It's been quite a week for Runner's World commissioning editor, Kate Carter. Marathoninvestigation.com raised some concerns (on 30 January) about her results in the London Landmarks Half Marathon and the London Marathon.
London Landmarks Half Marathon
In the half marathon, the website was tipped off about a missed split. Results show that the Runner's World editor didn't pass over the 15K mat. Her pace up to the 20K mat was then dramatically boosted by almost 1 minute per kilometer. At the same time there were no photographs taken of Carter between 10K and 20K.
Matters were further confused by Carter posting a Strava entry that wasn't her own. She claimed that that her Garmin "died completely". However photos of her from the final 1km suggest that it was still working.
London Marathon
Kate's London Marathon performance was also put in doubt. She claims to have run without a race chip (which we thought wasn't allowed), but submitted an entry on Strava. The route of the course was however from another year, and there was a shortage of data points on the map. Whatever the reasons for this, it does look odd.
The response
Almost a week later (5 February) Kate provided a response in The Telegraph. In it Carter stated that she regrets 'errors in judgment', adding that 'I am not a cheat'.
The Runner's World editor said that she was caught short in the London Landmarks race, similar to what happened to Paula Radcliffe in the 2005 London Marathon. She added 'I then re-joined the race not far from where I came off although I don't recall exactly where'. And 'when I rejoined the race, it is possible that I did so at the wrong point on the course, though that was not my intention'.
About the London Marathon, Carter said 'I am not a cheat. I made some stupid mistakes in how I recorded my times on my personal Strava record, for both of these events and I deeply regret these errors in judgement'.
She continued 'First and foremost, I have utmost respect for events like the London Marathon and consider it a privilege to take part.
On the question of the removing her running chip, she claimed 'This is something some runners do. I was not in peak marathon fitness at the time and didn't think I was going to get a very good time.'
Our thoughts
There has been quite an outcry from the running community. Many are upset with apparent poor behaviour from someone in such a high profile, often privileged (e.g. complementary race entries, etc?) position.
We are similarly disappointed. And there are also a couple of points that we think merit drawing attention to:
1. Having run the London Landmarks race, we recall there being plenty of portable toilets all along the route. This makes it seem a bit of a leap to suggest that being caught short caused enough confusion to miss a split mat.
2. Is it really allowed to run the London Marathon without a running chip? And do many people really do this?
Races are always giving out chips and publishing results. Would they really welcome runners not using chips? Plus, I've yet to find a fellow runner who has ever discarded their race chip.
Update
As reported by Athletics Weekly on 7 March, an England Athletics (EA) investigation has found "no intention to deceive" by Carter. They added that "Out of respect for the individuals involved, we will be releasing no further details of this investigation."