Half marathon course cutter Ashley Paulson, who served 6 month contamination suspension, wins coveted Badwater 135.

Posts about cheaters have always fascinated me...Kip...everyone's favorite DJ...etc...

1. Due to previous course cutting, even if accidental, there should be extra scrutiny around Ashley's performances, especially when there is a performance that is an outlier, like this one.

2. There is clearly a portion of the race that warrants more attention.

3. Ashley/her team quickly provided data that is both consistent with the race results and her explanation of how those results happened.

4. There may be other anecdotes or evidence from the course, other participants or other teams, but as of right now we do not have that information. Perhaps there is an investigation going deeper, perhaps not. We don't know.

In light of #3, unless there is a different outcome from #4 at some point in the future, I think it is fair to congratulate Ashley on a job well done.

It isn't a witch hunt, derek isn't out there with a sniper rifle of a blog post to take someone else down, there are reasonable questions about superlative results that are fair to be asked, have been given adequate evidence, and at this point wait to see if any more persuasive evidence comes forth.

No. What Derek doing is a witch hunt. He has no evidence of Ashley cheating at all and wrote a hit piece saying he has witnesses saying they saw cheating and it was a lot more convincing that what you know but he won't tell you what our even who, only bragging about Camille Herron being his friend to provide top split times.

I've been writing in this thread that no one should contact Derek because he is going to be harassing an innocent person in Ashley for years because he never admits he is wrong and apologize. And what do we have that Derek and some here that have demanded and didn't expect to see? The complete watch data from Ashley proving her innocence that never should have needed proving. The Badwater race records are soft, even the men's records are soft, Badwater and ultras are not anywhere as competitive as real marathons and athletics. Ashley is an elite level women's marathoner that competed at Olympic Trials.

Can I get a big "I TOLD YOU SO" put in the first post of this thread?

I think she may have done it based on her marathon time at the Trials, but...

I understand skepticism due to her background.

*The race is at night

*You truly are "kinda" on the honor system.

*I know zilch about technology and watches, in terms of manipulating data or erasing things that give something away.

*She has a short history of a couple of bizarre things.

*It seems like every cheater always goes off course in a race and didn't realize it...that's never happened to me ever and I've run slightly faster than her best times.

*Everyone who is caught denies it till there's proof that cannot be explained away.

*Doesn't make her guilty, but...boy oh boy she did look beyond fresh in the video and pictures.

Without someone actually seeing her do something deceptive, she has to be considered not guilty of doing anything wrong (unless the data proves that the time segments that she did are impossible).

*****Simple solution. She runs next year and is monitored by many, many people at, after, during and in between checkpoints. This challenge was thrown out at Oscar Miranda and he declined. Rosie Ruiz, she declined. Kip Litton, he declined. Frank Meza, he declined.

Any legit runner of any distance should be able to replicate something very close to the time and distance of the race in dispute. Yeah, it's that easy. Cheaters decline the offer and honest people relish in the opportunity. If she claims that she's all done running Ultras...well then;).

Will Cloney offered Oscar Miranda a chance to simply run a 5 mile race at the pace that he allegedly ran at the 1979 Boston Marathon, 5:13 per mile. Oscar said he was retiring from running competitively. He cheated.

Women being faster at super long races isn't fishy, tho, especially Badwater. Recall what Pam Reed did. While men do have the best times, seems like an elite woman could certainly hang if not beat certain splits, especially in later stages of a race where extreme temps are involved.

I agree with this poster completely 👌

Easy enough solution

No. You will not harrass Ashley next year. What did I write previously in this thread that Derek and the likes of you will continue to harrass her for years because you can't shout Ashley down? And with the complete watch data Ashley has released proving her innocence that she had no obligation to release that you and Derek have demanded, why do you still plan to harrass Ashley?

You have to be Ashley or somehow related to her or just completely off your rocker in your parent's basement.

Where did I say harass anybody?

Site mods, I'd take a serious look at this poster as he/she is exhibiting some strange behavior.

Harass?

Agreed. This guy or gal is a nut or is possibly her husband himself. Weird post.

I am going with “just a sad nut with too much time”

Did you not say the last time you posted on LRC after Frank Meza that you would never post here again?

Compared to all you nuts harrassing Ashley? How much time did you spend on that?

It's LaToya,she comes on here everything Derek is mentioned and throws out the same stuff.Even her wording is exactly the same.

Walk on LaToya and go and cheat another race.

The SlowTwitch Editor in Chief has updated the title of the corresponding Ashley Paulson thread over on SlowTwitch to say "Marathon Investigations Accuses Ashley Paulson" which is exactly what Derek is doing by writing that hit piece article on her containing a drug sanction he admits he doesn't understand and course segment record times he has now edited and walked back on because faster women times have been posted.

Lots of posts about Ashley having faster times than men, but has anyone considered that she may be 46 XY DSD? Can we have derek check for the presence of internal testes?

Have raw .fit or .gpx files been made available?

If I remember correctly, battery level is recorded, which would confirm or deny the side note of her watch running low.

Isn’t it possible that Ashley gave her watch to someone else, enabling her to rest while her accomplice ran some of the race? Maybe that’s an impossibility at Badwater…

There is distinction between “accusing” and noting and discussing unusual splits, as MI does. Derek does good work and is as unbiased as anyone.

There are more cheats than many realize and flushing them out, particularly those affecting the competitive result, improves fairness in our sport.

Some would rather questionable results went unquestioned. If that were the case, Meza would still be cycling his way to new records.

While is is uncomfortable for some, it is reasonable to discuss the validity of unusual results.

Evidence reviewed so far partially, but not fully, exonerates Paulson from accusations of cheating.

A few Paulson defenders go too far by resorting to insult or making conclusions based on faith or assumption. This is irrelevant.

As RossiCheated notes, the burden of proof is on naysayers.

No compelling proof has been presented so far to invalidate or strongly suspect Paulson’s result.

Absent that, Paulson’s exceptional Badwater win should be accepted - and stand without “asterisk”.

I’m really surprised at the seeming disconnect in this thread between the earlier “twin” theory and the acceptance of the watch data as proof. Of course you’d have the “twin” wear the same watch. No proof that this was done, to be fair, but even as of now when it’s all speculation, I’m surprised that the conversation seems to have been bifurcated between “twin theory” and “the watch data can prove she ran it all.” Unless I’m mistaken (most of Instagram is hidden for me since I don’t have an account), she didn’t even address the twin theory in her post.

No, if you actually know Derek like I do, you would know he has huge biases and copies most of his work from others just like how you saw he copies Camille Herron's table of segment times without evening know what those are and which in fact are highly incomplete as evidenced by faster women that have come forward.

And the SlowTwitch Editor in Chief, as I and other sensible people do, sees what Derek has posted in the article as accusing Ashley.