Cross-Canada record attempt, 7200K - 66 days. Current record by Al Howie 72 days

old man yells at cloud

LetsRun.com wrote:

We just published this on the front page.

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2018/07/co-founder-trans-american-footrace-doubts-current-trans-canada-record-attempt/

OK....I was going to let this drop but since he is now publically spreading lies about Dave, I'll defend Dave.

"When you post records of the run, don’t delete them! "

- Nothings been deleted. Every run so far on this run is available to the public on Strava. Since you're probably an older guy and less tech savy, I'll pass you the link (look at his history, all runs since June 27 are there)

"A log should at least include daily miles; start & finish; running time & stopped time; witnesses; and as much detail as you can manage."

-As seen above by GPS, this is more thorough than lets say his support crew writing something down as that can be manipulated. This shows pace, when he stopped/started, etc...

-His Instagram and Facebook pages have pictures/time stamps of location at start/end of each day

"Instead we’re given gps figures that show a pace much faster than Al’s, done start to finish without a break. It’s unbelievable. Following this, a huge rest is taken at night, as if the clock has stopped! But it’s ticking continuously for 10 weeks, which is why you have to grind it out for long, slow days. Six to eight hours of break at night is the rule."

- Sorry but just because he prefers to do it as one big block of a run vs. breaks in a day does not disprove anything. That's Dave's running style and like the big rest at night. There is no rule on how to do these runs and this is Dave's choice on how he wants to attack this cross-Canada run

"Even in 1991 we had cell phones, which are handy for press conferences. Yet Calgary has come and gone without much notice, a big missed opportunity for the charity. Maybe the charity could post a log?"

- ummm, there was a big event in Calgary and have been numerous other events on the way. Maybe if you looked it up you could see them. There have also been numerous interviews/articles along the way. Why don't you look these up?

"Who is the contact person and who are the crew? Are they all in Witness Protection?"

- He has a 2 person crew (Wayne & Trish Gaudet...very respected ultra runners). plus his wife and others all there along the way with dave.

If you want to contact them, email them.

All of this information is very readily available to the public but seems you are just throwing out false claims to cast a doubt on Dave's run without doing your homework.

Couple of questions for anyone in the know:

1. Why did Dave drop heart-rate stats after day one?

2. In the beginning of the run, the links to the Garmin tracking was still available

for days after the run. You could go back and see those. Why were they deleted? Why

are they now deleted post run? Don't understand the change.

3. July 1st - Why are there two David's that day on Strava?

4. Why does one say 40 miles and the other 53? Garmin showed 53.

5. Did Dave really average just over six minutes per mile from mile 40-53?

6. Why did he stop? His Strava shows a very smooth run - 53 miles at 8:08 pace. Most of us

would run forever if we could run like that.

7. Why after such a day, did he go onto Facebook and make like it had been a bad day and the

route needed rethinking, rest was needed, and he needed to listen to his body?

8. Can anyone explain the July 4th anomaly? Maybe not. It may have just been a quirk

in the streaming. Even so, this is an important day in the run so far, as he came back that day from

very low to very high mileage.

Since hitting the prairies, I don't see red flags, but orange ones - running so hard at the end of runs as if

it is a time-chipped race - stopping six miles short of destination, when you could walk and manage your

goal and a nice cool down to boot.

Anomalies can be explained. They happen. I see a guy running very hard. I agree on the course remarks, but that is

the nature of Guinness and what they do.

Thanks for the tech support. Of course I need it. The long blocks of running without breaks at such a pace seems certain to end in disaster. It did for the infamous Robert Young, same forum. There are endless ways to cheat, there’s only one way to do it right.

And don’t worry, the controversy & publicity will help the charity, and may make Dave and Al much more famous. Plenty of runners who hated me ran very well in my events (breaks up the monotony, I guess).

Global News coverage of the Calgary event:https://globalnews.ca/news/4318816/ultra-marathoner-dave-proctor-attempts-cross-canada-record/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Tron wrote:

Yet Calgary has come and gone without much notice, a big missed opportunity for the charity. Maybe the charity could post a log?"

- ummm, there was a big event in Calgary and have been numerous other events on the way. Maybe if you looked it up you could see them. There have also been numerous interviews/articles along the way. Why don't you look these up?

I wouldn't say I'm in the know, but follow his run closely and ran with him one of the days (he did have someone run with him almost everyday until Saskatchewan so useful witness)

1) don't know the answer to that

2) He has an external source updating links to the website. After the first few days they were asking Garmin if they could have one link that has all his runs vs. a new link everyday. I'm guessing that's why deleted. Remember this is just tracking for entertainment purposes....not official gps data. There are gaps in the tracking data as there needs to be a data connection to the phone he carries. His watch/strava is more of the official gps tracker

3) He has 2 Garmin watches on at all times and i know he has an old Dave strava account. guessing that it was linked to that on that day

4) not sure. one watch ran out of batteries?? just a guess

5) doubt it...probably a gps anomaly that we all get at times. His usually pace is somewhere between 5:50 -6:30/km

6) I know first week he was dealing with a few issues so perhaps that's why.

7) i think he was going through a bad time mentally on that day. He also had a injury around that time that needed treatment I think in both Revelstoke and Golden he had quite a bit of Physio treatment on the injury so probably cut short to deal with it...things started to turn both physically/mentally around on June 4 on his run to Golden (it was the first day without rain as well for Dave)

8) I thought July 4 was just a turning point in which he started to get in a groove

He did say it was really windy a couple days ago as there were tornado warnings in the area.....i posted a few days ago but apparently it was a huge tailwind the last 20km or so. Also remember he is mainly camping on this trip so sometimes he just stops at campground. Sometimes its shorter sometimes further. 6 miles is still an extra hour and he might just not have it in him

Here's my issue with any record attempt. Can anyone define the course?

So guy here says Al covered distance between nanaimo and Victoria. Al ran it the opposite way against prevaling winds.

So why say he's beating the record specifically al's.He may beat west to east record for shorter distance covered, Victoria instead of nanaimo.

I mean there's directional appalachian trail fkts.

Dave needs to say he's setting a new West to east record. Al keeps the traditional Atlantic to pacific record, the harder direction.

You’ll like me better, when more high-tech weigh in!

jesseriley wrote:

Thanks for the tech support. Of course I need it. The long blocks of running without breaks at such a pace seems certain to end in disaster. It did for the infamous Robert Young, same forum. There are endless ways to cheat, there’s only one way to do it right.

And don’t worry, the controversy & publicity will help the charity, and may make Dave and Al much more famous. Plenty of runners who hated me ran very well in my events (breaks up the monotony, I guess).

..Yeah, I guess we'll see if the long block of running each day will end in a good way for Dave or poorly. Not everyone is the same and this could work for Dave, no one knows for sure.

Of course there are endless ways to cheat. I just don't think there is any evidence against Dave at the moment and inappropriate for you to call him out based on no real facts. I do think Dave is doing it the right way. I'm not calling out Al or you at all, but it would have been much easier to cheat in 1991 vs now.

They’ve compared themselves to Al every way but on the course. Fondly looking back on those before, especially Terry Fox, is what makes it great.

different records here wrote:

Here's my issue with any record attempt. Can anyone define the course?

So guy here says Al covered distance between nanaimo and Victoria. Al ran it the opposite way against prevaling winds.

So why say he's beating the record specifically al's.He may beat west to east record for shorter distance covered, Victoria instead of nanaimo.

I mean there's directional appalachian trail fkts.

Dave needs to say he's setting a new West to east record. Al keeps the traditional Atlantic to pacific record, the harder direction.

yeah, I'd agree it's a different record based on a different direction. Isn't the most common way west to east for crossing the US? i think that's the direction Pete Kostelnick went.

I think Terry Fox’s personal preference was to run toward his home, and Al also lived in BC, but it’s purely personal preference.

I guess it depends whether you're saying you ran across Canada faster than anyone ever has, or you've got the record for doing so. Even if Dave betters Al's number of days I agree that it would be the West-to-East fastest that he could claim. There should be a separaterecord for each direction. Terry Fox, who was from BC, started east to west, so it was only natural that Steve Fonyo would do so as well. I think Fonyo also was living in BC by then. Al Howie lived in Victoria and he too ran east to west. It's sort of curious then that Dave is running west to east, since he's also from out west. Anybody know why? Did he want to get the mountains out of the way early?

Tron wrote:

yeah, I'd agree it's a different record based on a different direction. Isn't the most common way west to east for crossing the US? i think that's the direction Pete Kostelnick went.

What sort of background check did you do on this guy, his current mental health and the “facts” in the actual article he wrote before you decided to publish the article on your web site? Did you even speak with him personally? I’d get some legal advice, your disclaimer is crap. A quick read of the guys comments here and a review of the article he wrote should have set up some alarm bells for you guys. What professional threshold do you even have before publishing an article? None?

I’m the best-known guy here, reviled by runners around the world.

You’ll like me better, when you see how much publicity I can get you.

And no, there’s no free pass on a mythical, directional record.

I agree. I have been following this thread for the last week. The tone of jesseriley's posts clearly illustrates that he believes Dave to be cheating in multiple ways. He clearly states that data are being deleted in the article posted on the front page; this is patently false. He associates Dave's style of taking longer breaks at night with Robert Young, which is highly dubious and disrespectful. When called out, he shifts the argument to state that "controversy is good for the record and the charity."

The fact of the matter is that Dave and his crew have met (and in my opinion surpassed) the necessary criteria for documentation of this run. You are allowed to root against him because of your connection to Al (even though that comes across as a bit off), but please refrain from insinuating that Dave is cheating without appropriate evidence. It is disrespectful to Dave and all those that attempt this type of multi-day endurance feat (including the late Al Howie).

Anyone listen to this

http://tenjunkmiles.libsyn.com/long-run-55-dave-proctor

I think he is going by guinness rules for the record which don't specify direction. And I think he mentions that he is hoping going west to east will help him with the prevailing winds and he does mention wanting to get the mountains out of the way. It also sounds like he got some advice for this run from that Pete who did the trans con run in the US. Anyways he does talk about some of the choices made, so worth a listen unless that is too much of a time commitment for the speculators.

In fact, the lack of research about me or the sport is another red flag. If you don’t know, ask somebody.

Nothing disrespectful about the same problems we faced in 1991 (cheating & elaborate demands for documentation). Garmin & Strava will be selling devices at your press conferences, if you play this right!