The winner of Milwaukee’s Lakefront Marathon has been disqualified as it was discovered that she had been listening to an iPod for a portion of the race.
While for most the achievement of actually having run the 26.2 miles of a marathon might seem daunting enough in itself, but apparently the difference made by a portable media player has been judged to be enough to justify a disqualification.
According to TomsGuide, whole business was quite confused from the start, with the initial winner disqualified for accepting a drink from a friend during the race, but not before being declared the winner. After that upset, the top spot was awarded to Jennifer Goebel, though Goebel had only two days to enjoy the title before that too was stripped.
Goebel herself sums the mentality behind marathon running iPod use quite well, saying, “If you’re bored, it pumps you up a little it. Sometimes, on a long training run, I’ll bring it along for the last half hour. When I run marathons sometimes I carry it and never put it on.”
For the most part, that last statement is true even of the Lakefront Marathon, during which Goebel was observed only to have used her iPod between the 19th and 21st miles of the race. Apparently, any use is too much use though, and so Goebel has been stripped of her title. It’ll be interesting to see how much impact this has on future decisions, given the amount of fuss that’s been kicked up.
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