To be honest, I can't really imagine going for a nice run in the park without listening to my favorite music, stored onto my player. Plus, I'm pretty sure most people who opt for such healthy activities do the same.

However, it looks like listening to music while running is in fact forbidden if you're doing so in a pro manner, namely when involved in some official competition. So, according to the online edition of the Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, a woman was disqualified after winning the local Lakefront Marathon simply for listening to music on her iPod while running.

The person in question, 27-year-old Jennifer Goebel, was spotted wearing an iPod in one of the race's official photos, and was subsequently disqualified, much to her surprise. And while you might wonder just why this happened, the answer is in fact a fairly simple one: she was an elite athlete.

So, apparently, in the officially USA Track and Field sanctioned competitions, the use of an iPod (or any other electronic device, for that matter) is forbidden for top runners, because it might provide them with an unfair advantage, namely the possibility of listening to pre-recorded instructions that would allow them to know just how to pace themselves through various stages of the respective race. However, mid-pack runners are allowed to use their iPods or music players freely, probably because they don't stand a chance of winning the respective races anyway.

Unfortunately for Jennifer Goebel, the Lakefront Marathon serves as the Wisconsin USATF marathon championship.

P.S. It's somewhat hilarious to mention that Jennifer Goebel was not the original winner of this race. The fastest person in the competition, 23-year-old student Cassie Peller, was also disqualified for receiving help from outside the competition in the form of a bottle of water. There really are some tough rules in this marathon, it would seem.


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