LRC visitors, it seems most of you think he is a fraud. How confident are you that he is a fraud?
Very confident. Every aspect of this guy's persona is that of a grifter.
The guy absolutely will not release his data files (watch & whoop, etc) for analysis. If his claims are legitimate, the data would effectively be the best possible evidence to substantiate his records. Moreover, the guy claims to be running to raise money for cancer, and yet he's posting pictures drinking beers and smoking cigarettes, which seriously undermines his credibility (both alcohol and smoking are cited as presenting significant risk factors for various cancers -- why post those pictures on your quest to raise money for cancer research?).
Exactly.
The problem with con men is, that they are so convincingly "friendly and honest".
I have never seen a multiday runner as fresh as Goodge in the middle or at the end of race. If nothing else, that alone gave it away. And lets not forget that he got sunburn 4 weeks into a run across Australia. That is impossible if you spend 12+ hours outside everyday.
But hey, he did it to "honor his mom", so it must be real.
Speaking of frauds, whatever happened to Robbie Young? Is he still peddling his phony memoir and making absurd claims about his running prowess and the legitimacy of his trans-con attempt?
Grifters have all gotten very brazen in the era of unchecked social media. The consequences are almost never realized - even when evidence is against them. You can now invent your own truth and people will buy it.
This guy is absolutely a cheat. Without question. Yet people want to believe him, so they will - no matter what.
not true as no one would ever say to dad "hey let's fake a run in honor"
Sometimes the nut doesn’t fall too far from the tree. You would be surprised how far some parents go to “support” their children.
To understand Goodge, his dad, and everyone else connected to his endeavors, you need to start with the psychology of the "content creator".
If you see your mission as one of creating compelling, moving narratives online, the distinction between truth and falsity becomes irrelevant, or at least no more relevant than it would be to someone making a biopic or other form of entertainment based on real events.
When addressed by mainstream media, Goodge continually deflects from the athletic side of his stunts to the fundraising side, and to the story about his mother in particular. In these instances, I don't think it bothers him, or even necessarily crosses his mind, that he has not actually done what he's claiming to have done athletically. In his mind, he has done what he set out to do, which is to create compelling online content and engagement, the quality of which is measured by his number of followers, which is in turn measured by the value of his "brand partnerships". I'm sure everyone involved, including his dad, recognize that it's THIS, and not doing the actual athletic thing in its entirety, that is the point. And their collective conscience, if they have one at all, is probably salved a little by the fact that he probably did do a fair bit of running both in the US and AUS.
But the truth that he actually knows he's a fraud when it comes to the athletic side is revealed in his engagement with the running community, whom he knows are not and never will be the target audience for his content. Where he is earnest, even angelic, in his presentation to mainstream media like CNN, he is sneering, arrogant, and dismissive toward actual runners. It's as if he's giving us all a knowing wink, acknowledging that he's a fraud but at the same time taunting us because he's getting away with it. (Note that in the interview posted, he cops to drinking a beer or two at the end of the day but not to smoking cigarettes-- something he pointedly does to troll actual runners).
If anyone, Goodge's dad included, really cared about the athletic side of what he's doing, and about what actual runners think, they would go to whatever lengths necessary to substantiate what he claims to have done. That they haven't tells you all you need to know.
This post was edited 3 minutes after it was posted.
Amazing how things like this can get big enough to go on CNN but no independent person can just run with him for a few days. What is 'transcon'? America? Arent at least half of the users on this forum american? Can't any of you take time off from trolling on letsrun and go and run with him? or if you are not a runner (most likely) then drive by the side of him?
From what I've read about the HR data it's an obvious fraud, I guess the writer who wrote the CNN piece is not a runner otherwise they'd know straight away not to give his exploits any attention just by looking at the heart rate drop to 110 as his pace increases
👎 performs at a level in unmonitored transcons that he can’t replicate in sanctioned races
👎 insufficient proof that he did what he claims to have done
👎 impossible heart rate data
👎 doesn’t show the bodily wear & tear of having done a transcon
👎 obviously doing these stunts for money and attention
Despite suspicions on previous transcon runs, he has done nothing to mitigate the suspicions, e.g. providing live video feeds, access to all of his running data, lack of open invitation for visitors to stop by and run with him at any point along the way, etc.
People that questioned his feat were blocked on his social media
Amazing how things like this can get big enough to go on CNN but no independent person can just run with him for a few days. What is 'transcon'? America? Arent at least half of the users on this forum american? Can't any of you take time off from trolling on letsrun and go and run with him? or if you are not a runner (most likely) then drive by the side of him?
From what I've read about the HR data it's an obvious fraud, I guess the writer who wrote the CNN piece is not a runner otherwise they'd know straight away not to give his exploits any attention just by looking at the heart rate drop to 110 as his pace increases
Quick review: Someone actually did attempt to monitor him for a few days during his Transcon (run across the continental US). He was ordinary while being observed (as well as hostile to observation) and extraordinary again once the observer had left. And, in AUS, he specifically asked people NOT to approach him to run once he had entered the more populated sections of his run, after having inviting anyone and everyone to view and run with him in the sections that were hundreds of kms and many hours of driving away from any significant city or town.
And you're right. He's a fraud hiding in plain sight.
This post was edited 35 seconds after it was posted.
👎 performs at a level in unmonitored transcons that he can’t replicate in sanctioned races
👎 insufficient proof that he did what he claims to have done
👎 impossible heart rate data
👎 doesn’t show the bodily wear & tear of having done a transcon
👎 obviously doing these stunts for money and attention
Despite suspicions on previous transcon runs, he has done nothing to mitigate the suspicions, e.g. providing live video feeds, access to all of his running data, lack of open invitation for visitors to stop by and run with him at any point along the way, etc.
So he took a nice road trip across Australia with his friends, and took some photos of him running along the way for social media. How many times have we seen this, now?
Despite suspicions on previous transcon runs, he has done nothing to mitigate the suspicions, e.g. providing live video feeds, access to all of his running data, lack of open invitation for visitors to stop by and run with him at any point along the way, etc.
So he took a nice road trip across Australia with his friends, and took some photos of him running along the way for social media. How many times have we seen this, now?
to be fair, driving across australia is a decent feat
For those of you who haven't read it, the article talks about how the first few days were hard but then he hit his stride. How after each day he'd have a beer or two. And how he kept reminding himself, running isn't nearly as his hard as his mom fighting cancer.
CNN wrote:
“Seeing her fight cancer the way she did – and obviously I was with her through the end-of-life care – I have an ignorance to my own suffering,” says Goodge. “I’ve seen someone go through worse, and the fact that I choose to do this kind of thing means that when it does get tough, I can think back to that or think about my mom.
“I have no reason to complain or whine or moan, just keep pushing forward. And I feel like she’s with me there every step of the way.”
Near the end, they talk about cheating:
CNN wrote:
Specifically, some members of the ultrarunning community think that Goodge’s endurance runs, his pace and the accompanying heart-rate data he posts online, are too good to be true.
The most vocal skeptic, runner and athletics writer Will Cockerell, even flew from the United Kingdom to the US during Goodge’s run across America to check that the 31-year-old was completing the runs himself, not sharing the watch tracking his progress between members of his team.
The encounter and allegation from Cockerell, described as “watch muling,” is captured on video, though Cockerell found no direct evidence of cheating.
Goodge has strenuously denied the claims, hitting out against “self-proclaimed experts” who “say they know everything about heart rate.” He also points to the reason that he’s running in the first place.
“It’s so intertwined with the passing of my mom and trying to make that more than just a sad story,” says Goodge. “It kind of disgusts me that people would think I would cheat and use my mom’s death as a reason to either build my profile, say I’m getting a record, or profit from it. I find that extremely disgusting and probably not everyone knows that.
“But also, I can appreciate the fact that people probably don’t like me, which is totally fine. I definitely don’t fit in the ultrarunner box. I don’t kind of look like one, and I certainly don’t act like one. So it’s going to come with the territory, and that’s fine.”
The article also talks about how he's not good in races:
CNN wrote:
Another criticism Goodge often faces is that his performances in solo challenges seem superior compared to where he has placed at races – though that’s something he says he hopes to address. To date, his best race result is an 11th-place finish at last year’s Moab 240, a notorious 240-mile ultramarathon in Utah.
“I’m a better athlete now than I was then,” says Goodge. “So maybe at some of these races … I could be looking for podiums, not just be that guy that’s run across some countries and has one record. Be like: no, I’m a serious player in one of the real race formats as well. I think that would make me a more well-rounded athlete and taken maybe more seriously again.”
And then talks about how he's trying to get it ratfied by Guinness and has signed witness statements/
LRC visitors, it seems most of you think he is a fraud. How confident are you that he is a fraud?
I mean it seems quite brazen for him to have his father as part of the team and say he's inspired by your dead mother. How would you get everyone else on board? I can only imagine what my own father would say to me if my mom was dead and I said, "Hey let's fake a run in honor."
What do you think armstrong tells his kids about all the times he used them as a defence. These cheats don't care.
just saw this on CNN and prompted me to come back to check in on you guys. i followed the "Transcon Goodge run, currently ongoing" thread for like a year. i was so enraptured. is willvlc still here? has anyone thrown any rocks at him yet? please sticky this.
Heartrate data is all over the map and meaningless. Didn't thousands of people see him running in a transcontinental run? If not, then what? Were there not observers and local news articles along the way?
I read a few articles on the subject. He's averaging 11:12/mile, so that part doesn't sound unlikely at all to have a low heartrate. You could imagine that someone who is not particularly fast at running (2:57) because of fat and muscle might have greater stores for endurance. On the plus side as well, you had various people show up and run with him until he stopped allowing that at a certain point. They saw him running, not riding slowly in a van, like Young. The only really damning data that I saw was the 80km/h speeds popping up, don't know for how long. That right there demands an explanation, though I'm sure they would just say that they were driving back to a restaurant or the like and then heading back to the point at which he stopped running.
I read a few articles on the subject. He's averaging 11:12/mile, so that part doesn't sound unlikely at all to have a low heartrate. …
I don’t think it was just the sense of: “hey, that looks like a low heart rate.” If I remember correctly from the other thread, it’s that it’s basically very low in sections when he’s not observed, higher at other times, and that he either shows higher heart rates (or simply doesn’t share heart rate data) when he’s been in sanctioned, monitored runs, so that if you even factor in different paces at those runs, the difference is very, very suspicious. But I may be remembering incorrectly or could be wrong about details overall.
Amazing how things like this can get big enough to go on CNN but no independent person can just run with him for a few days. What is 'transcon'? America? Arent at least half of the users on this forum american? Can't any of you take time off from trolling on letsrun and go and run with him? or if you are not a runner (most likely) then drive by the side of him?
From what I've read about the HR data it's an obvious fraud, I guess the writer who wrote the CNN piece is not a runner otherwise they'd know straight away not to give his exploits any attention just by looking at the heart rate drop to 110 as his pace increases
Quite hard to fully monitor someone, even just for a few days. Check out Laz's recap of the Rob Young saga below. It's an extremely interesting read:
