Foursquare CEO Admits to Wife's Boston Marathon Fraud

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Runners run along the route of the 118th Boston Marathon Monday, April 21, 2014, in Hopkinton, Mass.

Image: Steven Senne/Associated Press

By Sam Laird2014-04-25 22:57:26 UTC

Controversy enveloped this year's Boston Marathon — the first since last year's deadly bomb attack — when it was discovered that some runners had participated while wearing fake bibs.

Wearing a fake bib to run in a race others paid for, trained for, and had to run faster than a given time to enter in the first place might be difficult to explain at the best of times. But it's even harder to justify in a race with extreme symbolic and emotional resonance a grieving city and nation. (For the uninitiated, a bib is what you receive when you register for a race; it's basically your ticket.)

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We now know the identity and motivation of at least one of this year's Boston frauds: Chelsa Crowley, husband of Foursquare CEO Dennis Crowley, who says they faked her number because they "felt like we needed to run again and finish together to get closure" after failing to finish together last year.

The fakery was uncovered after Kathy Brown, the rightful owner of bib 34033, looked for pictures of herself on the marathon's official photo site. She spotted Chelsa Crowley, who had written her Twitter handle — @chelsa — on her bib of the same number.

Responding to a Boston news report about marathon officials probing the fake bibs, Crowley left a comment explaining the couple's rationale on Friday morning. Here's the full text of Crowley's post, which Foursquare PR confirmed is real and declined to comment on further:

Hey all -

Dennis Crowley (Chelsa's husband) here chiming in on this. First of all, our apologies to anyone we offended. After running together last year, getting split up and not finishing together (Chelsa finished, I did not), we both felt like we needed to run again and finish together to get closure. I wrote a blog post about our experiences last year and my motivation to run Boston again this year: http://ift.tt/1lQDgf4...

Yes, using a duplicate number to get Chelsa into the starting corral with me was wrong. I don't expect everyone to understand our strong need to run and and finish together — but after trying unsuccessfully to get a charity number and trying unsuccessfully to officially transfer a number from an injured-runner friend, we did what we could to make sure we could run together in hopes of finishing together.

I sent an email to Kathy Brown, the woman who rightfully earned #34033 to apologize for any disrespect, hurt feelings or confusion. Our intent was never to "steal" anything from anyone — our intent was to finish the Boston Marathon together as we tried to do last year. (#34033 = first 3 numbers of my number + "33" which is Chelsa's age. We chose a number close to my number to ensure we'd be next to each other at the start.)

Again, sincerest apologies to anyone we offended or disrespected, including the BAA and the police/fire/EMT crews that worked so hard to make sure Monday's race was safe for all runners.

Dennis + Chelsa

As noted by Boston Magazine before the April 21 race, there's always a "black market" for bibs in one of the world's most iconic footraces. But after last year's bombings that killed three people and injured more than 250, running with a fake bib seems the height of arrogance.

Also perhaps worth mentioning: Dennis Crowley is the CEO of a company millions of users trust with their personal location data.

After the race, Chelsa Crowley posted this photo to Instagram with the caption, "Obligatory finish line photo. Was a loooong race. #Boston"

Commenters have ripped her to shreds below the photo. To wit:

"You are a true piece of shit." — @bkn75

"A long race ran on lies and deceit. Bravo, bravo." — @endlessmuse

"This has to be the most pathetic thing I may have ever seen on Instagram. Congratulations." — @jolismasucol

Crowley wasn't the only impostor in this year's race. Another legitimate runner spotted no less than four runners wearing her bib, no. 14285. That runner, Kara Bonneau, posted their photos to her Facebook page, where they've since been re-shared more than 700 times. "They should be ashamed of themselves," Bonneau writes.

Chelsa Crowley, for her part, doesn't seem to be suffering too badly. She posted this Instagram photo on Thursday, along with the caption: "Heading to DC for Nike Women's Half Marathon and strategizing on how to even out my tan lines from #Boston."

Topics: Boston Marathon, Entertainment, Sports