"Sorry, we have to fire you. You can't just jump in a race like that."
lmao what? Absolutely never happening unless you maybe work in the running industry.
You are definitely right about that. Kate Carter still works for Runners World. But oh yeah, she was "cleared" of cheating because laughable governing body found she didn't "intend" to cheat. Lol. Whatever.
They protect their own. She is an insider. Remember all this circus is nothing more than a job. She has connections. But do boycott UK RW. They should be ashamed she is still working there.
It looks like she bandit the Austin half race as well. Her IG pic did not show her with a bib while others in the pic do. Her name (unless she goes by different name) does not appear in the results. She says she ran xc in HS so she has running experience. The internet will get really mad at her because she took the finisher's medal in Austin.
I think most of this was made typical influencer made up garbage. 7:43 pace with no training is a bit of a stretch. Then she says she ran Austin Half last year and I don’t see her in the results. Maybe she banditted that one too!
I actually saw a pic on her IG from the Austin Half in Feb 23. She’s at the finish line with a medal but no bib…hmmm.
She violated the spirit of the event by not paying an entry fee. What are the other areas of her life where she welched out of a financial obligation ? She can achieve redemption by paying the fee after the fact.
I saw it as, "my life isn't going great int some areas, screw it I'm going to run the full half-marathon with no training."
Expanding her horizons and doing something a lot of people don't think they can do and using that to inspire others.
Oh c'mon. Pulling a publicty stunt like this and then posting about in on Twitter/X along with a selfie to get attention and burnish the Alexa Curtis "Be Fearless" brand is totally in line with the way this particular young woman has been spending her time and energy since she was a kid.
Also, doing things for which she has no training is not a departure for this particular young woman. It's her entire schtick.
Alexa Curtis is a 25-year-old from Connecticut who began presenting herself to the world as an "influencer" when she started a fashion blog at age 12. After trying to make it as a fashion model when she was 13-14, Curtis had a run of poor mental health and went through a bout of what she described as cyberbullying. So she switched the focus of her blog to teenage mental health and other "sensitive topics."
Curtis spent the rest of her adolescence promoting herself to young girls and their parents and the general public as a teenage savant whose "lived experience" gave her special and sage insight into the pychological and social problems that have come to plague pre-teen and teenage girls in countries like the USA in the era of smart phones, ubiquitious wi-fi and photo- and video-based/rich social media - anxiety, depression, negative body image, eating disorders, suicidality, addiction to social media and selfies, preoccupation with personal identity and image, and online bullying.
Once Curtis reached an age when she no longer could market herself as a precocious teen seemingly "wise beyond her years" about matters related to adolescent mental health, she switched to peddling herself as an expert in "personal branding," "fearlessness" and getting corporate sponsorships from "brands like British Airways, T-Mobile, Lands’ End and more" to well-heeled girls and young women even greener than she is.
This latest desperate grab for publicity hardly counts as "expanding her horizons" for Curtis.
Expanding her horizons would be preparing for the half-marathon by training for it and registering ahead of time like most people do, then running the race and crossing the finish line without using the occasion an excuse to make a self-admiring post on Twitter/X full of platitudes for the purpose of patting herself on the back and promoting her Be Fearless Inc. brand and the various business endeavors she's peddling under the Be Fearless banner.
Expanding her horizons would be putting down the selfie stick, disconnecting the wifi and not posting on social media at all for a spell.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
She violated the spirit of the event by not paying an entry fee. What are the other areas of her life where she welched out of a financial obligation ? She can achieve redemption by paying the fee after the fact.
Starting to see why relationship and businesses fell apart…
If this story is accurate, she would have started the "race" very late (supposedly saw the race, asked a security person where the start was, then went there). Hence why she's back with the walkers.
My bet is she didn't run the whole course. Probably just jumped in the race late, ran a few miles, took a pic.
A few weekends back as I was getting ready to head out for my run I saw a young woman in neon shorts, sports bra and one of those water-filled backpacks walk out of a house, jog about 50 yards down the road snapping selfies, and then turn around and walk back to the house. I don't doubt there's a lot phony about the story this thread is about too.
Come on. You liked the brief fantasy she provided. I would have. It beats looking at the same streets or the track.
The more of these that pop up, the more I just feel sad for them. It doesn't even make me mad, just sad inside. She should donate the race fee back to these two races (and any others) and post about why people shouldn't bandit races. As a volunteer co-RD for a modest ~5,000 runner half marathon for a few years, I can personally say that RDs want you to sign up for your own safety and the success of the event. If you can't afford the entry fee but want to run, call the RD and discuss it with them. Most of the time they will figure something out for you.
I think someday people are going to have to recognize that, for people like the original OP, all publicity is good publicity. A lot of people (myself included) find influencers and influencer culture sad, banal, empty, pathetic... choose your preferred terms. But if you think that, then you do yourself no favors by posting about influencers. Even if you think you're making fun of them, you're spreading their reach. Just ignore them and they'd go away within a year, but even people who don't like them can't help but post about them and spread their message.
Whilst I agree with what you've said as a general rule, I've posted about this particular influencer, Alexa Curtis, because I think what she's doing is unusually harmful to the impressionable, callow girls and young women who comprise the majority of her audience/fan base.
Curtis isn't just a run-of-the mill social media "influencer," she's a professional ambassador of the "personal branding" business/industry whose career is all about encouraging and convincing other young women and teenage girls to follow in her footsteps - and teaching them exactly how to go about it.
Curtis' company - Be Fearless Inc. - and the line of courses, events, coaching sessions, newletters and so on sold under the Be Fearless banner are all aimed at getting insecure, easily-influenced girls and young women - who are still in their most pliable formative years and are desperately trying to "find themselves" and figure out their path and purpose in life - to view themselves principally as commodities and brands to be publicly displayed, looked at and talked about on social media and marketed to corporations and strangers for likes, followers and money. And she's giving them step-by-step instructions on how to to package, pitch and peddle themselves on social media and directly to corporations through email.
Amongst the materials Curtis puts out under the Be Fearless banner is a weekly newsletter, "Stay Fearless with Alexa Curtis or Die Trying." The titles of the three most recent issues were: Does Everyone Need A Personal Brand? POV: You Hate Posting About Yourself - How to Get Over That Fear The Proper Way to Brand Yourself - Alexa's Personal Branding Tips
The "Stay Fearless" newsletters and some other Alexa Curtis materials use a tagline that's worrying because it gives girls and young women the perncious message that "living fearlessly" goes hand in hand with holding nothing back when creating a "personal brand" and posting on social media:
We help you lead your most Fearless Unfiltered Life
This post was edited 5 minutes after it was posted.
I saw it as, "my life isn't going great int some areas, screw it I'm going to run the full half-marathon with no training."
Expanding her horizons and doing something a lot of people don't think they can do and using that to inspire others.
She's already a regular runner. People have posted her own videos and pics, even of the night before when she did have wine but captions "only after running 5 miles." I wouldn't have a problem with her jumping in and banditing if she weren't so extremely proud of it, saying she relied on no one but herself to get to the finish line. Uh, who put up the finish line and measured the distance and cleared the permits for clearing the street? That and her responses make her seem so entitled.
And the way people praise her has me worried that people just don't understand morality and race etiquette anymore. This is a couple steps away from a society where it's okay to cut the course cause you signed up for the race and paid for it (to get the rad Mexcio City marathon medals).
I actually saw a pic on her IG from the Austin Half in Feb 23. She’s at the finish line with a medal but no bib…hmmm.
Remember this guy? Lucky she didn't pull this BS in London. She absolutely should be forced to give back the medal since she never paid for the race. I was a bandit only once in my life - the Pittsburgh Marathon about 30 years ago. I pulled off the course about 100 yards before the finish line. No medal, no shirt, no food at the end, nothing. The only thing I can say that I got for free was the water/sports drink on the course. And I know I was wrong even taking that.
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