FULL ARTICLE HERE:
FULL ARTICLE (single page) HERE:
 |
| Illustration from Kip Litton New Yorker article |
Sunday, August 31, 2014
UNLOCKED NYorker article on Kip Litton - now available FREE OF CHARGE!
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Kip Litton Story on NPR's "Here and Now" WBUR in Boston
Special Guest: Mark Singer
See full article here
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Kip Litton article in New Yorker magazine Monday July 30th
"My article about him in The New Yorker will be published Monday (July 30), in the issue dated August 6, 2012. It will also be available on our website (www.newyorker.com), but behind a paywall accessible only to subscribers.
It speaks for itself." - Mark Singer
Read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3863010&page=217#ixzz222N9keaw
ARTICLE PREVIEW FROM NEWYORKER.COM
"In 'Marathon Man' (p. 40), Mark Singer investigates the strange controversy surrounding Kip Litton, a small-town dentist who has allegedly repeatedly cheated in marathons. “Since the early nineties, technology has made it possible to clock runners with precision and to track them at measured intervals,” Singer writes, but Litton, who was on a self-professed mission to complete marathons in under three hours in all fifty states, appears to have exploited the running community’s faith in those systems to fraudulently win, or place in, various races. Litton has “become a consuming object of contempt” in the running community, much of which has played out in the blogosphere...."Wednesday, July 16, 2014
BEAUTIFUL DESCRIPTION on History of this Investigation.......by Ouch1000, a LetsRun.com poster
"I don’t post very frequently, but I religiously catch up on this crazy thread every night, since I’ve been in on the story from the start.
For fun, here’s a summary of how the Kip Litton investigation began, as far as I know it. Most of this focuses on how I learned about the situation. (Having re-read just now what I wrote below, I suppose it comes across as kind of self-congratulatory, but my intention was to make sure that the record of my own investigation gets up on the web somewhere for posterity.) If you’ve read all 800 of these LR posts along with the previous deleted threads, you may know most of this. I don’t think, however, that the early investigations were clearly laid out:
I wish I could say that I was the first one who caught Litton cheating, but that was actually Kip himself in the 2009 Crim 10 mi. According to Clarkston Kent, who I’ve conversed with by e-mail outside of this thread, he dropped out after 5 mi, then inexplicably, he appeared near the finish line and ran across. Later, he asked that his results be removed, which they did for the awards that day. However, no-one ever removed him from the automated finish results, so he still shows up as having run sub-56.
Two months later, Clarkston Kent, along with some other folks at the Detroit Free Press relay questioned him intensively about cheating on his leg, and eventually he confessed that he “must have taken a wrong turn.”
As far as I know, the trail got cold for awhile at that point, as Kip continued to cheat in late 2009 and early 2010. However, when Litton ran the Deadwood Michelson Trail Marathon in June of 2010, he apparently got too greedy or too careless, as he was DQ’d by the race director. See my previous post this evening for more info.
In July, I ran the Missoula Marathon and became interested in Litton about a week after the race when I was trying to put together a “story of the Masters race” for myself and a few friends who finished high in the standings. I recalled that Litton didn’t show up at the awards, so I didn’t get to shake his hand, and I had no idea what he looked like. So I used the Missoula Marathon’s photo website to reconstruct the race to see how all of the masters runners’ races developed. The website’s photos allow you to actually calculate the time gaps between runners at various points, which was very cool, because I could see that while I was dying, other runners were blazing, like Mike Telling, who passed Litton in the final moments of the race. After looking for Litton on the photo site and examining the results, I became alarmed by all of the things that everyone has been discussing here for months – no race photos except at the finish line and a weird gun/chip differential.
Suspicious, I googled him and found his defunct worldrecordrun.com website and his athlinks results. His website listed all of his marathons, including some that weren’t up yet on athlinks, like Deadwood and West Wyoming. I started looking at their photos, much like all of you have been doing (though you’ve been doing it much more thoroughly than me), and became convinced that he had cheated in almost all of his 2010 marathons, including some that haven’t yet been scrutinized, like Go! St. Louis.
I contacted a friend who did all of the announcing for the Missoula race, and he put me in touch with the race director. When I e-mailed her my suspicions about Litton, she told me that she had just been alerted to him by the race director at Deadwood, who had just DQ’d him. Apparently the race director had gotten word of Litton’s participation at Missoula. The Missoula race director simply e-mailed me and all of the other top runners a photo of Litton and asked if we had seen him anywhere on the course. When none of the runners reported seeing him, he was DQd because of the compendium of evidence. He didn’t dispute the DQ.
Of course, by now I was sucked in, fascinated and pissed off by the cheating. So I began contacting by e-mail and by phone a number of the race directors at his early 2010 marathons. I spoke by phone with the Vermont City, Providence, Deadwood and Delaware marathons. I was only able to find an e-mail for the WWY marathon, so I e-mailed him (Rich Rodriguez). Jerry Dunn at Deadwood confirmed what the Missoula RD had told me, and the other race directors launched investigations. “Rich Rodriguez” replied to my e-mail (see text in an earlier post on middle of page 15 of this thread) and said that nothing was unusual. I took the bait hook, line and sinker and figured that WWY was a legit marathon among a bunch of cheating. All of the other race directors were very thoughtful and deliberative. In the end, VC and Providence decided against DQing Litton because although they were quite suspicious, they didn’t have an incontrovertible smoking gun. Plus, they were incredibly busy and didn’t want to spend the time and energy on it. For the director at Delaware, who was suspicious even before I contacted him, the evidence was clear enough to DQ him after he exchanged several e-mails with Kip. Of all of the people I spoke with, the Delaware RD was the most incensed. He had the balls to call Kip out on his (the RDs) blog.
In the process of investigating, I developed an ad-hoc email list, which some of the responders chose to forward to their friends. It was through these expanding contacts that I got in touch with the runner you all know as Clarkston Kent. He informed me of all of the information he has thus far posted on the LR site. Another one of the e-mail group set up the very first thread on LR that many of you remember – he simply solicited information about him from the LR community. The thread went slowly at first and then exploded into the consciousness of the LR community as more and more people recognized him from their own races.
When he ran Rochester in September, all of the Kip Litton thread readers were outraged, but none of the readers were actually doing what all of you are now doing – investigating him in a really effective way. Most of us (including me) were pretty lazy – we were content to simply be incensed, but no-one did anything about it except Clarkston Kent. Having confronted him before, he confronted him again and asked him to take down his worldrecordrun.com website, which he did.
One day in late September, I googled Litton again to see if any mention of his cheating would show up on the first google page. Not only did that happen, but I found a link to “confirmed registrants” for the Maine Marathon (not half marathon), which was exactly one week away. I immediately posted this on LR, which is how, I believe, he was followed at Maine, and also how he became aware before running the marathon that he would be followed. So he apparently was able to convince the organizers to allow him to switch his registration to the half-marathon at the last minute.
Things got out of hand on the Kip Litton thread with people flaming out and posting inappropriate content. Kip complained to RoJo and WeJo, and they took it down - I think for very good reason. In December, it tried to resurrect itself several times, but kept going down immediately. Some of the threads were terrible, but others were interesting and on-point. Finally, I phoned the LR office and by a stroke of luck happened to get RoJo on the phone. I explained all of the above to him, and he read a few e-mails to me over the phone from Litton, which I debunked for the most part. He told me that the notes from Litton sounded somewhat far-fetched. He also said that it is always good to keep evidence of cheating public, so that evidence will be available for all to see. He agreed that LR was a good site for this type of thing unless people posted too much trash and vitriol. The race directors at Missoula and Delaware also wrote to LR by e-mail shortly afterwards to corroborate the DQs at their races, and it was at this time that the current thread was allowed to continue.
All of you have done a fantastic job of investigating Kip Litton. I only wish I wasn’t so addicted to the story – it seems like every day, something new is uncovered.
Here are some things that I believe still need to be looked at. I am lazy and tired, so I will leave it up to all of you to think about these items:
Go! St Louis Marathon
Status of Kip’s worldrecordrun charity in Michigan – is it registered as a 501(c)3?
How much did he actually donate to the Detroit chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
I hope that 2011 brings a conclusion to this story and if the stars align, a detailed expose in a major publication, like RW or RT."
Read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3863010&page=42#ixzz1BBdflEFv
Buy your shoes from LetsRun and save 20% everday http://www.letsrun.com/save
For fun, here’s a summary of how the Kip Litton investigation began, as far as I know it. Most of this focuses on how I learned about the situation. (Having re-read just now what I wrote below, I suppose it comes across as kind of self-congratulatory, but my intention was to make sure that the record of my own investigation gets up on the web somewhere for posterity.) If you’ve read all 800 of these LR posts along with the previous deleted threads, you may know most of this. I don’t think, however, that the early investigations were clearly laid out:
I wish I could say that I was the first one who caught Litton cheating, but that was actually Kip himself in the 2009 Crim 10 mi. According to Clarkston Kent, who I’ve conversed with by e-mail outside of this thread, he dropped out after 5 mi, then inexplicably, he appeared near the finish line and ran across. Later, he asked that his results be removed, which they did for the awards that day. However, no-one ever removed him from the automated finish results, so he still shows up as having run sub-56.
Two months later, Clarkston Kent, along with some other folks at the Detroit Free Press relay questioned him intensively about cheating on his leg, and eventually he confessed that he “must have taken a wrong turn.”
As far as I know, the trail got cold for awhile at that point, as Kip continued to cheat in late 2009 and early 2010. However, when Litton ran the Deadwood Michelson Trail Marathon in June of 2010, he apparently got too greedy or too careless, as he was DQ’d by the race director. See my previous post this evening for more info.
In July, I ran the Missoula Marathon and became interested in Litton about a week after the race when I was trying to put together a “story of the Masters race” for myself and a few friends who finished high in the standings. I recalled that Litton didn’t show up at the awards, so I didn’t get to shake his hand, and I had no idea what he looked like. So I used the Missoula Marathon’s photo website to reconstruct the race to see how all of the masters runners’ races developed. The website’s photos allow you to actually calculate the time gaps between runners at various points, which was very cool, because I could see that while I was dying, other runners were blazing, like Mike Telling, who passed Litton in the final moments of the race. After looking for Litton on the photo site and examining the results, I became alarmed by all of the things that everyone has been discussing here for months – no race photos except at the finish line and a weird gun/chip differential.
Suspicious, I googled him and found his defunct worldrecordrun.com website and his athlinks results. His website listed all of his marathons, including some that weren’t up yet on athlinks, like Deadwood and West Wyoming. I started looking at their photos, much like all of you have been doing (though you’ve been doing it much more thoroughly than me), and became convinced that he had cheated in almost all of his 2010 marathons, including some that haven’t yet been scrutinized, like Go! St. Louis.
I contacted a friend who did all of the announcing for the Missoula race, and he put me in touch with the race director. When I e-mailed her my suspicions about Litton, she told me that she had just been alerted to him by the race director at Deadwood, who had just DQ’d him. Apparently the race director had gotten word of Litton’s participation at Missoula. The Missoula race director simply e-mailed me and all of the other top runners a photo of Litton and asked if we had seen him anywhere on the course. When none of the runners reported seeing him, he was DQd because of the compendium of evidence. He didn’t dispute the DQ.
Of course, by now I was sucked in, fascinated and pissed off by the cheating. So I began contacting by e-mail and by phone a number of the race directors at his early 2010 marathons. I spoke by phone with the Vermont City, Providence, Deadwood and Delaware marathons. I was only able to find an e-mail for the WWY marathon, so I e-mailed him (Rich Rodriguez). Jerry Dunn at Deadwood confirmed what the Missoula RD had told me, and the other race directors launched investigations. “Rich Rodriguez” replied to my e-mail (see text in an earlier post on middle of page 15 of this thread) and said that nothing was unusual. I took the bait hook, line and sinker and figured that WWY was a legit marathon among a bunch of cheating. All of the other race directors were very thoughtful and deliberative. In the end, VC and Providence decided against DQing Litton because although they were quite suspicious, they didn’t have an incontrovertible smoking gun. Plus, they were incredibly busy and didn’t want to spend the time and energy on it. For the director at Delaware, who was suspicious even before I contacted him, the evidence was clear enough to DQ him after he exchanged several e-mails with Kip. Of all of the people I spoke with, the Delaware RD was the most incensed. He had the balls to call Kip out on his (the RDs) blog.
In the process of investigating, I developed an ad-hoc email list, which some of the responders chose to forward to their friends. It was through these expanding contacts that I got in touch with the runner you all know as Clarkston Kent. He informed me of all of the information he has thus far posted on the LR site. Another one of the e-mail group set up the very first thread on LR that many of you remember – he simply solicited information about him from the LR community. The thread went slowly at first and then exploded into the consciousness of the LR community as more and more people recognized him from their own races.
When he ran Rochester in September, all of the Kip Litton thread readers were outraged, but none of the readers were actually doing what all of you are now doing – investigating him in a really effective way. Most of us (including me) were pretty lazy – we were content to simply be incensed, but no-one did anything about it except Clarkston Kent. Having confronted him before, he confronted him again and asked him to take down his worldrecordrun.com website, which he did.
One day in late September, I googled Litton again to see if any mention of his cheating would show up on the first google page. Not only did that happen, but I found a link to “confirmed registrants” for the Maine Marathon (not half marathon), which was exactly one week away. I immediately posted this on LR, which is how, I believe, he was followed at Maine, and also how he became aware before running the marathon that he would be followed. So he apparently was able to convince the organizers to allow him to switch his registration to the half-marathon at the last minute.
Things got out of hand on the Kip Litton thread with people flaming out and posting inappropriate content. Kip complained to RoJo and WeJo, and they took it down - I think for very good reason. In December, it tried to resurrect itself several times, but kept going down immediately. Some of the threads were terrible, but others were interesting and on-point. Finally, I phoned the LR office and by a stroke of luck happened to get RoJo on the phone. I explained all of the above to him, and he read a few e-mails to me over the phone from Litton, which I debunked for the most part. He told me that the notes from Litton sounded somewhat far-fetched. He also said that it is always good to keep evidence of cheating public, so that evidence will be available for all to see. He agreed that LR was a good site for this type of thing unless people posted too much trash and vitriol. The race directors at Missoula and Delaware also wrote to LR by e-mail shortly afterwards to corroborate the DQs at their races, and it was at this time that the current thread was allowed to continue.
All of you have done a fantastic job of investigating Kip Litton. I only wish I wasn’t so addicted to the story – it seems like every day, something new is uncovered.
Here are some things that I believe still need to be looked at. I am lazy and tired, so I will leave it up to all of you to think about these items:
Go! St Louis Marathon
Status of Kip’s worldrecordrun charity in Michigan – is it registered as a 501(c)3?
How much did he actually donate to the Detroit chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation
I hope that 2011 brings a conclusion to this story and if the stars align, a detailed expose in a major publication, like RW or RT."
Read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3863010&page=42#ixzz1BBdflEFv
Buy your shoes from LetsRun and save 20% everday http://www.letsrun.com/save
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Robert Johnson, co-founder LetsRun.com, offers Kip Litton $2000 for a sub 3:30 marathon
source: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=5440272&page=6
Kip has done many races in the last 3 years, and he is actually faster than before the witch hunt started! He has just kept off YOUR radar by using aliases. Those of us who train with him know exactly which ones.
This is an open letter to all those who have kept tabs on this debacle. It is the closest thing to truth and reality that you will ever read. The reason for this is that it is coming from those that are closest to the actual events, unlike the predictable regurgitated crap on Lets Run that comes from odd-balls who have little or no connection at all to Kip. I am one of a number of Kip's friends who have had extensive group discussions with Kip, his wife, his kids and fellow runners. He has also shared with us emails and an audio recording of his interview with Mark Singer. The vast majority of what we have read online is inundated with glaring errors, deception and misinformation. The reason for this, in large part, is simply because the online point of view is coming mainly from people who have never even had any meaningful contact with those involved.
From the beginning Kip has been steadfast that he has nothing to hide and would talk to anyone about anything. His only condition was that it was not in a forum where people could remain anonymous. When we hear things like "Kip isn't talking", it is 100% false- he has always been open and forthright. We have grilled him and his family on many of the issues raised here on Lets Run. He has been open and transparent with all explanations, and his family has independently confirmed them. Just because YOU have not been present for these discussions does not mean they DIDN'T happen. Also, Lets Run management has done a major disservice to the quest for truth by deleting many posts that are indicative of his innocence. This is deceptive and manipulative in and of itself. It is sad to see an entity that is supposed to be unbiased purposely skew the truth. A cheating scandal of this magnitude could never have been pulled off without the aid of either a car, a bike or other accomplices. His family confirmed that he never had access to any of these things. Some races don't allow vehicles and some have so many road closures, navigating around is impossible. These factors at Boston plus 9 timing mats have eliminated cheating for times in the sub-3 range. And yet Kip ran Boston 8 straight times without issue.
For those that claim that the evidence that Kip has presented is not sufficient enough are failing to understand one thing- that is you CAN NOT prove a negative. Cheating can be proven, but NOT cheating can not be proven. Guess what? There are no other runners (aside from those with a video cam on them from start to finish) who could prove they didn't cheat either! Kip actually has much more evidence in his favor than the vast majority of other runners- in addition to the testimony that he had no car or bike, he had family confirm he was at random spots (plus all the timing mats) along many of the courses where he handed them excess gear or was given drinks. Mark Singer had access to this info but chose to not use it. Why would he- his story would have imploded. Remember, he writes for the same New Yorker that fired writer Jonah Lehrer for fabricating info the same week that Mark's fairy tale was published. Uncanny irony.
Kip was running decent times and winning races and triathlons for several years before anyone ever tried to claim cheating. How does one win a race or triathlon and cheat undetected? Ridiculous! Still to this day, there is not even one person who has even ever said they saw him cheat in any of his 200+ races. Ridiculous! One of Kip's training partner's confirmed with us and Mark Singer that Kip's reported finish times were all within his capabilities. Ridiculous!
Kip has no interest in a lawsuit despite his wife being an outstanding attorney. He has a lifelong spotless ethical track record, many friends and a community that loves him. He has nothing to gain by wasting his time in court. Again, you can't prove a negative. The Lets Run post that stated that there is a disconnect between perception online and that in reality couldn't have been more accurate.
I am defending my friend because when you see a friend get painted falsely, that's what friends do. And what are most of the sick people here doing? Let me sum up this absurdity- long after the issue was DEAD, you are STILL here in a forum that Kip DOESN'T even use, relentlessly bashing him over UNCONFIRMED claims from amateur races from YEARS ago, when you DON'T know him and have NEVER even questioned him!! And if this isn't malicious enough, you do this to someone who has a young child with a terminal illness. Just despicable.
 |
| Robert Johnson, Co-Founder - LetsRun.com |
Robert Johnson:
"Wow. This is starting to anger me. Before, I cared very little about the Kip Litton story and paid almost no attention to it but 100% know he cheated.
Now there are deniers years after the fact?
I wonder if it is reputation.com. It's almost laughable. The guy made up a full marathon and even created a website for it. How is that defensible?
Lots of people have offered to watch him race - he's never done it - but now people are saying, he's racing in secret."Your name here wrote:
Kip has done many races in the last 3 years, and he is actually faster than before the witch hunt started! He has just kept off YOUR radar by using aliases. Those of us who train with him know exactly which ones.
"A five year old could make up more believable lies than that.
Everyone who doens't know the story, needs to read this http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/08/06/120806fa_fact_singer?currentPage=all
and this:
http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3863010
Lastly, to 'Reality in perspective'. If you are a real person (i've pasted your post below), please tell Kip I'll pay $1000 for him to run a marathon in 2014 as long as he starts and runs an official 26.2 marathon and as long I am told what marathon it will be at least 14 days in advance and am allowed to walk/ride next to Kip and film the whole thing.
I'll pay an extra $1000 if he breaks 3:30."Reality in perspective wrote:
This is an open letter to all those who have kept tabs on this debacle. It is the closest thing to truth and reality that you will ever read. The reason for this is that it is coming from those that are closest to the actual events, unlike the predictable regurgitated crap on Lets Run that comes from odd-balls who have little or no connection at all to Kip. I am one of a number of Kip's friends who have had extensive group discussions with Kip, his wife, his kids and fellow runners. He has also shared with us emails and an audio recording of his interview with Mark Singer. The vast majority of what we have read online is inundated with glaring errors, deception and misinformation. The reason for this, in large part, is simply because the online point of view is coming mainly from people who have never even had any meaningful contact with those involved.
From the beginning Kip has been steadfast that he has nothing to hide and would talk to anyone about anything. His only condition was that it was not in a forum where people could remain anonymous. When we hear things like "Kip isn't talking", it is 100% false- he has always been open and forthright. We have grilled him and his family on many of the issues raised here on Lets Run. He has been open and transparent with all explanations, and his family has independently confirmed them. Just because YOU have not been present for these discussions does not mean they DIDN'T happen. Also, Lets Run management has done a major disservice to the quest for truth by deleting many posts that are indicative of his innocence. This is deceptive and manipulative in and of itself. It is sad to see an entity that is supposed to be unbiased purposely skew the truth. A cheating scandal of this magnitude could never have been pulled off without the aid of either a car, a bike or other accomplices. His family confirmed that he never had access to any of these things. Some races don't allow vehicles and some have so many road closures, navigating around is impossible. These factors at Boston plus 9 timing mats have eliminated cheating for times in the sub-3 range. And yet Kip ran Boston 8 straight times without issue.
For those that claim that the evidence that Kip has presented is not sufficient enough are failing to understand one thing- that is you CAN NOT prove a negative. Cheating can be proven, but NOT cheating can not be proven. Guess what? There are no other runners (aside from those with a video cam on them from start to finish) who could prove they didn't cheat either! Kip actually has much more evidence in his favor than the vast majority of other runners- in addition to the testimony that he had no car or bike, he had family confirm he was at random spots (plus all the timing mats) along many of the courses where he handed them excess gear or was given drinks. Mark Singer had access to this info but chose to not use it. Why would he- his story would have imploded. Remember, he writes for the same New Yorker that fired writer Jonah Lehrer for fabricating info the same week that Mark's fairy tale was published. Uncanny irony.
Kip was running decent times and winning races and triathlons for several years before anyone ever tried to claim cheating. How does one win a race or triathlon and cheat undetected? Ridiculous! Still to this day, there is not even one person who has even ever said they saw him cheat in any of his 200+ races. Ridiculous! One of Kip's training partner's confirmed with us and Mark Singer that Kip's reported finish times were all within his capabilities. Ridiculous!
Kip has no interest in a lawsuit despite his wife being an outstanding attorney. He has a lifelong spotless ethical track record, many friends and a community that loves him. He has nothing to gain by wasting his time in court. Again, you can't prove a negative. The Lets Run post that stated that there is a disconnect between perception online and that in reality couldn't have been more accurate.
I am defending my friend because when you see a friend get painted falsely, that's what friends do. And what are most of the sick people here doing? Let me sum up this absurdity- long after the issue was DEAD, you are STILL here in a forum that Kip DOESN'T even use, relentlessly bashing him over UNCONFIRMED claims from amateur races from YEARS ago, when you DON'T know him and have NEVER even questioned him!! And if this isn't malicious enough, you do this to someone who has a young child with a terminal illness. Just despicable.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Email Tip - photo found showing KL at start of 2010 Vermont City Marathon
UPDATE 9/28/12
Received an email from tipster w/ photo of KL at start of 2010 Vermont City Marathon (a suspicious performance on the interactive race map).
Received an email from tipster w/ photo of KL at start of 2010 Vermont City Marathon (a suspicious performance on the interactive race map).
Recall Vermont City was a race where race staff were suspicious of the performance, but did not feel that they had enough evidence for the DQ (see note from the Technical Director of 2010 Vermont City Marathon)
 |
| START photo |
 |
| FINISH photo - NOTE that the sign says 2:53, but he actually "ran" 2:49 because of the absurd chip/gun differential |
KEY SUSPICIONS:
- Bib Covered
- Changed shorts
- Took 4 minutes, 34 seconds to cross the starting line yet finished 41st overall in a race with 2895 finishers
- Results can be found here: http://www.coolrunning.com/results/10/vt/May30_22ndKe_set1.shtml
- Split the first 10 miles in 63:21 (6:20/mile). Would be difficult if not impossible to do starting 4 minutes, 34 seconds after the gun went off. Tons of people in the way -
- Expect to see Kip at about 6 minutes into the video. Does it look like he could run 6:20/mile through all those people? Email tipster believes you can see him at 6:17-6:18 if you look closely: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoKAbUJmyAQ
- Split the final 10K in 38:23 (6:11/mi pace).
Kip's SPLITS Broken Down
-10 miles in 1:03:21 (6:20/mi)
-10 miles to 13.1 miles in 20:01 (6:27/mi)
-13.1 miles to 20 miles in 47:17 (6:51/mi)
-20 miles to 26.2 miles in 38:23 (6:11/mi)
-10 miles in 1:03:21 (6:20/mi)
-10 miles to 13.1 miles in 20:01 (6:27/mi)
-13.1 miles to 20 miles in 47:17 (6:51/mi)
-20 miles to 26.2 miles in 38:23 (6:11/mi)
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:14:38 +0000
From: ---------------
To: soklr@hotmail.com
Subject: found pic of KL at start of VT marathon
fyi I browsed through 25000 photos so far and I found Kip at the start of the VT City Marathon, 2010.
Here are the photos of him if you search by bib number
If you go to the event home and select photo browser
put in the options
start with photo 24817 and show 48 then hit go
Look at the photo 5 rows down in the 1st (left) column. There is KL with the same hat, shades on the hat, same watch, different shorts, and a blue shirt over his red singlet and of course his bib is not visible, presumable under the blue shirt. Note this pic seems to be near the back of the pack crossing the start line.
I will browse through the pics again looking for him with the blue shirt on. I did not see any pics of him in the red singlet on the stretches of the race through the city streets where I saw other competitors multiple times from multiple angles.
Not sure how interesting this pic is, all it shows is he did cross the start line which is nothing new. It is consistent with his MO where he starts at the back of the pack with his bib obscured.
Sincerely,
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2012 20:28:43 +0000
From: ---------------
To: soklr@hotmail.com
Subject: KL in start of VT marathon video
Hello again. Based on the picture I found of KL at the start of VT city 2010 I looked at the youtube video on your blog. I think you can see KL in the video. A person wearing an outfit that looks identical to the pic mentioned below can be seen starting at 6:17-6:18 in the video. He comes around the corner and runs down the right hand side of the crowd as we view the video. This is consistent with the picture of found of KL near the start as it is taken from the right hand side as the runners are coming toward the photographer.
I find it odd in the video that he is ahead of the 2 runners in army fatigues wearing backpacks and seems to be pulling ahead of them. In the picture of KL he is just ahead of the 2 army fatigue guys and a woman in a white sports bra. In the video you see the woman in white bra a little behind KL and then the 2 army guys are bringing up the rear. One other person who stands out in the video is a woman with an orange top and pink shorts with a black arm band on her left arm. In the video she is a ways ahead of KL but she also hugs the extreme right hand side. She can be seen in the photos, 6 pictures prior to KL.
Perhaps the photo I found was taken a little further down the course from the video and KL is starting to slow down getting ready to drop out of the pack.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
Interactive Map (Please click on a dot to see evidence)
Interactive Map - Please click on a dot to see evidence
Kip E-mails from Scott Hubbard, former collegiate runner and high school coach
From a 2/2/11 correspondence, from Kip:
'The Marshall Marathon is another example of inaccurate and limited info getting skewed. I did use my first and middle name for the race (but he used FL for address, minus last name). My initial plan for this race was to run the full marathon in around 3 hours. It was a test to see how well my previous injury had healed. Unfortunately, I woke up late for the race & by the time I got near the start area, the race had already begun. At that point, there wasn't much I could do so I decided to just run half the race. I was still interested in getting something unusual that was promoted at the expo - a finish line photo on the field carrying a football. So I went to the half way mark on the course & ran only the 2nd half. Since I never crossed the timing mat at the start or the halfway point, I thought there was no way I could be in the results. I was offered an award at the finish, but declined & told them my time was incorrect. When I saw that I was listed in the results, I immediately contacted the RD & requested to be removed. A few days later I checked & I was still there, so I contacted him again and a short time later my name was removed. Thus, I was only DQ'd by myself, not by anyone else.'
'I did use another name for the Brooksie ('08) race (he used Rich Rodriguez). I am sorry if that upset anyone. It was meant as a UM-MSU joke w/a friend who was going to enter as Mark Dantonio that day. I know I am not alone in using funny names in races. At one time I think the majority of my PRs were under joke names (sorry) including some decent times in races that our forum friends have not yet discovered or have chosen not to disclose. If using a different name is grounds for disqualification, I will accept that.'
"Lovely stuff ... imagine getting this in your in-box! I might be able to dig up one more today."
Read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3863010&page=239#ixzz25QhjPWcO
Read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3863010&page=239#ixzz25QhjPWcO
Saturday, September 1, 2012
GOP VP nominee Paul Ryan claims to have run a sub 3hr marathon
HH: Are you still running?Paul Ryan: Yeah, I hurt a disc in my back, so I don’t run marathons anymore. I just run ten miles or yes.HH: But you did run marathons at some point?Paul Ryan: Yeah, but I can’t do it anymore, because my back is just not that great.
HH: I’ve just gotta ask, what’s your personal best?Paul Ryan: Under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something.
HH: Holy smokes. All right, now you go down to Miami University.Paul Ryan: I was fast when I was younger, yeah.
Courtesy of RunnersWorld sleuths:
Thursday, August 16, 2012
2008 Dallas WhiteRock Half Marathon: 10Mile split missing, 6:01 chip/gun difference
Results here:
Here's a look at the top 50 finishers. Kip was 45th overall. Kip took 6:01 to cross the starting line. Every single finisher except Rose Kosgei and Kip Litton have a 10Mile split.
From: --------
Subject: dallas white rock half
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2012 08:51:46 -0400
To: soklr@hotmail.com
I didn't see this on your Kip Litton Timeline, thought you might want to add it. Started 6m after the gun and no 10M mat time!
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Tonight's Note from Scott Hubbard, Michigan race director, major contributor to Kip Litton investigation & Mr. Singer's article
'Thank you for your email. We appreciate your concern but please rest assured that the only web page that was available to accept donations related to Kip Litton's fundraising belonged to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. As such, any donations contributed in support of Mr Litton would have been received directly by the CF Foundation. To our knowledge, Mr Litton has not received any donations intended for the CF Foundation directly. The CF Foundation takes the public trust bestowed upon it by the CF community very seriously and we appreciate the concern you have shown in reporting this matter.'
Lastly, this from me to my Clarkson/Davison buddy [Dr. Kip Litton] from 1/12/11:
'My friend, as this tale has continued to unravel, the circumstantial evidence is piling up and, frankly, is so deep I dont' think there's a way for you to dig your way out. However, my offer for you to be monitored in races still holds. At this point however, I don't see how the races you run will escape the sharp eyes of the mass of people watching/following your every step - regardless of how discreet I try to keep up my end of the bargain. Don't get me wrong, getting monitored in races is probably the only way you can save face. Saving face would help but won't make your trail of deceit disappear.
'At some point, independent of me, somebody may contact you to do a story. At some point, you'll be quizzed pointedly about wildly uneven splits, missing photos, mid-race changes of clothes, fabricating races, etc. Somebody's going to call you out.
'I'm going to toss something out: I see the noose around your neck tightening. I don't see how you can avoid a story that'll cast you out as part of the wildest matter of sports deceit in many a year. Unless you can come up w/plausible, clear, factual explanations for all these alleged sub 3 marathons. Allowing that that won't happen, my idea: come clean. Let the truth set you free. I don't thnk you want to go through the public hell of a story detailing your long trail of chicanery. A story might appear anyway but if you come clean first, it'd have the effect of mitigating the fallout. I'm not saying you should do this - offering it as an option.'
As we know, Dr D Kip Litton did not come clean, denying culpability to the end and somebody did write a story. I wish the man no ill will & hope his son w/CF can lead a productive life. Too bad it all had to come to this...
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Kip's old WorldRecordRun.com domain now links to his stories
Kip's old worldrecordrun.com domain name now serves as a nice overview
Spotted this tweet the other day from Pat Price at WritingAboutRunning.com:
West Wyoming Marathon Technical Tees Now for Sale
Parody T-shirt design for the race that was never run.
Michigan Local News Article - Davison dentist's improbable running claims land him in New Yorker expose
link to article - http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2012/08/davison_dentists_improbable_ru.html
Check the comments section. Here are some screenshots:
Friday, July 27, 2012
Kip Himself Posting on LetsRun.com Forum?
These are all from the current Letsrun.com thread on Kip Litton: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3863010
SPECIAL NOTE: Some of these posts, such as the RN Runner one below, are discussed specifically in Mark Singer's recently published article about Dr. Kip Litton in the New Yorker titled Marathon Man, (published on July 30, 2012 -> August 6th cover date of New Yorker magazine)
-----------------------------------------
From:
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Email from "old acquaintance" of Kip's
From: --------------
To: SOKLR@hotmail.com
Subject: KIP LITTON
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 11:38:34 +0000
To: SOKLR@hotmail.com
Subject: KIP LITTON
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2012 11:38:34 +0000
Good Morning Blogger:
I ran across your blog on Kip Litton and almost fell out of my seat. I was looking up old acquaintances on the internet when it lead me to an article in a Flint paper. I saw Kip’s name, read the article, looked at the times and couldn’t believe it. The Kip I remember was very, very lazy. I checked everything again: Dentist, Lapeer, 48 years old, wife Lisa, etc. sounded like the same guy. How could he run so many marathons at 6:30 pace,be so consistent and not start running until 40 with no previous running history? I swam in college and have observed several former swimmers compete in masters competition with great success after long layoffs but they were also high level college athletes before the long layoff. I knew Kip and Lisa from the Amway Business 20 years ago (that says something right there). Then I saw it, the word “Cheat”. I found your blog and read through it – WTF????? Who would do such a thing? Why? What purpose would it serve? Is it possible this entire thing is a joke he is putting over on everyone?
Please respond – I am curious. My wife is going to love to hear this one.
Best Regards
Thursday, May 10, 2012
E-Mail from person - Kip's neighbor?
I just received this email today from someone claiming to be neighbor of Kip Litton's. I'm copying and pasting it below.
"Hi,
I’m a neighbor of Kip Litton (literally live less than ¼ mile from him, same subdivision). So I see him run in/out of the sub on a regular basis. Although we share the same interest of running, that’s about it. Recently I received an email from him inquiring about a marathon in Wisconsin that he mistakenly thought I ran annually. He thought I ran the WhislteStop marathon in Ashland, WI, however I regularly run the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee. That being said, he wrote “I wanted to ask you a few questions about the WhistleStop Marathon. If you have a chance could you call me tonight or one of the next couple evenings? Thanks. - Kip Litton”. At first I ignored his email as I’m not really friends with him as he had previously insulted my father-in-law by mocking him like a high school sophomore after my father-in-law asked him about his Boston Marathoner Finisher jacket that Kip was wearing while both where dining at a local restaurant.
When I told my wife about the email, she got curios and googled him and saw all the news about his running “style”. She passed on the web sites and I quickly read as much as I could. I did not respond to his emails until later that week after he dropped off an envelope in my mailbox asking the same. He’s obviously determined to get some answers. I responded with a brief email stating that I’ve never run the WhistleStop but have run Milwaukee’s Lakefront which was already sold out for 2011. He thanked me and that was the end of our correspondence. I’m speculating he wanted to know where timing mats were placed and where photographers were situated. Again, just speculation.
Regarding all the allegations about his running “style” and DQs from races, I believe them. I once respected him for his running “talent”, but now believe he is a cheat and a scam based on the incident with my father-in-law, the other subdivision encounters and his arrogance (now much deflated). If I were a race director, I’d DQ him from a race unless he’s documented in photos. Others I talk to in the neighborhood are aware of his cheating exploits and I am spreading the word encouraging those that are unaware to look him up on the web.
Kip can run, and he bikes a lot to cross train. I’m speculating that he may get to the next timing mat by biking, posing as a race volunteer that rides the course monitoring runner’s physical condition. He also bikes with a neighbor, regularly going out on 50+ mile rides in an afternoon, several times a week. So he is capable, but probably of 3:15 to 3:20 marathons.
You may use the facts of this email in your blog, no names please. If you want more information about him, call on my number listed below."
"Hi,
I’m a neighbor of Kip Litton (literally live less than ¼ mile from him, same subdivision). So I see him run in/out of the sub on a regular basis. Although we share the same interest of running, that’s about it. Recently I received an email from him inquiring about a marathon in Wisconsin that he mistakenly thought I ran annually. He thought I ran the WhislteStop marathon in Ashland, WI, however I regularly run the Lakefront Marathon in Milwaukee. That being said, he wrote “I wanted to ask you a few questions about the WhistleStop Marathon. If you have a chance could you call me tonight or one of the next couple evenings? Thanks. - Kip Litton”. At first I ignored his email as I’m not really friends with him as he had previously insulted my father-in-law by mocking him like a high school sophomore after my father-in-law asked him about his Boston Marathoner Finisher jacket that Kip was wearing while both where dining at a local restaurant.
When I told my wife about the email, she got curios and googled him and saw all the news about his running “style”. She passed on the web sites and I quickly read as much as I could. I did not respond to his emails until later that week after he dropped off an envelope in my mailbox asking the same. He’s obviously determined to get some answers. I responded with a brief email stating that I’ve never run the WhistleStop but have run Milwaukee’s Lakefront which was already sold out for 2011. He thanked me and that was the end of our correspondence. I’m speculating he wanted to know where timing mats were placed and where photographers were situated. Again, just speculation.
Regarding all the allegations about his running “style” and DQs from races, I believe them. I once respected him for his running “talent”, but now believe he is a cheat and a scam based on the incident with my father-in-law, the other subdivision encounters and his arrogance (now much deflated). If I were a race director, I’d DQ him from a race unless he’s documented in photos. Others I talk to in the neighborhood are aware of his cheating exploits and I am spreading the word encouraging those that are unaware to look him up on the web.
Kip can run, and he bikes a lot to cross train. I’m speculating that he may get to the next timing mat by biking, posing as a race volunteer that rides the course monitoring runner’s physical condition. He also bikes with a neighbor, regularly going out on 50+ mile rides in an afternoon, several times a week. So he is capable, but probably of 3:15 to 3:20 marathons.
You may use the facts of this email in your blog, no names please. If you want more information about him, call on my number listed below."
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Kip Litton touched on in Sage Canaday's book Running For the Hansons
"Kip Litton would qualify as a Stroke, as would anyone who finagles his or her way into the Boston Marathon! Strokes will usually at least purchase some Gu, but not until they tell you that the marathon is too easy for them, so they moved up to the Ironman. They might test your prowess in running by asking you whether or not you have qualified for Boston, and if so, how many times."
Canaday, Sage (2011). Running For The Hansons: An Insider's Account of The Brooks-Sponsored Marathon Training Group Made Famous by Olympian Brian Sell (pp. 110-111). Vo2max Productions, LLC. Kindle Edition.
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