In Case You Missed It...

There's a great piece in this week's issue of the New Yorker (which, incidentally, is probably my favorite magazine) about a Michigan dentist named Keith Litton. Why on earth would I post about a dentist, especially one from the Wolverine State? Well, this dentist has been accused of cheating in tons of distance events from 5ks to marathons, including the Boston Marathon.

The article, "Marathon Man," by Mark Singer is behind a paywall on their website so you'll have to head to a newstand to read the whole the thing. What's interesting about this article is that it really represents the culmination of years of internet chatter about this man. Sites from Runner's World to Let's Run have long forums discussing his supposed race results. There's even an entire blog devoted to exposing him as a fraud.

Unlike some famous marathon frauds (remember Rosie?), Litton never burst onto the national scene with a major marathon win. He just posted a long serious of impressive times. Others began noticing when they discovered Litton had "finished" towards the front but somehow escaped check-points and course photographers.

Stories like this are extremely interesting, but they're also sad. Running is supposed to be about seeing what you can accomplish physically and mentally. This man may not have stolen any large prize purses, but he did cheat other runners out of honest competition and he cheated himself out of a real opportunity to perform.

Hope you all check out the article and please feel free to post any reactions.

Countdown to Boston: The Eliot Lounge

Note: With Boston only days away (10 to be precise), I'm going to begin a countdown to Boston series of posts. In the final days of the taper, it's hard to get my brain to focus on much other than the upcoming race, but with plenty of Boston-related topics, hopefully I can at least keep the blog interesting.

The Eliot, just before it closed (from Sports Illustrated)

1996 marked the 100th running of the Boston Marathon, but it also marked the end of another Boston institution, the Eliot Lounge. 25 years earlier, in 1972, the same year that Frank Shorter won the Olympic Marathon in Munich, a man name Tommy Leonard began tending bar at the the Eliot.

Tommy was a runner--he had run the Boston Marathon as far back at 1956 and he founded the the Falmouth Road Race in 1973--so he set out making the Eliot a welcoming place for runners.

The bar was located in the Eliot Hotel, at the corner of Mass Ave and Comm Ave, just blocks from the marathon finish. Starting in 1973, Tommy gave every marathon finisher a beer on the house. He covered the walls in race bibs, photos of famous runners, and even had a pair of Bill Rodger's running shoes. There was even an electric sign counting down the time until next year's running of the marathon.

In 1975 after winning the Boston Marathon, Boston Billie told reporters he was heading to the Eliot to celebrate. In 1980, the year that Rosie Ruiz initially fooled race officials, Tommy invited the real winner, Jacqueline Gareau of Canada, to the bar where she was treated to a dozen roses and a spirited rendition of O Canada.

Unfortunately for us younger runners, the Eliot closed in 1996, the victim of a greedy landlord. There's no shortage of great watering holes in Boston from what I've seen, but I don't think any place has stepped up to fill the void left by the Eliot.
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Today's Run: 4.9 miles at 7:57 pace.