Marine Corps Marathon threatens to bar JeansMarines

By UNNATI GANDHI, Toronto Globe and Mail
Friday, November 11, 2005 Page A13

Organizers of a Washington, D.C., marathon are considering barring a Toronto runners' group from returning next year, calling their shortcut "a clear violation" of race rules.

The director of the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon said yesterday that the integrity of the sport was damaged after JeansMarines founder Jean Marmoreo helped some of her slower participants to the finish line by shaving 6.4 kilometres (four miles) off the 42-kilometre (26.2-mile) course.

"I would say, at this time, that I honestly don't know if they're welcome back as a group," Rick Nealis said. "I can't condone it. We're not talking about a coach, we're talking about the founding member."

Dr. Marmoreo encouraged her slower participants to leave the route near the 16-kilometre (10-mile) mark, and rejoin it at the 22-kilometre (14-mile) mark, before the 14th Street Bridge.

Participants must reach the bridge within 5½ hours or they are automatically out. They must also finish the entire course in less than seven hours.

"I'm saddened. It hurts because I think she's done a lot of good for a lot of women, but she really crossed the line," Mr. Nealis said. "They can go run Chicago, they can run New York."

JeansMarines is a group of women of all ages and running capabilities who train together weekly to run the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon. This year, 225 JeansMarines and more than 20,000 other amateur runners participated in the Oct. 30 race.

Dr. Marmoreo sent an e-mail Tuesday to all JeansMarines, asking those who did not run the full distance to return their medals. She wrote that what she did was "perceived as cheating."

"Even though this has been the bypass route utilized by Leukemia Team-in-Training for their slowest participants in order to let them finish their own race . . . and even though it's impossible to 'cheat' when your chip time tells the tale of missing the total distance, there are people in the running community who feel some of our runners and walkers did not earn the medals we so proudly wore that Sunday evening," she wrote.

"I ask this with a heavy heart, believing that our best intentions of looking after each other, supporting our best efforts, and wanting success for every last one of us may have unfortunately, in some circles at least, compromised everything that we stand for."

Bob Ramsay, Dr. Marmoreo's husband and spokesman for the group, said that "us not going to the Washington race could be a potential consequence of our actions," but his wife takes full responsibility for her role.

"She knows what she did was wrong, but she did it for the best of all possible motives."

But Mr. Nealis said the Marine Corps Marathon is not the place for that.

"This is an Olympic sport and people lose sight of that. It's not a touchy-feely, we're all going to feel good, Kumbaya," he said.

"You play by the rules. Here, we have a clear violation of people losing sight of the rules, and modifying the rules to make everybody feel good."

The marathon provides guaranteed entries for 35 organizations, including JeansMarines.

Regular entrants use a lottery system.

"The man or woman who ran 26.2 miles, who worked out for six or nine months, they shouldn't have to feel that their medal is cheapened by the fact that somebody got the same medal for running 22," Mr. Nealis said.

He said that he eliminated 69 people from the finishers' list yesterday. There were about 230 people who cheated this year, up slightly from last year.

"It shouldn't matter that other people are doing it. Tell us who they are so we can clean that up, too."

A spokesman for the ING New York City Marathon said it would have to consider whether it would allow such a group to become one of its special partners.

"We would have to take a close look at anybody who has been found guilty of committing an infraction while participating in a marathon," Richard Finn said.

"It wouldn't be fair to our other participants to have people who have knowingly sacrificed their integrity in the race."

(COMMENTARY: Semper Fi, Rick! Keep them out. I trained. I beat the bridge in 2004 and there is no way that they should enjoy calling themselves a marathon finisher. Go do a marathon that has an 8-hour time limit or don't do the event at all! -- JW)