Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

New York Food Blogger Busted for Cheating in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon
Miami New Times ^ | 22 Feb 2017 | By Nick Sortal

Posted on 02/26/2017 5:40:00 AM PST by csvset

Jane Seo blazed across the finish line at last weekend's Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon with a stellar time of 1 hour 21 minutes. The professional New York food blogger's blistering 6:15-per-mile pace earned her second place among the thousands who raced. Seo paraded around the finish line while grinning and gripping a gaudy medal.

But her pace, it turns out, was too good to be true. Seo has now been disqualified for cutting the course — a crime she confessed to only after a computer sleuth crushed her elaborate coverup. A lengthy post published on marathoninvestigation.com documented her lies in exquisite detail. She later posted a four-paragraph apology to her 34,400 Instagram followers.

“I made a HORRIBLE choice... what an idiot I was!” she wrote in a post that's since been taken down. “I am extremely ashamed… I am so sorry everyone.”

Suspicions arose almost immediately after Seo, who is 24 and writes regularly for the Huffington Post, crossed the finish line in the 13.1 half-marathon division Sunday. Race timer Josh Stern quickly noted that her timing chip logged unusually fast miles in the second half of the race, when runners often slow down rather than dramatically speed up. He confronted Seo, who persuaded race director Matt Lorraine to keep her listed as the number two finisher, with her time just under 1 hour 22 minutes.

But after the race, someone tipped off Derek Murphy, a business analyst by day who has become the world's best internet sleuth at busting cheating runners.

He began digging into Seo's time and soon came across a prime piece of evidence: a photo of her at the finish line that clearly showed her race-tracking Garmin watch. He enlarged the photo, which showed the watch matched her time of 1 hour 22 minutes but also indicated she had covered only 11.65 miles — nearly two miles short of the full race. Murphy also posted the math on what Seo's mile-by-mile splits would have been:

10K - 44:22 13.1 - 1:21:46 These results would equate to a 7:09 minute/mile pace for the 1st 10k and a 5:25 minute/mile pace for remaining 11.08 kilometers.

Very few, if any, runners could shave a minute and a half off their splits in the second half of a race. But there was more evidence.

Seo, who like many runners posts her activities on Strava.com, later in the day posted mile-by-mile records of her traversing the entire 13.1 miles, most of which run along Fort Lauderdale Beach. But Murphy discerned that the cadence numbers were more in line with a person on a bicycle rather than a runner.

Through the Flyby screen, I was able to confirm that she actually covered this course in the afternoon — long after the race was complete.

Seo later admitted she'd gone back and biked the whole course to cover her tracks by GPS.

Murphy's site has been blowing up since exposing Seo's lies, and commenters on the web are excoriating Seo, a Harvard grad who regularly writes about food and culture. Her trip to South Florida was partially sponsored by Fort Lauderdale tourism site Sunny.org, Murphy said.

“Had she just admitted what she did, I never would have heard of her, nor written about her,” Murphy said. “But going back and biking the course to cover up... that’s unheard of.”

One poster wrote to Seo: “You are an embarrassment to the running community and the runners who slug away to get a sub 2 [break two hours over 13.1 miles]. You're just greedy.”

And another: “You are not a good person regardless of how fast you may or may not be.” But a third noted that such harshness should be reserved for serious issues.

Murphy, based in Ohio, began his site two years ago to investigate claims of malpractice by runners aiming for the Holy Grail: attaining a qualifying time fast enough to be eligible for the Boston Marathon. He has even used Google Earth in one case to prove a runner’s “innocence” to claims of course-cutting.

He said he spoke to Seo Monday, who maintained her innocence, and traded emails with Stern and Lorraine. He broke his story of her cheating Tuesday.

“While I am glad that she eventually admitted to cutting the course and trying to cover her tracks," Murphy wrote on his site, "she only posted this after information was relayed to her regarding the extent of the evidence against her.”

He also noted her Instagram post claimed she wasn’t feeling well, “but she had the energy to bike 13.1 miles later that afternoon” and she didn’t look distressed in any of the race photos on the marathon’s site.

The listings for the half marathon now show Jillian Pollack placing second in a time of 1:23.38.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: fake; huffpo; running; seo
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

A zoomed in photo of her watch shows the actual distance she ran.

Typical lying leftist. What don't they lie about? Any matter, whether large or small.

Lazy lying leftist

1 posted on 02/26/2017 5:40:01 AM PST by csvset
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: csvset

Boy, the Huffington Post certainly knows how to hire liars and cheats with Russian flags! Has Rachel Dozell applied to them yet?


2 posted on 02/26/2017 5:45:42 AM PST by miss marmelstein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csvset

A 2017 version of Rosie Ruiz? I and 99% of those here on FR could care less what this cheating blogger does. She is only looking for some ink.


3 posted on 02/26/2017 5:47:55 AM PST by certrtwngnut (Hey snowflake. You want a safe place go to a gun range.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csvset

Rosie Ruiz....where for art thow?


4 posted on 02/26/2017 5:47:55 AM PST by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csvset

All she had to do was say she identifies as a man and taken steroids. See the texas wrestler that just won the state title.


5 posted on 02/26/2017 5:48:06 AM PST by tuffydoodle ("Never underestimate the total depravity of the average human being.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csvset

My guess is that this is just the tip of a pathological lying iceberg for this woman. There are likely 50 people who know her who are now nodding their heads in lack of surprise.


6 posted on 02/26/2017 5:48:38 AM PST by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csvset

The take-away for me, was that Harvard graduated this complete moron. Anyone with a double digit IQ would have known better.


7 posted on 02/26/2017 5:51:19 AM PST by BykrBayb (Lung cancer free since 11/9/07. Colon cancer free since 7/7/15. Obama free since 1/20/17. PTL ~ Þ)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csvset
Female equivalent of stolen valor. Rosie Ruiz did this too - in the Boston Marathon many years ago. I was actually in the crowd at finish line of that Marathon and saw her get crowned the winner while the real winner was ignored on the sidelines. By the time I got home that night, it was all over the news that she cheated and actually took the subway for much of the route - popping back into the race just before the finish line.

It's a disgusting thing to do and I wonder how many other women have cheated in a similar way and never got caught.

Anyway, before too long, all the women winners of marathons will be transgendered men. Girly men are taking over all the awards that real women used to compete for, such as beauty pageants, homecoming queen and sporting events (and most women seem perfectly fine with that).

8 posted on 02/26/2017 5:53:51 AM PST by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: BlueStateRightist

My guess is that this is just the tip of a pathological lying iceberg for this woman. There are likely 50 people who know her who are now nodding their heads in lack of surprise.


Exactly. This is not her first rodeo. This is the first time she has been busted so clearl.


9 posted on 02/26/2017 5:56:27 AM PST by marktwain (We wanted to tell our side of the story. We hope by us telling our story...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: csvset

frake ruse...

10 posted on 02/26/2017 5:58:32 AM PST by Geronimo ( Trump, sump pump, bump...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

It’s a strange obsession, the need to lie about stuff that at the end of the day, doesn’t really matter. Yet, this wench persisted and posed for picture with her “medal” .

That , to me, indicates a much deeper problem. Fwiw, I wrote HuffPoo and told them that I too, can blog about make believe chit , would they be willing to hire me.


11 posted on 02/26/2017 6:00:17 AM PST by csvset ( Illegitimi non carborundum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Thanks for the history lesson.


12 posted on 02/26/2017 6:00:38 AM PST by wally_bert (I didn't get where I am today by selling ice cream tasting of bookends, pumice stone & West Germany)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Geronimo

Harvard graduate, also works at Huffington Post. This id the poster child for liberal scum. Lying, cheating snob.

America we are better than this.


13 posted on 02/26/2017 6:02:11 AM PST by aragona (Truth always. America first. God given.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Geronimo

Harvard graduate, also works at Huffington Post. This id the poster child for liberal scum. Lying, cheating snob.

America we are better than this.


14 posted on 02/26/2017 6:02:24 AM PST by aragona (Truth always. America first. God given.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: BlueStateRightist

Good observation. If a person is like this once, she’s like this all the time.


15 posted on 02/26/2017 6:02:32 AM PST by Tax-chick ("I prefer to think of myself as ... civilized." ~Jonathan Q. Higgins)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: csvset

A lying phony like this would have absolutely no problem writing fake news for a fake news operation (Huffington Post). I have never seen one of her pieces but I’m betting that she is anti-Trump and pro-Hillary Clinton. Just another reason not to trust mainstream media.


16 posted on 02/26/2017 6:04:26 AM PST by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: certrtwngnut; Vaquero

I was living in Boston at the time of the Rosie Ruiz fiasco. The standing joke was: How did Rosie finish so much faster in Boston than she did in New York? The Boston T is faster than the New York subway.


17 posted on 02/26/2017 6:07:39 AM PST by originalbuckeye ("In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76
Anyway, before too long, all the women winners of marathons will be transgendered men.

Or men who claim to identify themselves as women.

18 posted on 02/26/2017 6:09:37 AM PST by PJ-Comix
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: csvset

The one good thing about these cases is that the offender becomes very famous among the running community.


19 posted on 02/26/2017 6:10:05 AM PST by meyer (The Constitution says what it says, and it doesn't say what it doesn't say.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csvset

“a choice”


20 posted on 02/26/2017 6:11:28 AM PST by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061-76 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson