Rosie Ruiz, who skipped the first 25 miles of the 1980 Boston Marathon and became the most infamous cheater in running history, will reveal all her dirty secrets tonight on a new documentary show on the Game Show Network (GSN) called "Anything to Win" at 8 pm Austin time.
"Anything to Win" is an appropriate title for the Ruiz interview because she clearly would do anything to win a marathon. Boston wasn't even the first marathon in which Ruiz cut the course. At New York City in 1979, she took a subway to the finish line which gave her the qualifying time she needed to enter the '80 Boston Marathon.
Despite a warm day in Boston, Ruiz crossed the finish line first, in a heavy soccer shirt, without a trace of sweat, which prompted Charlie Rodgers, brother of '80 winner Bill Rodgers, to reply, "Uh oh. Cellulite city. She's trouble."
Ruiz was trouble, inisting in the post-race press conference that she ran the entire way. But Ruiz couldn't recall any specific workouts she had done and didn't even know what interval workouts were. Nor could she recall any other races she had run, other than New York City.
She was immediately challenged in the post-race press conference by Bill Rodgers who could sense that something was wrong and was infuriated that Ruiz had robbed Canadian Jacqueline Gareau of the satisfaction of finishing first.
After Ruiz was disqualified a few days later from Boston, Rodgers led a group of Boston runners who cheered Gareau as she ran the final few hundred meters of the course, broke a finish tape and was awarded the laurel wreath that rightly belonged to her.
Anyway, if you care to hear how Rosie Ruiz perpetrated the greatest fraud in running history, tune in to the Game Show Network at 8 p.m tonight.
 
 
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Boston Marathon Cheat Rosie Ruiz To Tell All Tonight
by RunTex Staff, 1/10/2006 |
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