Bear Flag Blog

So get this; the woman with the fastest time at the recent (10/19/08) San Francisco Nike Women's Marathon didn't win, place, or show. She wasn't eligible to, you see, since she wasn't part of the preselected "elite" group.

Here's the story. Apparently, the organizers of a marathon select the people who are actually eligible to win ahead of time; the hoi polloi who aren't part of the chosen are entirely ineligible to win, regardless of their actual results.

On the one hand, I can see the justification for this. On the other hand - no, fuck that. That's wrong. She ran the course the fastest. The fact that she wasn't running actually ahead of those chosen to start together twenty minutes earlier means nothing. She ran as fast as she could, if they did not do the same they don't deserve to win.

Arien O'Connell, you are the gold medalist. Race producer Dan Hirsch, and any other race officials behind this ruling, you are dead wrong. Competitive sports are about actual performance, not about you choosing who may win and who may not. Go take a long walk off a short pier, or, better, resign.