Maybe it’s the jet lag.
Whatever it was, some misjudgment crept into the super-marathon’s weary soul. Joasia Zakrzewski that got her to “run” 2.5 miles in a recent race by moving them in a car.
The 47-year-old Scottish runner, a doctor, appears to have been tracked by race organizers using GPX data, who say they discovered she had progressed over a mile of the race in a minutes 40 seconds: cue Theme “Train of Fire”. She originally finished third on the 50-mile run from Manchester to Liverpool on April 7.
Race director Wayne Drinkwater said: “We can confirm that an athlete has now been disqualified from the event for using a vehicle in part of the route.
Adrian Stott, a running mate who contacted Zakrzewski after the incident, told the BBC the marathon runner arrived in Britain the night before the race after traveling 48 hours from Australia. “The race didn’t go as planned. She said she felt sick and tired during the race and wanted to give up,” he said. “She has fully cooperated with the race organisers’ investigations, providing them with a full account of what happened.”
Runner told BBC that her leg started to feel sore near the halfway point of the race and after seeing a friend next to the track, she accepted to hitchhike his car to the next checkpoint to tell the sheriff that she will withdraw.
“When I got to the checkpoint, I told them I was driving and I was in the car, and they said, ‘You’ll hate yourself if you stop,'” Zakrzewski tOld BBC. “I have agreed to continue playing in a non-competitive manner. I made a big mistake by accepting the trophy and should have given it back. I was tired, jet-lagged and feeling sick.
“It’s not malice. It’s misinformation. I would never intentionally cheat and this is not a target race, but I don’t want to make excuses.”
Zakrzewski says she’s sad to see “haters” on social media. “I’ve given so much to the world of running so I’m heartbroken that this has happened,” she said.
She has been a representative for many years to the British athletics community. Earlier this year, at the Taipei Ultramarathon in Taiwan, she took the overall victory in the 48-hour race, setting a world record of 255 miles.
Racing for Great Britain in the IAU World 100km Championship, she won an individual silver medal in 2011 and a bronze medal in 2014 and 2015. She has set several records including her 24-hour record. Scotland, England’s 200 km record and Scotland’s 100 mile record.
