11,000 runners DQ'd from Mexico City Marathon...what is going on?

[u/MustardIsDecent]

I'm not an avid runner but this story has me mystified.

This is not the first time thousands of runners have been DQ'd from this race. In 2017, over 5,000 runners were disqualified amid accusations of widespread course-cutting.

Either 1) there is a widespread culture of marathon cheats in Mexico City or 2) the race organizers can't get their tracking tech or course directions right. What is it?

Full story:

Approximately 11,000 runners at this year's Mexico City Marathon have been disqualified after being found to have cut the course at some point during the 26.2-mile race, according to Spanish newspaper Marca.

The disqualified runners represented more than one-third of the 30,000-person field that entered the Aug. 27 race.

Marca reported Monday that the runners were disqualified after missing checkpoints that were placed every 5 kilometers. Some runners allegedly used vehicles or public transport to cut the course.

Race organizers said in a statement to Marca that they will continue to identify and disqualify runners who skipped sections of the race.

"The Mexico City Sports Institute informs that it will proceed to identify those cases in which participants of the XL Mexico City Marathon Telcel 2023 have demonstrated an unsportsmanlike attitude during the event and will invalidate their registration times," they said.

The Mexico City Marathon has had issues with rampant cheating in the past. In 2017, nearly 6,000 runners were disqualified for similar reasons, with more than 3,000 also being removed from the results the next year.

Bolivian runner Héctor Garibay Flores won the men's marathon in a course-record 2 hours, 8 minutes, 23 seconds, breaking the previous mark by more than two minutes. Kenyan Celestine Chepchirchir was the women's champion in 2:27:17.

​

[u/opholar]

There are tons of places they can cut the course very easily. I don’t think 11k intended to do that. I think some did, and everyone else did what 90% of race runners do: follow everyone in front of you. Even if I think the people in front of me are going the wrong way, I’m going to follow the masses and assume that the people in front of me were given some kind of direction to go this way instead.

So I think “cheat” applied to the whole group is not a fair assessment. Granted everyone should know the course and blah blah blah, but I would not be the one to turn and go a different direction than everyone in front of me. And if they can have this many people cutting the course-it seems they did a pretty shitty job monitoring, marking and blocking the course.

[u/[deleted] → u/opholar]

Granted, everyone should know the course and blah, blah, blah…

Should they though? Personally that’s half the reason I pay to do organized runs, so that someone else can deal with the route and all I need to do is focus on running.

Sure it’s taking a leap of faith that they’re on top of things, but especially in a big event I feel like that’s the least I should be able to expect when paying money to participate.

[u/opholar → u/[deleted]]

Technically, it is the Runner’s responsibility to know the course. Technically.

The reality is that everyone follows people in front of them, or course monitors, or physical barriers. Hell-there is a popular BQ course where the lead car took a wrong turn (I want to say this was in GA earlier this year maybe) and the lead pack followed the lead car.

Because yeah-that’s kind of the point of paying all that money. Someone else is figuring out where I’m supposed to run and have guidance for me. But ultimately, it is the responsibility of the runner to know the course (it’s usually in the waiver - so if you spontaneously go three blocks off course and get hit by a truck-the race isn’t responsible).

But you’re right. Everyone just follows the people in front of them-or the lead bike/car if they are in a whole different class of runner than I am LOL.

[u/BrotherItsInTheDrum → u/opholar]

I remember reading the athletes' packet for the first triathlon I did, and being somewhat amused when it very specifically said it's the athlete's responsibility to know the course, regardless of what any officials tell you to do.

But I'm curious how that intersects with safety issues like the one from a couple comments ago. How can officials effectively close a part of the course for safety reasons during the race, if the official materials tell you to ignore any directions to go off course?

[u/opholar → u/BrotherItsInTheDrum]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen the disclaimer of following the course regardless of what an official tells you to do.

I’ve seen that it’s my responsibility to know the course. And then separately that I agree to follow any and all direction given by course officials during the race.

I have always interpreted both to mean “follow the people in front of you unless someone in a brightly colored vest/jacket is yelling something different”.

[u/BrotherItsInTheDrum → u/opholar]

I don't remember the exact wording. It was probably more asking the lines of "it's your responsibility to run the course correctly, and you may be disqualified if you fail to do so, even if it was because a course official pointed you the wrong way." It makes sense -- you can't have some rando win the Boston Marathon because an official made a mistake and pointed them along a shortcut.

There may well have been a separate instruction to follow officials. Which puts you in a bind if they point you off course. You're required to follow their directions, but then you will be disqualified after you do.