I have to give a shout out to a fellow Denison University graduate, Andrea Karl, for technically winning the 2015 Go! St. Louis Marathon earlier this year. The reason I say "technically" is because one runner finished in front of Karl, but was found guilty of cheating just a few minutes after crossing the finish line.
Jason Aubry, at KSDK.com, wrote about the cheating runner and how quickly she was caught. Read the article in its entirety: St. Louis marathon winner never ran the race. Kendall Schler crossed the finish line about 4 minutes prior to Andrea Karl. The problem was that Schler did not run the entire length of the marathon. She suspiciously crossed the finish line before the "escorting lead bicycles." She also was not wearing her bib in the right place. Even though she was caught shortly after breaking the tape, she still had the honor of people cheering for her as she finished, and the opportunity to take a picture with Jackie Joyner-Kersee (an Olympic Gold Medalist). Schler was believed to enter this marathon just after the last checkpoint; also this isn't the first time she has cheated! In 2014 Schler finished in third place and was guilty of tampering with the electronic tracking data, again. All in all, knowing Andrea Karl a little, I believe she wasn't too salty about the whole situation.
Andrea Karl is no stranger to accolades, in her four years playing women's soccer at Denison University she received a hand full of prestigious athletic and academic awards. She is currently a graduate student at Washington University, and to stay competitive and well-conditioned, she decided to run marathons. So far it is turning out to be a very successful transition. Her prizes for winning the Go! St. Louis Marathon were: $1,500, a spot in the Boston Marathon, and running a lap around the St. Louis Cardinals entire baseball field and breaking the tape at home plate.
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