Surprise Surprise!!

Well, what is there to say? I have been an active participant now on the Nike+ program since January and it was only recently that I really started noticing something: noticeably crazy distances covered by other runners. I did not pay much attention to it at first and even gave people the benefit of the doubt but after analyzing some of the runs I saw first hand certain inconsistencies and possible cheating. One person in particular I initially thought may have been a whole running team but in the end probably not. A recent look at a twenty mile run covered by said individual showed a pace of roughly 7:30 per mile over the twenty mile run. On the surface that could be excused as ‘fast runner,’ but when I looked at the run bar it was flat the whole way through. It was as if there was no break whatsoever and it baffled me due to the fact that even at my fastest I have to build up speed and work up to a point. This coupled with the fact that you get an occasional obstacle in the form of a stray animal, overdue water break or sheer fatigue leading to a spike or dip in the run bar illustrated that unless this individual is a professional athlete they are in fact a cheater. It is saddening because the vast majority of people are out there putting in the work and the miles and working hard on the challenges only to be overtaken by someone who apparently runs fifty miles before work. I hope that Nike and Apple can somehow combat this but where there is a will there is a way and cheating, I am sure, will continue. In any case I will keep my sensor calibrated properly and know that I have accomplished every mile on my iPhone, even the ones lost to human and technical error. Keep running folks!