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

Wow, just read this whole thread over the last three days. At this point, there are really only two possible explanations. The #1 and most overwhelmingly likely (almost certain) explanation is that he’s a complete fraud. The #2 and far less likely explanation is that he’s the biggest imbecile of all time and somehow did a transcon w/ faulty equipment and without any sort of regard for tracking, data, etc.

The facade can only be kept up for so long before it before it comes crumbling down.

I have never been a RR fan. I am still not a RR fan.

Hiya, there are at least two dozen ways to fake this once you go down that route... watch muling, cycling, doing exercises in the van as you trundle slowly down the road, wearing the watch super loose on your wrist so that it spouts garbage, slipping material or paper between the sensors on the watch and the skin, uploading via a spreadsheet your run and manually inputting stuff...

And many others.

Loads is happening and Jenny's Transcon WR just in gives us a sea of more data. She doesn't wear a monitor - no problem. This is all as much about pace, background and ability as HR. She screams authenticity, has been on Team USA Ultra for years. She was out there for 14-15 hour days, WG did 10-12s.

Largely speaking she ran 78-84 mins for the 42-48 mile segment in a day - absolutely spot on. WG slammed down a 56, late in the challenge, off a very low HR of 125.

I'm also looking at all the main companies backing him, and it soon becomes very clear that most are all splinters, mergings, offshoots and partnerships of each other, with WG as their main figurehead, the founder of some of the splinters, the head of running of multiple ones, and on and on it goes. Fascinating, if somewhat tawdry stuff. Will publish a full report soon. Many people are telling me, in the words of Deep Throat, to "Follow the money."

I have written to WG, his two cameramen [Robinson and Tregaskis] and Roll today to say it's fantastic news that Whoop have published his Transcon data [as stated on the podcast], and could they kindly point us to it, because we can't find it.

So in the last month or so RR has gone from interviewing the likes of Arnie and Sir Patrick Stewart,...to Goodge. Whose pearl of wisdom for anyone struggling for motivation is "book a race". 🙄 Whose lowest point on the transcon was hitting a 47 mile day instead of his 52 target because his nutrition was a bit off. FFS I've had darker moments than that on a training run 🤣 it just doesn't ring true.

Everything about his normal ultra racing for him and RB is about chaos and despair. Much like it is with many of us. Racing is hard and a very difficult thing to nail. They 100% KNEW they would be alright in this, hence stating it at the start on the side of the bus. One never just plucks a National record holder out of thin air, far less a legendary one, and says "I'm going to have you."

Three huge things have happened in recent weeks: His utterly dreadful performance in California, the RR podcast, and now Jenny Hoffman's marvellous run [47.5 days], which screams authenticity, and when compared to how WG did his, it is actually quite terrifying how brazen the scam was, and how they did it. Her quality to WG is night and day, and yet there are aspects of the runs where he absolutely destroys her, of which I'll present today.

I am also compiling a list of all the companies that are directly invested in this, and how they're all connected to, and spin-offs of each other.

There is also now a list of around 8-10 names with direct involvement with this, and absolutely none of them are saying a word. However much I ask, however nicely, it's "say nothing." I'll produce that list too.

The key thing I've asked for, as many of you know, is for Goodge's Transcon Whoop. He stated clearly to RR it's been published.

Well, where?

Finally, the fundraising is totally bewildering. 3.5k paid in by himself? What's the point of that? 4.5k in from his business partner. Seems like a awful lot from a mate. And now this anonymous 10k. Why has the person waited over 5 months to donate? It makes no sense. Had they really never heard of him before the RR podcast and were then, "wow, I'd never heard of you but here's 10 grand."

It also came in just as this page was getting super hot again. WG said it had "just come in" and there were goosebumps on his arm in a very melodramatic post [someone wrote to say he was acting like a puppet on a string.] The screenshot of the donation said it was two days old. So those goosebumps had been up for 48 hours.

More soon with the stunning comparisons to him and Hoffman's runs which are nausea inducing.

He appears to be connected to On Running now. He is with them at New York Marathon and there is a sponsored post with them. This is the first running brand that have associated themselves with him. The other companies e.g Represent, Puresport aren't directly from running so could perhaps be forgiven for not seeing that there are irregularities in his challenges. On Running sponsor many genuinely good runners so it's disappointing that he is being validated by them.

aren’t they the same company that sponsored the New Gen camp?

they really should do some background before associating themselves with influencers…apart from checking how many instagram followers they have.

So what's next?

This fraud can only keep going for so long. He's in this for money and fame, that can only last so long, especially with his lifestyle. In a year, he's a nobody, money has all but dried up, engagement farming on social media the same, so he has to do something to get back in the spotlight.

What will it be? I know he'll read this as this thread will be the first thing he looks at when he wakes up, so my advice to him and his cronies - give it up, you've been caught.

HOW DID THEY DO IT?!

Hi all,

Jenny Hoffman's marvellous 47 day Transcon WR has given us the perfect data to compare the sort of splits she was finding to that of WG. Her performance is one of the greatest of all time, and she has about 145 miles for the 24 hour run compared to WG who could maybe do about 105/110.

There is no way that he should be outsplitting her, finishing over 8 days behind. The stronger runner will always find the tangier splits. Ie, you're never going to have a 2:45 marathoner finding a bunch of quicker splits that someone running 2:15. Can't happen, won't happen. When folks are out there for 10-15 hours, then of course there will be miles when WG does a 12 minute mile to JHs 16, but on the whole she will hit the majority of the quickest marks.

If we take the last 42 days of their run, this initially seems to bear fruit. The mark of 10:30 to 10:59 is very good for a huge multiday, and Hoffman has found it 315 times, to WGs 239.
I have no complaints about this. He's done well to find it that much but it's 76 behind JH... let's carry on.

For the mark of 10-10:29 it's serious business. Very quick, good multidaying - world-class to be sure. You'll get around an 85 mile if you do that all through. Kostelnick averaged 72s, so we're really hitting the heights here.

Let's see what they both found:

JH 67
WG 173

What on earth?! Jenny seen her 315 reduced to a mini wreckage of 67, and it shows that here's the biting point. A 10:45 mile, ok, she can just about handle those - albeit only around 10% of the time, but WG has only reduced his 239 by only a smallish portion.
Onwards. The sub 10 minute mile - a very, very scary prospect for a Transcon. Handle with care. Jenny all but couldn't find any. This is no slight to her - why would you? Apart from finding eight in a single amazing session which was a lot of downhill and possibly she did a little experimenting, she only found one other sub 10 for her entire last 42 days. Here's the comparison:

JH 9
WG 121

... and you can see where this is going. How is WG finding 13 times as many sub 10 miles than someone so much quicker and more able?

9-9:29. Even more devastating. That's a pace of around 94 miles a day. These are the comparisons:

JH 0
WG 50

Sub 9 mins for the mile?
JH 0
WG 13

And still the madness isn't over. Sub 8:30:

JH 0
WG 3 with one of those a 7:12

Side by side this is how the stats look:

315 67 9 0 0 0
239 173 121 50 13 3

And check this out for the 2nd half of days:

99 24 0 0 0 0
94 69 37 11 2 0

Another way to look at it is that Hoffman found nine sub-10 minute miles, Goodge found 187.

--------------------

Researching this, I found a stretch even more bonkers than WG's 56 for 6 miles late in a day. 80 mins for 9 miles!! It's the sequence of 14-23 on day 22. The crew knew I was on a flight out, and my feeling is they said, "gloves are off, let's pack in some miles."

How does this compare to Hoffman 14-23 on day 22? Well she's going to be doing 11:30s isn't she, so about 105mins? Yes, 107 to be precise. What about Kostelnick? His lunchtime run on October 3, 2016 [day 22] 14-23 was 113 mins. So in a somewhat relaxed mode. Goodge has taken over half an hour out of a 42 day man for 9 miles.

What did Goodge run for 14-22 in his recent 100 miler? Maybe up with his Transcon? Not a bit of it. 105.

Finally, perhaps it's just the way Goodge runs, loads of super quick, and loads of super slow miles... like a yoyo. How do his California splits compare with the leading lady there?

Well, it's Claire Bannworth and she's measured in K's so let's see if WG's Transcon trick of running slower than the leading lady but with much quicker splits stands up. We'll just take the first 97k, and 6-6:30; 5:30-5:59; 5-5:29 and sub 5.

Bannworth: 23 18 5 1
Goodge: 4 2 0 0

A somewhat more different - and credible - outcome to Transcon.

I'll present a post about all the related companies and people that are enmeshed in this operation. To be sure, hundreds of thousands of dollars are flying about in a business model of displaying an incredible aptitude for ultrarunning thanks to the 30-odd products which WG sells to make him as good as he is.

And now Rich Roll has promoted him to his million followers the legend could only grow. But if these momentous runs of the last 4 years aren't truly happening, that's false advertising and fraud, and are quite simply declaring war on our precious sport.

Thanks for these stats, even more evidence.

I'm a nobody in the running world but I know my stats, know my training, and, I know I fraud when I see one.

Good work Will. You have a lot of support on this.

Editing for a question - why have you not be taking through the courts for defamation or slander? That would mean they have to prove it was real, backed by evidence. That tells me enough, although I already know its fake.

Yes, good question. I've wondered too. They haven't touched any of that with a barge pole. It costs around 3 grand to send a cease and desist notice from a lawyer, but they could try a non-legal one. Sneakers tried to warn me off by threatening me with jail, but it was a laughable, melodramatic note, connected to the stalking of a female athlete.

They never engage, never explain, never try to clear anything up. Why not? If I've made a blunder somewhere, tell me. All he said was the Garmin was wrong, and that the Coros "must have been sh*tty watch." Balenger just blocked me on everything, bizarrely including Strava, which was a mistake because he clearly had something to hide there. I circumvented the block, and found a complete mess. But it wasn't even me who found that his Transcon had identical markers to Goodge.

Their modus operandi has been resolute: runners are "losers" and there aren't many of us compared to the near 200k of Insta fanboys who worship them. Therefore we should all just go away.

But I would perhaps remind them of David and Goliath and that David won.

And an important thing about his stats - 90% of those super fast K above? You guessed it, 100-110bpm. So it's a double whammy. Inhuman pace, at an inhuman pulse, but a worse than mediocre runner [as his MDS and Cali so clearly show].

Totally riding a bike for the faster and lower heart rate sections.

One of at least eight possible methods, but they defo had a bike there.

I wouldn't call Jenny Hoffmann's failed transcon marvelous. I just pulled out my file of her again:

Already on day 7 she folded with a sub 20 mile day.
Day 9 had 5.38 miles. She was to fixated on numbers and didn't listen to her body much. That was the reason why she needed to stop after day 43 in Tallmadge OH.

In real transcon running you have to get to that fine line but never exceed over it. That is quite difficult to do. Of course a guy like Goodge doesn't have these problems since he was only virtually running a lot of times.

This is another key point about how easy the run allegedly was for Goodge. Rich Roll repeatedly banged on about how effortless and easy he made it look.

But if it was still so easy for him when running 55+ miles a day towards the end, the question should be asked: why didn't you try and fulfil your potential by running 10 miles per day more.

You then have the fact that Kostelnick's record is 72 miles per day. So if Goodge can easily run 55 per day whilst bragging about how little training he done, with serious training he should be well capable of challenging the overall record in a couple of years.

Goodge is still in his 20s, young and inexperienced at multiday running, and nowhere near his peak years. If this run was genuine then he should absolutely be looking to train hard over the next couple of years, get more multiday running experience in 6 and 10 day races, then come back and smash the US Transcon record in 2-3 years.

The longer he goes without establishing a credible track record in multi day races, the more clear the fraud will become.

We're "living inside his head rent free"! 😄

Why do you describe Hoffmann's Transcon record as 'failed'? You've pointed out some weak points, but she still beat the record by a few days so it's the overall time that counts.

Surely beating the woman's record by a few days is a huge success!?

Hi, you're not talking about Jenny's most recent WR the other day though are you? Day 7 and 9 there are fine. I think she had two previous failed attempts before this?