A marathon runner and writer for popular media outlets has been caught lying about her times in a recent race.
Jane Seo is a writer for news sites including the Huffington Post and BuzzFeed. The 2014 Harvard graduate, however, is now under fire for cutting corners in a recent Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon race. Her times indicated at first that she would have taken 2nd place at the event, but this was proven to be untrue.
She was discovered by one eagle-eyed race analyst, Derek Murphy, who noticed that the time on her Garmin tracker from photos at the event did not match the officially posted time that had been submitted race officials.
Seo had apparently not only cut corners during the race, skipping about 1 to 1.5 miles of the course, but also covered up accusations of cheating by biking the remainder of the track later in the day.
After being exposed again by Murphy, Seo later confessed to cheating via her Instagram account, saying she was sorry for her lie apologizing to her fellow runners.
“I made a HORRIBLE choice at the Ft.
Lauderdale Half Marathon on Sunday, Feb. 20. I
wasn’t feeling well so I CUT THE COURSE and
headed to the finish line.I got swept away in the moment and pretended
I ran the entire course, when in fact I CHEATED
and should have DISQUALIFIED myself.Even worse, not only did I steal the award from
the true, well-deserved runners/finishers, but
also proceeded to BIKE the course afterward
with my GPS watch to cover my wrongdoings.
What an idiot I was!As I admit to my foolishness, I am extremely
ashamed. I sincerely apology for bringing
negativity out of the running community that I
truly admire and respect. I take full credit for
this mistake without any excuses and will faceI take full credit and will face the consequences. l am so sorry, everyone.”
– Jane Seo
The account has since been deleted, and Seo disqualified. She did not collect her second place win.
Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon has also addressed the incident on their Facebook page, indicating that the mistake was resolved and Seo is forgiven.
“I have spoken with Jane Seo and she apologized to me, which I gladly accepted. I took the time to talk and console her. She is hurting. She accepts the consequences, and I finally got her to laugh after a few minutes. Life is about second chances. I have moved on, and suggest the same for everyone.”
– Fort Lauderdale A1A Half Marathon
Source: Marathon Investigation
