Another run across America underway - is it legit? Boots currently on the ground

Goodge and his camp will clearly deny, deny, deny til the bitter end, that's a given. Most of his supporters will dismiss the skeptics as haters regardless of what evidence may surface.

Several media outlets are investigating this, that has been confirmed already.

I think a wildcard in all of this are the technology companies, especially any which have sponsored. They have the resources and know how to bring this to a new level. It seems plausible that some will not take kindly to these "tech fail" allegations.

There is a basic tenet that is best illustrated in computer security. If the methodology and code is not open, how can the system or process be trusted? Alternatively in examinations If you can't show your workings, you get zero marks.

This is a very interesting angle that I didn't consider. I think the best case scenario for Goodge and Co. is that they may get away from this with nothing but bad press and fat wallets. However, it seems unlikely that moving forward any type of running company will want to touch them with a 10ft pole, especially if their best defense is, "Our sponsors' technology didn't work." Then the running grift is up. Maybe there's more fitness-avenues to exploit, it seems influencers can always find something new. Maybe supplements, those are a hot market, especially for the past few years in the influencer sphere.

Am I not the learned teacher here giving you all an examination to see if you actually understand? Teachers don't have to show their work, that is for you pupils to do and learn from it. And so far this teacher sees that you are all lazy and shortsighted to not even be able to do what I do.

I saw the "run to the finish" with WG promoted somewhere by Rich Roll. Seemed odd. Googled "Rich Roll Whoop". Whoop is a sponsor of Rich Roll. I think the interesting story in all of this is the role Social Media now plays in endurance events and the emergence of the "Endurance Influencer". Transcons by their nature are low key - mostly solo endeavors of self discovery and transformation. This journey for better or worse has been highly promoted, highly sponsored and highly produced. This isn't the first event of its kind and it won't be the last.

You bore people. Thats what you do.

OK. The tracker is sitting at Courtyard by Marriott in West Orange NJ. It has been there one hour and has logged 60 miles for the day. We can assume they are done cheating for the day.

We have to have runners in this area. These guys are making a mockery of the hallowed transcon. They are making the event look like Tiger Woods playing mini put golf. They are laughing at the running community. The only question is: Will the letsrun community stand for it? Will we care enough for our beloved sport of running?

If so, lets get some eyeballs on this crew and catch them in the act. Lets get some video. Some pics. These guys are way to cocky and they will trip up. Especially after they have a few late mile beers. Lets get on it! Boots on the ground damnit.

I'm kind of glad that Sneakers has given up his quasi-reasonable tone and has gone full on batty and hostile. We've got under his skin enough to make him drop his pretense of being impartial, and now we see him for the super-shill that he truly is. He'll obviously keep posting, as any cornered dog will continue to snarl, even if it's about to be captured and put down. But it's so painfully obvious that all that he can produce is bluster and weak insults. For a self-proclaimed genius, he has the argumentative skills of third-grader.

Could one of us donate to his “fundraiser” and then file a civil suit against them? It would force them to produce evidence of the endeavor’s legitimacy and maybe more people would jump on the bandwagon when they realize their donated dollars went to frauds who just want to vacation for a year…

Ok. His run is up on Strava. Look at that distinct pattern difference in heart rate!

Step back and look at the graph of heart rate from mile 1-20. 20-50. Then 50-60. What is causing that? NuCalm Nap? A different runner patched in on that segment?

Mile 1-20 look normal. As does 50-60.

Compare mile 9 and 23 from today’s run:

Mile 9 - Pace 13:21, elev. gain 135ft, HR 134

Mile 23 - Pace 13:21, elev. gain 230ft, HR 107!!!!!

It is absolutely bonkers they’re continuing on with this farce.

Look for tomorrow’s run to be very different. You will not see the heart rate variations. It will likely look just like day #1.

He will need to do the last day clean because he has invited others and of course cameras will be rolling all day. Just like day 1

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I have no idea what Pete's like as a person, but he sure as hell seems to be the completely genuine article in his running, and his record Trans-con (which I joined for a few miles on his last day) appeared to be as real as it gets.

How the hell does a guy like that end up supporting an obvious, transparent scumbag fraud like Goodge?? (And even insulting and trashing and trying to discredit the folks who are admirably trying to expose him.)

And I had no idea Pete was best pals with Goodge's scumbag partner (who's a completely obvious co-conspirator in this massive fraud), but, again, how the hell does someone who does what Pete has done end up best pals with (and on-line defender of) a piece of sh*t like that --who's trashing and despoiling and making a mockery of the sport and endeavor Pete seems to love so much and be so passionate about??

Wouldn't you think Goodge and his pal B, and the massive fraud they're perpetrating, would be absolute *anathema* to someone like Pete??

It's seriously beyond me. I'd love to hear any theories.

It isn't directly measured, but it normalizes the pace to avoid fights about low heart rates appearing only on downhills.

No, I'm not lieing. Just taking the piss. There is a difference.

But who are you? And why do you want the video so very desperately?

Yeah, when I followed one of his links I went back to near the beginning of the thread, and I'd forgotten that Sneakers actually sounded fairly reasonable at first, before he started losing his sh*t and behaving like a moron.

If he really was unconnected with the crew in any way why would he have started getting so angry and abusive? He is clearly rattled and sh*tting his pants.

It was when he suddenly out of the blue had a dig at 'woke runners like Kara Goucher', that I first thought, 'actually, this guy seems like a bit of a idiot'. I still don't know what Kara Goucher has to do with this Transcon!

Simple answer, no.

Regarding media coverage, for what it's worth Bad Boy Running, a British podcast, have had to take down episode 471 during which they discussed this issue at quite some length.
From what I remember they didn't actually name Goodge or come down strongly on one side of the fence or the other of the debate, but they did talk about some of the red flags that have been raised here.
The two hosts carefully talk about related matters from minute 21 onwards of episode 473, mostly discussing the ethics of using GoFundMe for charity fundraising events in general.

Morning all! Into the last dance... a grim proposition in some ways, but it'll still have a compelling narrative power of its own. A crucial thing to note is that if his HR is really low, or crashes, don't worry, it's simply them tampering because they know full well that if they're surround by 200 people trotting along and he is suddenly at 150-160 for the last 10 miles, it will look serious bad for them. We have very much seen that they love to point to data fails when accompanied as a sign that it's that. If there was ever a time for RB and WG to slip a piece of paper between the wrist and the sensor, it is now.

As things have gone mad on here in the last few days, what we have seen is a total mishmash, hotchpotch of everything. Lots of human pulse, lots of not. This is them trying to make things more believable, but not too believable, otherwise it goes too far into the other direction - as it was for my first 3 days of observation, and on days 13 and 17 when I insisted by letter that they behave. They have learnt from that.

The blueprint for all this is RBs 2019 Transcon, upon which he went into partnership with WG and travelled to the UK to assist him on his Jogle as a novice a few months later up which he promptly collapsed. The HRs on those two events is far more crass, blatant, and less refined that here. There is no attempt to shield or mask, just a total mess.

Check out Balenger's last 5 days of Transcon [not his last day [30k], that was perfectly fine at 130]:

102 97 104 100 105

Now check out Goodge's last 5 days at Jogle:

107 108 98 109 117

As you can see, nigh on identical. He hit 100k for the 109, as a novice who had done 54k in 13:30 earlier in the challenge. There is some credible HR for the 117 - he goes in the 160s three times, hence its slightly higher rate. But after the 18th mile of having averaged 150 for the day, he then crashes and runs at 100 for the rest. He goes out in 6:08 and comes back in, you guessed it, 6:08.

Anyway! Yesterday was a very strong day for us sleuths. We have seen so very little Whoop data, but when we do it's pure bloody gelignite.

The May 22 glimpse showed he was missing over 3 hours of running, which is a massive insight, and of course much of that is during the Nucalm nap where you can't be caught out by someone popping up unexpectedly.

We also have the calories data, which is fascinating. With me in observation he burns 9,300 calories per day, but in May, when he hit ignite for this magisterial 5 day negative split, he only burns 5000 or so.

And we got the famous "Ode to May 19", the perfect microcosm of all this. What a set of data:

Strava? Fail - totally unclean data.

Whoop? Fail - totally unclean data. [3,000 calories consumed]

Tracker? Fail - goes off the entire day.

Route? Bizarre and inexplicable. They go off on a wild and crazy detour up north, RB has him marching up and down mountains, but in a piece to camera he just says: "we've decided to just put Central Park into Google - you know what, at this stage? F*ck it."

The up-down arrows for the last five pages have been:

Pro WG 70
Ante WG 1232

So some 5.3% on here are happy about this, which is the sense I get. The hardcore of Sneakers, Recruiter, PK and 50+, but really not too many more.

Have a good day everyone, will be fascinating to hear what they have to say about the British record... 7 weeks ago, Balenger promised me that they would give a big eulogy to Bruce on the last day as they ran him down [as they were so very certain that they would].