Turtleboy Investigates

Firefighter’s 6K Cheating Update: Stefani Penn And Emily Malone Will Be Awarded The Prizes They Earned

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Since one of our bloggers broke the story about the young woman who cut off 1.25 miles of the Worcester Firefighter’s 6K charity road race, two women have come forward who were “beaten” by Theresa Pickens. As you know if you read that blog, the women who finished in 3rd and 4th, really should have finished in 2nd and 3rd, and thus were cheated out of their prizes. We had multiple witnesses, photographic evidence, and race result research to back up the claim.

You had the fact that the times clearly indicated that Theresa Pickens started at the BACK of the pack, which an experienced runner would never do:

Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 12.29.19 PM

You had the three women who MULTIPLE people saw running as the top three females in the race:

Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 3.03.19 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 3.03.33 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 3.03.51 PM

And then you had “second place” finisher Theresa Pickens, who not only was noticably NOT in the same shape as the more experienced runners, but also had never previously completed a road race in this area:

Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 12.17.21 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 12.17.09 PM Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 12.16.40 PM

But now that two more women whom she knocked out of the awards ceremony have come forward with their accounts, there can really be no debate. Here is what they’ve had to say:

I only saw her AT the finish line. My friend Cat won the race, and her and I ran together for the first 2 miles, and then I couldn’t keep up with her any longer. I kept my eye out though because we were running in memory of Cat’s dad who recently passed and I thought it would be really neat if we could go 1-2 in the women’s race. I tried to make sure no women passed me and was taken aback when this woman crossed the finish line just ahead of me.

There are some photos of her crossing just ahead of me at the finish – but I don’t remember seeing her prior to that moment. If I’d seen her pass me I would have really gone all out to hold onto 2nd place, which I thought was mine since both spectators and runners coming in the opposite direction had yelled to me plenty of times “2nd woman”. 

If that’s not a convincing account then I don’t know what is. The girl was trying to finish 1-2 in order to honor her friend’s father who had recently passed away. She made a concerted effort to make sure she was in second place. There’s just no possible way you can believe a woman in a red sox hat passed her without her noticing. 

For the majority of the race I was running not far behind the two ladies in pink. I knew they were the first two ladies because I started just behind them at the start and never lost sight of one of them. A little before we headed back into the tunnel I started to fade a little bit and I believe one of the ladies took off and surged ahead. The other lady in pink was also ahead of me but never by more than about 15 seconds. I was trying to catch her going up the hill to the finish but was still about 10 seconds behind her.

I know that no woman ever passed me or her in the last 1.5 miles. So for the lady in red to have beaten us she would have had to have been in front of us the entire race but I never once her at any point in the race. I was surprised at the awards ceremony when my named wasn’t called for third place as I was almost certain I was the third female finisher.

See that’s messed up. This girl KNEW she placed, went to the awards ceremony, and then stood there waiting for her name to be called, which never ended up happening. That really, really sucks. Especially since she obviously put the training in and earned it. 

The Firefighter’s 6K is a great race for a great cause. Worcester firefighter John Franco has put this event on for 15 years, and it’s a great community event. None of this is there fault, I just want to make that clear. The cheating incident occurred in the darkness of the tunnel, which is the only place on the 3.7 mile course where that was possible. Maybe next year they’ll have someone in there watching, but it’s a damn shame that that is even necessary. I mean, it’s a charity freaking road race man. Who cheats in a charity road race?

Well, because John Franco is such a good dude, he’s decided to award Stefani Penn the second place prize, and Emily Malone the third place prize. Either message us or him on Facebook and we’ll take care of it for ya. I’m happy once again that Turtleboy Sports could be used as a way to fix an ill in our society. Hopefully Theresa Pickens turns her awards in or dumps them in the Blackstone River, because after all, why would anyone want to keep an award they didn’t earn?

One more thing. I thought I had heard every idiotic complaint from turtle haters out there, but I was wrong. Someone actually left this comment on the last blog:

“I agree you may have something here…but was the first story in the beginning really necessary? You will give honest, strong women a bad rep and create an stereotype if not careful…you have power TB, and with that comes journalist/ blog responsibility, which is needed even more so online. I mean you come across like you are out to get women runners and seeing if they are cheating, (and the fact that she is a person of color doesnt help your case)”

The story she is referring to is the Rosie Ruiz story. The reason we started with that is blatantly obvious to anyone with the ability to reason – it’s by far the most famous running cheater story of all time. On top of that, there were TONS of parallels here. We gladly would’ve used the story about the white guy who jumped into the Boston Marathon at Kenmore Square and won the whole thing, but unfortunately that never happened. Thus we were stuck with the Rosie Ruiz story.

And let me get this straight. We can’t call out a cheater if they are 1) female, or 2) non-white. Gotcha. That seems like a reasonable request. Therefore I encourage all people to come forward with their stories of white boys cutting the course at this charity 6K. As soon as we get that we’ll publish a story on it.

P.S. How long until the Sam Allen “crowdsources” this story and publishes it in the Telegram and Gazette?

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23 Comment(s)
  • Kristen Flajslik
    June 21, 2015 at 5:12 pm

    My sister who I ran the race with last week just told me about this -unbelievable – who cheats during a charity run? I thought I finished in fourth when running but then the results indicated fifth because I could see the two ladies in pink and the third place finisher the entire race essentially and never saw any other woman ahead of me after a certain point in the race. When I was running everyone said I was in fourth. It did not matter for awards since I won my age group, but I certainly feel for the ladies ahead of me for being cheated out of 2nd and 3rd running in such hot and humid conditions, especially the woman running in memory of her friend’s dad

  • Unreal
    June 20, 2015 at 7:22 am

    That bitch is despicable. She deserves the public shaming, and I hope her life is fucking miserable because of it. She’s scum!!!

  • Taryn
    June 19, 2015 at 9:59 pm

    IT took me quite a while to figure out that the Dude in red was the lady in question… I’d have told the ladies in pink they were 1 and 2 even if I’d seen #1296, thinking she was one of the male runners. Yikes.

  • william wallace
    June 19, 2015 at 2:29 pm

    Since you were seemingly in the dark about a male cheater, it would seem there was a man Kevin Goodman who cheated in the 2013 race in Boston (search: kevin goodman boston marathon) as well as potentially other races.

    Though I suppose this is irrelevant to the issue that as a writer, using anecdotal fallacies (even if unintentionally) such as the comparison to the Ruiz case to support the subsequent claim against the alleged Worcester race cheat creates a false impression that this example supports the claim due to similarities other than the fact the Ruiz case chosen involved a cheater, but also due to similarities in gender. This invites the conclusion that the two are analogous and that ‘women cheat at races’ is a drawn conclusion and supporting argument, even if not directly stated.

    I understand your style may be frank, crude and direct, which is part of the respect I have for your ability to dig into information without concern for correctness. However, to simply state that one’s comments are ‘idiotic’ is seemingly rather vain and defensive response to a rather constructive criticism.

    If you truly wish to help enact change (which I hope you do, because Worcester needs a fair share of it); you should take constructive advice as a means to a better end, instead of always knee jerk crushing others dialogue in the palm of your hand.

    Worcester needs people to speak up and stand up to make a better city and region. If you wish to do so, be prepared to take on real challenges and even be wrong. It may seem detailed a response to a simple dialogue (then again you included details in your subsequent article), but the only reason I waste my time is in hope that you have goals with your work and not just to hate.

    • BobnMic
      June 19, 2015 at 4:07 pm

      Thank you for posting this twice. 😮

      • BobnMic
        June 20, 2015 at 2:24 pm

        Fucking idiot.

    • Lee Nguyen
      June 19, 2015 at 7:25 pm

      Respectable comment.

  • william wallace
    June 19, 2015 at 1:37 pm

    Since you were seemingly in the dark about a male cheater, it would seem there was a man Kevin Goodman who cheated in the 2013 race in Boston (http://www.cleveland.com/naymik/index.ssf/2014/04/boston_marathon_disputes_cleve.html) as well as potentially other races.

    Though I suppose this is irrelevant to the issue that as a writer, using anecdotal fallacies (even if unintentionally) such as the comparison to the Ruiz case to support the subsequent claim against the alleged Worcester race cheat creates a false impression that this example supports the claim due to similarities other than the fact the Ruiz case chosen involved a cheater, but also due to similarities in gender. This invites the conclusion that the two are analogous and that ‘women cheat at races’ is a drawn conclusion and supporting argument, even if not directly stated.

    I understand your style may be frank, crude and direct, which is part of the respect I have for your ability to dig into information without concern for correctness. However, to simply state that one’s comments are ‘idiotic’ is seemingly rather vain and defensive response to a rather constructive criticism.

    If you truly wish to help enact change (which I hope you do, because Worcester needs a fair share of it); you should take constructive advice as a means to a better end, instead of always knee jerk crushing others dialogue in the palm of your hand.

    Worcester needs people to speak up and stand up to make a better city and region. If you wish to do so, be prepared to take on real challenges and even be wrong. It may seem detailed a response to a simple dialogue (then again you included details in your subsequent article), but the only reason I waste my time is in hope that you have goals with your work and not just to hate.

  • JoeMomma
    June 19, 2015 at 10:58 am

    Actions have consequences….she cheats in a public charity event…the public calls her out on it. It’s that easy.

  • Don Neelton
    June 19, 2015 at 9:56 am

    No one has a right to judge. This site participates in public shaming and that is damaging. If you care that something is fixed, you do it with integrity in private.

  • disappointed at best
    June 19, 2015 at 7:45 am

    Theresa is a Worcester Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year and the (adopted, foster?) daughter of Edwin Rodriguez. She should know better about honor and honest competition. Very disappointing.

  • Nanny
    June 18, 2015 at 3:27 pm

    Nanny approves of this investigative journalism.

  • Lee Stores
    June 18, 2015 at 3:11 pm

    You say you have corrected an ‘”ill” of society, but why couldn’t you have done it privately and fixed it that way. Just my opinion.

    • Dracis
      June 19, 2015 at 12:34 am

      Because this woman deserves to be publicly shamed for cheating in a charity road race.

  • BobnMic
    June 18, 2015 at 3:08 pm

    Stories like this bring to light clearly, if it has not been clear before, what haters on here are all about that what their agenda truly is. Nobody is getting fouled by any of this no matter how great you haters write. It’s all articulate dribble with paragraph after paragraphs that can not make one valid point with any substance.

    But hey it’s entertainment and I giggle… 🙂

    • BobnMic
      June 19, 2015 at 12:21 am

      Clarification with regard to my last reply: I speak of TB haters and their irresponsible irrelevant non-specific and unsupported by anything factual dribble that is always always seemingly race bait related comments. Although some of it is written with command of the English written word, it is not fooling anyone here due to, so far, baseless comments and accusations.

      That is the point I was trying to make. My previous reply was a bit too general and could be taken either way. An addendum I believe was in order.

  • G-Love
    June 18, 2015 at 2:26 pm

    Good job TB!!! Shame on the people that try to turn this around to make Theresa a victim!!!!!!

  • Hoov
    June 18, 2015 at 2:23 pm

    Classy gesture! I hope Theresa comes forward and gives TB and exclusive interview… although, I’m sure she’s probably in negotiations with Clive for that at this point.

  • Kevins 9 Iron
    Frank Lee
    June 18, 2015 at 2:22 pm

    It seems she shut down her FB page? What innocent person does that? BUSTED!

  • COB
    June 18, 2015 at 2:16 pm

    Theresa “Slim” Pickens better not show her face at another race ever again! She can however, meet me at Auntie Dot’s tonight for a tubesteak sandwich 😀

  • Frogshit
    June 18, 2015 at 2:15 pm

    HATS OFF TURTLEBOY!!!!!!

    TRUTH-JUSTICE- AND THE AMERICAN WAY!

    …oh wait…. That’s Superman…. Anyway…. Congrats to the REAL winners of the race and thank you all for remembering Worcester’s Brave Six. Special shout out to John Franco! Thank You Sir!

  • Unreal
    June 18, 2015 at 2:10 pm

    What a piece of shit that Theresa Pickens is! Does she teach the kids that she counsels to cheat to get ahead in life??? Such a moron!!!

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