REWARDS, LOSS OF

In the 1980 Boston Marathon, a young unknown runner named Rosie Ruiz was initially declared the winner in the women’s division of the 26-mile race. An investigation followed and it was discovered that this was only the second marathon in which she had ever run, she had no coach, she trained on an exercise cycle (others did 120 miles of road work per week), and she had not been seen by any of the other women runners in the race. It was speculated that she probably rode a subway for 16 miles to get near the finish line. Rosie was disqualified and lost the reward—not just the prize for finishing first, but the more lasting satisfaction of attaining a difficult goal.1145