LA Woman Finishes First In Age Group For A Marathon She Didn’t Even Run

It’s the quandary of authors and publishers alike: how do you get people to pay attention to your story and buy your book? Some people go on huge media tours. Some people have book-signing events at local shops. In the case of Paula Petrella, who is currently writing the book, “An Idiot’s Guide to Marathon Training,” she never figured that actually winning the Los Angeles Marathon would be part of her book promotion. ↵

↵↵Yet according to race officials, Petrella – a TV executive with Sony Pictures Television – did just that, winning the women’s 40-44 age group in Sunday’s race. The only problem: she didn’t run. Via the LA Times.↵

↵↵⇥The television executive had planned to make the race her first marathon since taking more than five hours to finish one in Washington, D.C., about 10 years ago. But her doctor advised against it about a month ago following a medical procedure.↵⇥↵⇥Petrella showed up at the starting line at Dodger Stadium on Sunday to take photos for her book. She wore her runner’s bib to ensure access to the course.↵⇥

↵⇥↵⇥After driving home to Brentwood, she rode her bicycle to the finish line near the Santa Monica Pier. Race officials are trying to determine how their system recorded Petrella as having finished the race.↵⇥

↵↵Race officials clocked her at 2 hours, 53 minutes and 59 seconds – a personal best! – and credited her with the victory over a woman named Lisa Fink, the actual winner in that age group. It wasn’t until Petrella went to work on Monday morning and was congratulated by a co-worker that she realized she was credited with the win.↵↵Now, let’s be honest. This woman is writing a book on training for marathons, but hasn’t run in one for over at decade. When she couldn’t run in this one because of a medical procedure, she still went to the start of the race, wearing a runner’s bib, to take pictures for her book. Then, the woman drove home and rode her bike to the finish line, somehow getting clocked in as the winner or her age group. Was she still wearing her runner’s bib? Did the marathon clocking system recognize her face? This seems incredibly shady. ↵

↵↵Then again, this race was run in Los Angeles. How certain are were that the entire thing wasn’t just a bunch of actors pretending to be marathoners, running on treadmills in front of a green screen?↵

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