Vancouver Sun Run cheaters banned for life from annual 10k race

When it comes to forming opinions, I generally like to keep my own counsel. But I have to go with the crowd-sourced consensus when it comes to the two Baby Boomers who were caught cheating at last weekend's Vancouver Sun Run. Why?

Neena Cheema, who won the 50-54 age-group category for women, and Mohammed Razak, who took the 55-59 men's category, were banned for life from the annual 10-kilometre run after taking shortcuts along the course, the Vancouver Sun reported.

This YouTube video purports to show Cheema jogging in behind an older couple at the 34:44 mark before popping out again at 36:11.

I can sort of understand someone justifying cheating on an exam to short-cut their education and get better grades, or fudging a CV to get a career leg-up. Don't approve of it, but understand it. If you cheat, your accomplishments are built on air.

But why cheat on a 10k fun run? What exactly is the payoff?

Someone brought up Rosie Ruiz, who famously appeared to win the 1980 Boston Marathon in record time before it was determined she hadn't run the entire course, apparently hopping on the subway for part of it. Canadian runner Jacqueline Garneau was the actual winner.

[ Related: Two banned from Vancouver Sun Run for cheating ]

The irony, of course, is that this year's Sun Run was dedicated to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings a week earlier, with many runners wearing the city's blue and yellow colours.

Was that the lure? Bragging rights to winning this year's event, with all its symbolic significance?

Rezak claimed he went off course innocently.

"I took some shortcuts but I didn't do that purposely," he told the Sun. "I don't know whether that's cheating. I wasn't there to cheat anybody."

Ah, yeah, that's cheating.

Cheema apparently wasn't available to comment but Jamie Pitblado, a race organizer, told the Sun she apparently had been cheating for years.

"She seems to start the race and then leave the race course and has some way of getting herself to the 8.5-km mark of the race at that point and then completing the rest of the race in a time that is certainly faster than she could possibly have done," he said.

[ Related: Vancouver Sun Run participants honour Boston victims ]

Cheema and Rezak's supposedly winning performances were scrutinized because they topped their age groups but it makes you wonder how many other people cheated to get a better finishing time?

Pitblado said organizers will be instituting stricter measures to detect cheating in future runs, probably adding timing mats at certain points along the route linking to the runners' transponder chips that normally register their start and finish times.

"I'm amazed and, frankly, I'm appalled that people in a community event like this — it's a fun run — would go to these sort of places to ensure their own gratification at the expense of people who train hard, run fair and come out and participate," Pitblado told CBC News.