This thread was originally titled, "Incredible development in the $612,000 Transcon Goodge run, currently ongoing" but the new title is more descriptive. The description of the run is here.
So let me get the point of this message board. The belief if the Transcon was faked? Or that he's a thief? When he donates the total sum to charity will you delete this accusation? Pretty libellous that.
Seeing as neither of his charities are mentioning him on their social media feeds, I don't think they're engaged...
When you talk about the levels of scrutiny he’s under. Are you talking about just his particular message board? Because there’s nothing in the news about this scandal over here in the UK. I don’t think this is as big a deal as this message board would have you believe. And when the money goes to charity, perhaps it’s because that’s where it was always going not because five blokes on here think they’ve cracked a major case and Will G has done an about turn. But I guess just like all conspiracy theorists the goalposts keep changing to suit their narrative.
You might be right about the scrutiny… but same for the endeavor; not that big a deal. But his cheating will likely eventually be exposed more broadly.
It's weird that the fake Transcon is over, and both the positive and negative hype has died down instantly. It's definitely disappointing that we never got a clear "gotcha" moment which clearly and inarguably revealed Goodge to be cheating. But the mountains and mountains of circumstantial evidence compiled in this thread should make it clear to anyone with a functioning brain and a lack of bias that Goodge is one of the biggest cheats in endurance running history, someone who brings shame to the sport.
But despite this disappointment, I would like to say a massive THANK YOU to Will C. for bringing this outrageous scam to our attention in the first place. He was the only one of us (other than Goodge apologists) to actually go through the considerable effort of finding the Goodge caravan and witnessing the shenanigans in person. He followed them for days, despite active resistance and threats of violence. He spent a lot of time analyzing data--data which is absolutely filthy with unexplained abnormalities. Some criticized Will C. for fixating on the data, but it's clear that the damning data was a genuine reflection of the nefarious nature of the run itself. There was no tech fail--it was a tech scam.
The thing that makes me truly happy about Will C.'s efforts is that he caused the Goodge crew to LIVE IN FEAR for most of their fake Transcon. The Goodge stooges were forced to change their behavior, change their route, and continually have to watch their backs for fear of someone catching them in the act while cheating. Their paid American road trip vacation was transformed into an unpleasant slinking about, the fear of being found out constant, sucking all the fun and joy out of their trip. What a nightmare their experience must have been. Imagine them obsessively reading this Letsrun thread, seeing all the incredulousness and anger directed at them. That couldn't have been good for their mental states. I'm proud to have helped poke fun at them with a few posts. They deserved all the mockery they received. What they did was not harmless--they stole money, and they dishonored the efforts of people who ACTUALLY ran across America.
So THANK YOU Will C., and thank you everyone else who made positive contributions to this thread. The thread may have fizzled, but so did Goodge's fake Transcon. Goodge and Balenger may go on to do more scams, but they always be WATCHING THEIR BACKS and LIVING IN FEAR!
Agreed. Another positive is that he doesn't seem to be getting nearly the hype / attention he should have for such a feat, especially considering his "following".
His donations pages are also severely lacking with £48k + $28k totals. Still A LOT of money, but a far cry from the 500k target.
Lastly - interesting that Recruiter and Sneakers have both gone dead quiet ever since the support crew haven't been sitting around in a van with nothing to do for hours on end each day... coincidence? ;)
Well, he's front page of the Daily Telegraph's website and it says that he broke Bruce Tulloh's record by ten days. Also, lots of comments saying how amazing he is etc. Headline calls him a "Real Life Forest Gump". Same thing in the Daily Mirror. Both rags rarely fact-check anything.
William Goodge reached New York City on Saturday, having spent almost 56 days running from Los Angeles. His dad and brother waited for him to cross the finish line before giving him a big hug
Hi all, many thanks for some very kind words in recent comments.
I see Poppycock has commented on the Mirror's website, and I have placed this on the Telegraph's. See what gives I guess... Feel free to comment as well, this could be one of the mainstream media breakthroughs that we're after:
Hi all, author of the Greatest Marathon Races of All Time here. There are grave concerns about this run from the running community: He painted on the side of his bus that he would defeat Tulloh [who many will recall as one of Britain's finest distance runners, and European Champion]. They actually got their research wrong though and the British record is John Lees in 53 days. When apprised of this at half way Goodge and his crew simply recalibrated and he did an enormous acceleration and almost got Lees [out in 30 days, back in 25].
He refused to wear a tracker despite them being 35g and designed to place on the collar of a cat, he did not return a human pulse for most of the days [100-110bpm for instead of the expected 130+], and when we got rare glimpses of his Whoop data, he only burnt between 3-5000 calories a day, but when I observed him for a few days in Oklahoma it was at 9,300. Also, his Whoop on May 22 showed just 9 hours of running for the day, but his Strava showed 12hrs30. WG has no known form for ultrarunning, and could only manage 35 hours for Marathon des Sables, to the winner's 18, losing by 5 hours to a W45 4 hour marathoner.
This run places him in the top 10 USA crossers of all time out of around 1,000 who have tried. His also has grave inconsistencies in other challenges of this ilk over the last 4 years which also concern to the community. Him and his crew chief are social media influencers and his chief did a challenge last year to beat a Tesla in a race. He "won", according to a media report. This run has triggered one of the largest threads in history at Letsrun - "Another run across America"
Agreed. Another positive is that he doesn't seem to be getting nearly the hype / attention he should have for such a feat, especially considering his "following".
His donations pages are also severely lacking with £48k + $28k totals. Still A LOT of money, but a far cry from the 500k target.
Lastly - interesting that Recruiter and Sneakers have both gone dead quiet ever since the support crew haven't been sitting around in a van with nothing to do for hours on end each day... coincidence? ;)
Well, he's front page of the Daily Telegraph's website and it says that he broke Bruce Tulloh's record by ten days. Also, lots of comments saying how amazing he is etc. Headline calls him a "Real Life Forest Gump". Same thing in the Daily Mirror. Both rags rarely fact-check anything.
I think some people were a bit quick to declare a lack of media interest. I've commemted on the Mirror aricle but I'm not subscribed to the Telegraph.
Goodge has got loads of media publicity over the last few years. The type of publicity you can only get if you are chasing it. Here a national TV company's website tells how a national newspaper has shortlisted him for an award for his charity work.
Will Goodge from Bedfordshire has raised £75,000 for a cancer charity in memory of his mum, and has been nominated for a Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Award. | ITV News Anglia
William Goodge has set out to be the fastest British person of all time to run across America in under 60 days. The fitness influencer tells Fox News Digital how his struggle is a tribute to those battling cancer.
Well the final youtube video is up. There are many things to comment on. But I am struck again by the huge size of this operation. Throughout the video we get a fuller view of his crew. There is one shot where 6 people are wearing black and running with him (+1 for the camera man). And at least 4-5 of them look like athletic runner types. (perfectly able to gather some daily watch data for strava). And this is not counting the family visitors that assisted. This is more crew than Lance Armstrong used during his tours?? Which was a multi-million dollar heavily sponsored (cheating) operation. What is the purpose of such a massive operation when you are simply running ,eating and sleeping? That's it. You are not even competing in a real race with competitors. And there is no event, no media, no fans, nothing. How can all these people just quit their lives and sit in a moving caravan for 55 days and do essentially nothing at all for 12 hours per day? Why would they? The videos have repeatedly tried to tell a captivating story of a frantic, mission critical operation with many, many wheels turning behind the scene to make all of this happen. It's all BS. Other Ultra runners ran across the country with no such thing. You need shoes, hydration, food and rest.
We will never see the profit and loss balance sheet in this business venture. But I can't imagine this was a big money maker for them. I did see the founder and CEO of NuCalm make an appearance. This reaffirms that Balenger and Goodge and not simply being sponsored. They are all in as employees of the snake oils sales. Maybe the $49.99 per month sales have skyrocketed and made this all worth their while.
Seeing as hes officially claiming a record for fastest Brit, he needs to be more thoroughly investigated.
Telegraph article:
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get”, as the infamous line from the 1994 Tom Hanks film, Forrest Gump goes. And this rings true for William Goodge, the man dubbed the ‘British Forrest Gump” as he became the fastest-ever Briton to run from LA to New York - after previously branding jogging boring. Just seven years ago he was a semi-professional rugby player who had never been on a solo run, and thought the pastime was “pointless”, he told the Telegraph. During his run, Mr Goodge said he went through 12 pairs of running shoes
But on Saturday, he completed his run in a staggering 55 days, 23 hours and 49 minutes, beating the previous record posted by Bruce Tulloh who did it in 65 days in 1969. Most remarkably, Mr Goodge, 29, who grew up in Ampthill, Bedfordshire, did the whole feat without too many issues. “I had pain in my knees and glutes throughout but interestingly I only got two blisters,” he told The Telegraph. ”I got one on my first day of running, I remember it popping as I ran down the hill, so I never used those shoes again.” Mr Goodge said he could truly be seen as the “British Forrest Gump” after being given the name by family members, friends and social media followers in the lead up to his challenge. He said: “I suppose it makes sense, he ran across America, I ran across America, but to be fair to him, I think he did it back and forth a few times.” In total, he ran through 13 states, clocking up a total of 3,175 miles, at a rate of 55 miles a day. He went through 12 pairs of running shoes and had to devour more than 7,000 calories to replace what he was losing every day, something he said was very difficult to do. He said: “It’s an eating competition too, food can make or break you, you need the fuel to carry on on something like this.” The feat is all the more spectacular due to the fact that Mr Goodge only started running five years ago after the death of his mother Amanda from Hodgkin lymphoma in January 2018. “I guess I started running after that because it gave me some kind of purpose,” he said. “If I’d be angry, I’d go for a run, sometimes I would run and cry but every run I went on, I felt a little bit better.” After running his first marathon in Christmas 2018, he decided to embark on his first ultra marathon and run the full length of the UK, from John O’Groats to Land’s End. This led to him pursuing the American adventure to raise money in memory of his mother. So far, he has raised just over £71,000 for MacMillan Cancer and the American Cancer Charity. Mr Goodge and his mum Amanda who died in 2018 And the adventure saw him take on many roles not least as an animal rescuer, having saved turtles and snakes trying to cross the road, and in one case a goat that had got itself stuck in a fence. He said: “I was on FaceTime with a friend at one point and I had seen a goat that had put its head through a fence and couldn’t get out, so I put the phone down, stopped my run, and helped it get its head back through.” Similarly to Forrest Gump, who amassed a group of runners to accompany him on the journey, people joined Mr Goodge at various stages of his journey, with more than 50 people running behind him as he crossed the finishing line. Mr Goodge, who is now a full-time ultra runner and part-time model, said he wants to take a bit of a break before his next challenges but already has some plans for what it could be. He said: “I don’t like to talk about plans until they actually happen but I’m thinking of running across Europe, not Russia though.”
Haven't really followed this much, but it looks questionable. Sad what people will do.
Pete Kostelnick knows how you do this stuff. Not only has he crossed the US coast to coast in record time, supported, he's done it NW to SE, solo. Plus he has the running cred to back it up anyway.
Haven't really followed this much, but it looks questionable. Sad what people will do.
Pete Kostelnick knows how you do this stuff. Not only has he crossed the US coast to coast in record time, supported, he's done it NW to SE, solo. Plus he has the running cred to back it up anyway.
Sadly, in a bizarre twist to this whole fiasco, someone claiming to be Kostelnick frequently posted in this thread in full and unequivocal support of Goodge. Someone else pointed out that Kostelnick is buddies with Robbie Belanger, Goodge's co-conspirator. You can't make this sh*t up.
Hello all! I promised someone that I would stop commenting since no one was changing their minds at his point. But I will do one final post…
The run is done. WG and many others either know/believe his did it all…every step of it. Others, like many on this thread, believe it was faked in one way or another. I am impressed with some of the creative ideas people have.
My hope for you all is that you go on living your life by enjoying the great outdoors with a run or a ride. My hope is that you continue to critique and evaluate the efforts of others. But, please do it in a non-destructive manner. Don’t just tear down for the sake of it. Don’t just take some one else’s opinion and make it your own. Make up your own minds.
Regardless of my opinions of his assertions, I do applaud WC for his efforts here. I only wish it would have been done from the perspective of an unbiased reporter. I am sure he is a fine man with solid convictions.
If I see any of you on Strava I will give you a thumbs up because any run is a good run. If you are ever in St. Louis, MO let me know and we can go for a run together.
I shall remain an unabashed positive person who believes in the best in people. Be well all!
I shall remain an unabashed positive person who believes in the best in people. Be well all!
Ruiz, Litton, Rossi, Young, Reading, Meza and at least a dozen more obscure cases I could name suggest that your stated approach gets it wrong more often than most people here.
I shall remain an unabashed positive person who believes in the best in people. Be well all!
Ruiz, Litton, Rossi, Young, Reading, Meza and at least a dozen more obscure cases I could name suggest that your stated approach gets it wrong more often than most people here.
That is a minuscule number compared to the many many who have done great things running.
But you further my point of too many here look for the negative rather than the positive. Not everyone does bad things.
That is a minuscule number compared to the many many who have done great things running.
But you further my point of too many here look for the negative rather than the positive. Not everyone does bad things.
Wrong, they are only some of the more notable who got caught. Every major marathon has cheating in the splits, then there are the people too clever to get caught and then there are those who are very suspicious.
That is a minuscule number compared to the many many who have done great things running.
But you further my point of too many here look for the negative rather than the positive. Not everyone does bad things.
Wrong, they are only some of the more notable who got caught. Every major marathon has cheating in the splits, then there are the people too clever to get caught and then there are those who are very suspicious.
Just as I was going to get out of this realm of negativity, here you go…
So let me understand your premise: I say there are a tiny portion of runners who have done bad things compared to the vast majority who have done great things. But your belief is that the majority is cheating in some fashion or at least very suspicious.
Let’s run a little math. If the NYC marathon has 50,000 runners, your belief a majority (min of 25,001 equals majority in case you need help with math) are cheating in some way?
