A man who supposedly finished second in his age group in the Marine Corps Marathon last month received a lifetime ban from the race after organizers discovered he cheated.
Gregory Price, 61, of Washington, D.C., finished the marathon with a time of 3:17:47. After a closer examination organizers noticed he missed several timing mats and ran erratic time splits during the race, Runner’s World reports.
During the Oct. 25 race Price missed RFID scanners around the 15 and 18 mile marks that show the exact time a runner crosses a timing mat.
That wouldn’t normally bring about suspicion, but when race organizers looked at prior races run by Price they saw he skipped the mats every year since 2011. Price has run the Marine Corps Marathon each year since 1998.
Members of the running community on the LetsRun.com message board first noticed the suspect times recorded by Price. An anonymous poster on the board said they accidentally happened across Price’s results when they were looking for another runner.
“I think I have found a serial cheater at Marine Corps Marathon. Like how do you miss the same time timing mats for 5 straight years?” the poster asked.
Price’s results show he ran the first 10 kilometers of the race at a roughly 9:20 pace. The next 10 kilometers he ran at a roughly 6:30 pace.
He missed the next two timing mats but registered a 5:15 pace at the 35th kilometer. Price ran the final seven kilometers of the race at a roughly 10:00 pace.
Commenters on the board pointed out around the place where Price missed the timing mats, between the 15 and 20 mile markers, there is an intersection where it would have been easy for Price to take a “wrong turn” and shave five miles off his run.
In 2014, Price recorded a 16:06 time for 5K between the 10K and 15K markers, which would have been a world record for his age. In addition to his ban, Price was disqualified from that race.
Attempts by the race’s organizers to reach Price were never returned.
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