Boston Marathon Banned 15 Runners From This Year's Race

CBS Boston - Before this year's Boston Marathon started, 15 runners were disqualified according to an investigation by Derek Murphy, posted in Runner's World magazine.

To be able to run in the Boston Marathon, one must run a certain number of races throughout the year. Murphy took deep dives into race results throughout the year for discrepancies in times for runners between races. They could acquire greater times by skipping parts of the course or having faster runners wear their bibs.

"The goal here is just to reduce the incidents of cheating," said Murphy. "This year I am going to go through every race that sends a significant number of runners to Boston."

Murphy is a business analyst who looks at this data in his spare time and alerts the Boston Athletic Association when there appears to be subterfuge for some of those who qualify.

Of the 15 disqualified, eight had skipped portions of races to enhance their times while the other seven had faster runners wear their bibs in races.

Murphy had one last warning to those who qualified dishonestly yet are still going to the race today on his blog:

"My advice to those that are planning to run Boston...that didn't earn the honor – Don't do it. You didn't earn the right to wear that bib. There is a very good chance that you will be identified..if you haven't been already."

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Tina Gao reports