Just because someone “wins” a long-distance race, that doesn’t mean they actually ran it.

Take the guy who captured third place in a British marathon in 2011, then admitted he’d secretly hopped on a bus for the last six or so miles.

Last November, more than 200 people were busted for cheating during a half-marathon in the Chinese city of Shenzen: taking shortcuts through bushes, making U-turns before they were supposed to and even acting as “bib mules,” meaning they ran wearing other competitors’ numbers.

For the Chinese Athletic Association, enough is enough. According to the BBC, three Chinese nationals who sneaked into the 2019 Boston Marathon Monday — two with forged certificates, one via bib muling — have been “banned from all future races” because “they had a ‘negative impact’ on China in the international community.”

As part of China’s quest to catch cheats, some marathoners are being tracked via facial recognition software, while the Guardian reports that other are being made to wear “electronic chips that register runners’ progress as they pass over timing mats.”

And if that doesn’t do the trick, there is always good old-fashioned shaming. China’s Xinhua news agency quoted the organizer of the 2018 Shenzen marathon: “We deeply regret the violations that occurred during the event. Marathon running is not simply exercise. It is a metaphor for life and every runner is responsible for him or herself.”