The world of Boston Qualifying  cheating is fascinating I find. I don’t really know what causes the greed in people to go out of their way to cheat to get into Boston. But they do. As long as if anyone is planning on cheating, I thought I would help out with my 5 ways on how not to get caught! Read the blog to the end before start hating on me.

1. Have a Generic Name

If your name is anything like ‘Eliud Kipchoge’ I just have to browse through just two dozen race results and tell if you are a sub 3:30 marathoner or not, which is not too hard. But if you are a John Taylor, it will take me a while to check about 5500 race results across the world. So, yea – make sure you have a generic name. How do you know if you have a generic name? – IF you have one you already know!

2. Have your BIB mule wear a face mask

If you ever ran a race, I am sure I could find a photo of you, so if you are planning to have a BIB Mule run for you to make a BQ time, make sure your BIB Mule wears a face mask. It really would throw me off from cross checking if its really you or not.

3. Don’t post anything to Social Media

When you make it to Boston through a cheat time, the first people to catch is your own friends. I am sure they seen you run before, and they will be the first to drop hints to others about how suspicious your Boston Trip is.  Easy fix is don’t tell anyone. Don’t post it anywhere. But then why run Boston right? Bragging rights is one of the privilege of running Boston, and keeping Boston secret pretty much would make the entire trip useless.

4. Have a BIB Mule that looks close to your age and possibly your same gender

In odd chances your BIB mule didn’t wear face mask, make sure at least he or she looks close to your age and of the same gender. It really helps to throw us off from tagging you as a possible cheat. When I click on Mabel Johnson, and if I see a tall guy I know I landed on a BIB Mule account.

5. Request your BIB mule to Slow Down

A lot of BIB mules get caught because they can’t help themselves but to run fast. So if you are a 70 year old that usually runs a 5:00:00 marathon, and got a bib mule in their 30s that run sub 3 marathon, pay them extra so they can run just a border line 4:25 to get you to Boston, instead of running a 2:53:00 and tag you down for a world record which attracts all our attention! Remember, most of us have the list of world record times, so we can tell if we got a new Ed Whitlock in our town over night!

5.a –  Just run your own damn race

At the end of the day is Boston really that much worth it? What is it that one gets out of running a race that is not earned. I know people in my running group that wouldn’t take an age placement medal because they were the only people in that division running. Its nice to earn than given. Its not really that hard to catch people that cheat, and even if you feel like you weren’t caught, at some point you will. There are lot of people that work  and train hard to run the race they run, and if you cheat the course and race, and take up their much deserving spot, you are a coward!  The fact is, that would never even make you a bit happy because its not earned. So train hard, and run your best! Running is winning, and you don’t need Boston for that!