gareau was declared the women's winner, with a time of 2:34:28--at the time, the fastest ever recorded by a woman in the event.

As a result of the scandal, the Boston Marathon and several other races instituted a number of safeguards against cheating that are still used today. These include extensive video surveillance and chips that monitor electronically when runners arrive at various checkpoints on the course.

Sarah Palin runs Half-Marathon in Iowa

I came across this news item recently. The controversial American politician Sarah Palin took part in the Storm Lake Half-Marathon in Iowa at the start of September. Running under her maiden name of Sarah Heath, the 47 year old Palin ran 1:46:10 and finished 2nd in the Over 40 womens category which is pretty impressive (Results HERE).

It is rumoured that she is getting ready for a full Marathon which may be used as a qualifying time for a future Boston Marathon. She has already completed one Marathon back in 2005 when she ran 3:59:10 in Anchorage, Alaska.

Other famous American politicians to run Marathons were Al Gore who ran 4:54:25 in 1993 while he was vice-president and George W.Bush who ran 3:44:52 in Houston, Texas in 1993, eight years before he became president.

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya wins Boston Marathon in 2:03:02...

Only last week, I put up a post about a BBC article that asked if a sub 2 hour Marathon was possible and sure enough, there was a hint of it in Boston on Monday. The Kenyan runner Geoffrey Mutai won the Marathon in a time of 2 hours 3 min and 2 seconds.

While this was 57 seconds faster than the current Marathon record of 2:03:59 set by Haile Gebrselaissie in Berlin in 2008, it won't count because the route doesn't qualify.

It does however suggest that the current record may be broken soon?

Boston Marathon sells out in a day...

I got an e-mail today from someone who was hoping to run a qualifying time in Dublin next Monday for the 2011 Boston Marathon. The entries for Boston opened on Monday the 18th of October and were sold out by 5pm the same day!!

The Boston Marathon is one of big 5 world Marathons and attracts around 27,000 entries. To compete in it, you need to have run a Marathon already in a qualifying time for your age group. It is the oldest Marathon in the States having started way back in 1897 with 15 entries.

With the popularity of Marathon running in the United States, the window for entries has been getting smaller each year going from roughly 3 months two years ago.....to a few weeks last year.....to a day this year!.......and that's for a Marathon that is on next April!!

It's a bit like getting into the Ballycotton '10' ;o)