"The first year we sucked completely. He had really bad shin splints and we had to walk a bunch. Last year, we did much better," she said. "This year, we were hoping to improve on our time and we trained really hard together; but he got shin splints again and couldn't run the race, so I took his chip. It was his way of running with me."

Official race results show Deck finished in three hours, 23 minutes in 2015, then improved to just over two-and-a-half hours the following year — good enough for 204th place among women finishers.

A top-10 finish, for which she was initially credited on Sunday, would have been an improbable improvement.

"I didn't do it to intentionally hurt anyone or screw up anyone else's results," she said. "I wasn't trying to qualify for anything or win any money."

Race director Anna Lewis says Deck was disqualified because her timing chip didn't register a time at the 20-km mark. She says Deck sent an email to organizers explaining the situation and apologizing for her actions.

Lewis says it's not a common occurrence, but there have been other examples of runners crossing the finish line without completing the entire course. Most people, however, take off their timing chip first. She said despite the indiscretion, Deck won't be prevented from running the race in the future.

"I think there are a lot of competitive people that want to be in that top 10 and when they see someone who may not have earned it, they get upset," Lewis said. "I understand that, but I don't know if there was an intent to cheat."

But Deck says given all that's happened, she doesn't think she'll be back at Around the Bay next year.

"Everyone is calling me a cheater and it's eating me alive. The guilt is terrible and nobody believes me," she said.

"This has been horrible."

dedwards@thespec.com

905-526-2481 | @scratchingpost