Almost any endurance athlete who has ever gone on a long run has probably, at some particularly vulnerable moment, seen a car whiz by and been tempted, if only for a moment, to hook out a thumb, catch a lift and avoid suffering through the miles ahead.
Perhaps that explains why accusations of cheating involving competitive runners seem to crop up every few years. A suspicious time. A course cut short. A bus ride taken.
In the latest incident, a top-ranked ultramarathoner had her third-place finish in a race in England earlier this month invalidated because she got a ride in a car for two and a half miles of the 50-mile course.