If You Cheat In A Marathon, Try Not To Set A World Record

Tabatha Hamilton, a 31-year-old from Trenton, Ga., won the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon near the Tennessee/Georgia line on Saturday. But when officials took a closer look at her race the next day, something was off.

Hamilton's winning time of 2 hours, 55 minutes, and 39 seconds is a very good time for a recreational runner—but nothing to bat an eye at. The problem emerged when officials, examining her progress through the course through periodic timing mats, discovered that she'd crossed the half-marathon mark at 2 hours and six seconds, meaning she'd run the second half of the race—13.1 miles—in 55 minutes.

The world record for the half marathon, set by a skinny Eritrean, is 58 minutes and 23 seconds.

When race officials found this miracle/implausibility on Sunday, they disqualified Hamilton and awarded the win to Lillian Gilmer, a 41-year-old from Nashville, who was originally awarded the women's runner-up in 3:21:33.

Despite the improbability of her time, Hamilton has maintained her innocence. On Monday, when reached for comment by the , she disputed the recorded time for the first half, saying that her husband called out a split of 1:36:51, meaning her second half would have had to have been around 1:19—still a tall order, but not impossible.

But races have all gone digital, which makes assembling athlete profiles that much easier. A Tabitha Hamilton of Trenton, Ga., ran a full marathon in 2009 in 4 hours, 39 minutes. She ran another in 2013 in over six hours. None of her past results suggests that she has ever been capable of running a 2:55 marathon, let alone on Saturday, which she claimed was a personal best by "six or seven minutes" to multiple reporters immediately following the race.

"Everything we looked at showed she did not complete the marathon," said co-race director Sherilyn Johnson on Monday night. Johnson said she spoke with Hamilton, who still claimed she didn't pull a Rosie Ruiz and cut the course. "I told her the timing data does not support that she ran a full marathon; therefore, the track club's decision stands and she remains disqualified, and I hope we can move forward."

Rosie Ruiz photo via AP Images