A fitness influencer’s marathon personal best has turned into a viral scandal after one bizarre detail blew up her entire story.
Abeeeer, a Chinese running influencer with more than 520,000 social media followers, celebrated her 4:53:46 finish at the 2026 Berlin Marathon as a new personal best on September 27.
But viral photos and race data soon told a different story, revealing that her impressive final stretch appeared to have been aided by an unconventional shortcut.
Highlights
- Abeeeer’s personal best quickly came under scrutiny after eagle-eyed observers noticed something seriously off about her race.
- A closer look at her marathon data revealed a bizarre red flag that made her impressive final stretch increasingly difficult to explain.
- Her scandal joins a long list of notorious marathon controversies involving runners like Joasia Zakrzewski and Rob Sloan.
One person quipped, “A fitness influencer who, even when cheating, barely breaks 5 hrs? Pathetic. Lol.”
A Chinese fitness influencer celebrated a “personal best” before bizarre cheating accusations surrounding her marathon time emerged
The Chinese fitness influencer, who has built a sizable following on Xiaohongshu, also known as RedNote, shared her result online and presented it as a personal best.
Her post reportedly featured the caption “Slow is fast,” adding an unintentionally ironic touch to the celebration that followed.
But the apparent achievement soon came under scrutiny after photographs from the race surfaced online, showing Abeeeer riding on the back of a bicycle during the course.
The incident occurred near the 38-kilometer mark of the 42.195-kilometer race, when runners would normally be approaching the final stretch on foot.
Rather than continuing on foot, Abeeeer was photographed sitting on the back of a friend’s bicycle while still wearing her race bib.
Reports said she felt physically unwell during the later stages of the marathon and accepted the ride around the 35-kilometer mark.
She then reportedly got off the bicycle before completing the race on foot, eventually crossing the finish line with the 4:53:46 time attached to her result.
Now-viral photos showed the influencer riding pillion on a bicycle during the marathon’s final stretch
The shortcut might have remained a bizarre footnote if not for another detail in her race data.
The Official Marathon Time Integrity Unit, or OMTIU, flagged a particularly suspicious part of Abeeeer’s timing data.
According to The Independent, she completed the stretch between the 35km and 40km checkpoints in just 30 minutes and 49 seconds.
That was reportedly her fastest 5K split of the entire race.
The timing was especially striking because this was also the section where photographs showed her riding on the back of the bicycle.
The sudden burst of speed during the final kilometers of a marathon raised obvious questions about how she achieved the result.
The story quickly became a source of mockery online, with many viewers struggling to understand how someone could attempt such an obvious shortcut during a major marathon.
“This is some Looney Tunes sh*t,” one commenter wrote, adding, “The only thing worse than influencers are the influenced.”
Abeeeer issued an apology to the fitness community and her fans, calling her actions “a very dishonest act”
Another joked, “Back in the day, this only been found in cartoon... That’s not a marathon lol.”
“This is hilarious, but it makes me sad that people (mostly women) who actually finished the marathon experienced worse treatment and mockery,” a third commented.
One blunt comment read, “[She] only apologizes cause she was caught lol.”
“The funniest part is how utterly mid her time is. You’d think a fitness influencer who cheated would do significantly better than 4:53…”
The evidence eventually forced Abeeeer to delete her celebratory race posts and address what had happened publicly.
On October 3, she reportedly posted an apology on RedNote, admitting she violated the rules after feeling unwell toward the end of the race.
“I will not make any defense for the above behavior,” she wrote, according to The Independent, adding that she had committed “a very dishonest act” and “violated the sporting spirit of fair marathon competition.”
She also acknowledged that concealing the bike ride while publicly sharing her race achievement was dishonest.
Exactly a day later, on October 4, Brooks China announced that it had terminated its partnership with the influencer.
In a public statement, the sportswear brand said, “[We] offer our sincere apology regarding this matter.”
“Brooks has always clearly opposed and will never tolerate any behavior that violates the rules of the race and the spirit of sports. Upon learning of [the] situation, we immediately terminated our partnership with this individual and will never cooperate with them again in the future.”
The company also described its failure to thoroughly examine the relevant information as “an oversight on our part” and said it was reviewing the incident.
Viewers mocked the bizarre shortcut while questioning why she “apologized only after being caught”
Abeeeer is far from the first runner to discover that taking a shortcut can turn a triumphant finish into a very public embarrassment.
In 2023, Scottish ultramarathon runner Joasia Zakrzewski was disqualified from the GB Ultras 50-mile race after her tracking data showed she had traveled part of the course at an impossible speed.
She later admitted to riding in a friend’s car for a section of the race, yet she had initially accepted the third-place trophy before the result was overturned.
Then there was British runner Rob Sloan, whose 2011 Kielder Marathon scam was almost cartoonishly elaborate.
After reportedly dropping out around the 20-mile mark, he boarded a spectator bus, got off near the finish, hid behind a tree, and then rejoined the course before sprinting across the line to claim third place.
The scale of cheating has also been staggering.
Organizers reportedly disqualified around 11,000 runners from the 2023 Mexico City Marathon after electronic tracking data revealed widespread course-cutting, with participants accused of using bicycles, cars, and public transportation to skip sections of the route.
“So dumb, but a tiny part of me loves the delusion that she thought she could pull this off. Girl what?” one netizen joked
