Making A List

The marathon season is in full swing, with races the next few weeks in Detroit, Chicago and New York City. Halloween is also approaching, so here is a list of 10 notable marathon impostors—runners who only pretended they ran the entire race:

1. Spiridon Belokas, in the 1896 Olympics in Athens. Belokas finished third, but later admitted that he had ridden part of the way in a carriage.

2. Fred Lorz, in the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis. The apparent winner, Lorz was photographed with President Roosevelt's daughter before it was discovered that lie had hitched a ride for 11 miles.

3. George Plimpton, in the 1947 Boston Marathon. After some of his fellow Harvard students challenged him. Plimpton jumped in and ran for several miles—and a participatory journalist was born.

4. Norbert Sudhaus, in the 1972 Olympics in Munich. Just before Frank Shorter entered the Olympic Stadium, Sudhaus, a German student, bolted onto the track. When asked what he thought of the guy who came in ahead of him, Shorter said, "What guy?"

5. Rosie Ruiz, in the 1980 Boston Marathon. In the most famous marathon hoax ever, Ruiz (above) appeared to have won the race, until it was discovered that she ran only the last mile or so.

6. Marie Evangelista, in the 1985 Pittsburgh Marathon. Evangelista ran 15 miles, hopped on a city bus for 10 miles and then ran across the finish. After she was given a medal as the top finisher among local women, she said, "They just put the thing around my neck, and I kept walking."

7. John Bell, in the 1986 New York Marathon. After he was declared the winner in the 40-and-over division, it-was revealed that Bell had taken a detour through Past Harlem, saving himself about five miles.

8. The Sean Sweeney impersonator, in the 1987 Boston Marathon. Sweeney was too ill to participate in the race, but this still-unidentified man "won" the 50-59 age division with Sweeney's number on his bib. "I don't know who ran it or why, but I know it wasn't me," Sweeney said. It was later discovered that the impostor did not run the whole race.

9. Richard Roodberg, in the 1990 Los Angeles and Boston Marathons. When asked why he did not appear on videotapes taken at checkpoints along the Boston race, Rood berg said, "Must have been bad camera angles or something."