Robert Young fakes run across America

1) if you're real, get a clue, read the thread, concentrate harder

2) if trolling; but below par, this thread's seen better

3) if you're coming live from dustin'n'rob's travelling circus, good on you for getting into the spirit of this

Looby wrote:

let's wait till the end of the race to find out the result.

You've read the whole thread but you've missed the whole point. It's too late then it'll all get white washed, the data from the early part is available to Young/Brooks but they won't release it, why do you thing that is?

Since we have a bit of a lull in the action, I would like to ask the message board if they agree with our (Target Corp) decision to open all restrooms to Transcons? (Yay or nay)

sick of attention seekers wrote:

Bob Hearn wrote:

For those playing at home, FYI, Markus has also run a transcon.

So what? I've run a mile.

FAST.

I'll be sure to check back for your input when we're investigating a mile record attempt.

That is a lot of words. You need to get to the point much quicker.

People hate when you preface a point with three other prefaces that preface something else.

FOIA is your friend wrote:

I have applied for 27 FOIA requests for traffic can footage along the route. Once all or most come in, I'm going to match them up with the tracking data and publish the results. I also will try to get police car recordings as well since Young said he had escorts part of his run. I haven't been able to find out where though so I haven't been able to make any requests. If anyone knows where he got escorts let me know so I can get the car cam footage. It would be invaluable since it would record a lot longer than traffic cams.

Is this serious?

Did this cost you anything?

Will they even consider this? Must be a lot of work for civil servants.

Mr. Young is now ~20-miles west of Effingham.

He appears to have been sauntering for the past half-hour - either trying to loosen-up or today's show took a bit of a toll.

This is the most definitive account I can provide of the Mojave Desert breakdown, Day 5, May 18. (The run actually begins the previous evening, May 17).

If I had the old timestamp data, I could do better, but fortunately I logged some of those times in a previous post. I'm taking times and distances from the TomTom screenshots helpfully compiled here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NBkfw48Jv6JlP0gBLP5JbPt6qz5Qfyf105fIXYa_hAk/edit?pref=2&pli=1#

Here is the relevant blog post:

http://www.marathonmanuk.co.uk/2016/05/21/day-3-5-a-pick-up-for-a-hiccup/

I don't know which time zone these times are meant to be in, but the times from the TomTom screenshots match with the exif data from the blog pictures, so as long as it's consistent that's fine.

Depart Danby, CA at 8:39 pm on May 17. Run 14.3 miles in 2:19. Stop at 10:58.

Start running again at 11:25pm. Run 5.99 miles in 45:37. Stop at 12:10am.

Start running again at 12:24am. Run 8.08 miles in 49:33 (6 minute miles). Stop at 1:13am. Approximate locations: Goffs, CA, intersection of Route 66 and Lanfair road.

1:13am-4:47am: no movement. 3.5 hour nap?

Start running again at 4:47. Run 2.7 miles in 18 minutes. Stop running at 5:05.

Start running/walking again at 5:20. Walk 3.8 miles in 2 hours 50 minutes. Stop walking at 8:10. Note-- I think something must have gone screwy here. He may have switched watches without stopping one of them. The next run starts at 7:31, which is less than the time needed for his previous run. In and of itself, not a huge deal.

Start running again at 7:31. Run 4.6 miles in 48 minutes. Stop running at 8:19.

Rob is now in Bannock, CA. He has run 39.5 miles from Danby in 11.5 hours.

Somewhere in the middle of this last run (the 4.6 miler from 7:31 to 8:19), he and the RV try to take a shortcut on a desert ATV road that takes a small tangent from Bannock to Highway 95. The TomTom entry shows a big left turn consistent with this attempted shortcut. Their planned route, which you can see on the current tracker, was meant to cut a huge tangent from Goffs to 95, but they probably realized that was impossible in the dark. They may have been on dirt road parallel to route 66 prior to Bannock, as there is footage of RY running at sunrise on a dirt path at around 1:40 on their latest Facebook video.

This is where they get stuck, in Bannock. Note the location data on exif, which LR.com won't let me post a link to.

This picture is taken at 8:50. That actually matches with the blog post's claim that the tow truck showed up within a half hour. RY is with them when they get stuck, as you can see in the Facebook video referenced above, again starting around 1:40 in.

From this point forward, they have not shared any TomTom data until 8:55 that evening, which must be the run out of Laughlin.

RY is within 2 miles of Bannock at 8:19. Let's ignore the claim that he beat his crew to Laughlin; that's obviously false. That just proved that his blogger lied, not necessarily that he cheated. Let's instead focus on the blog post pool photo, which the exif data reveals was taken at the Riverside Resort and Casino pool in Laughlin, Nevada. It is taken at 12:52. (again, can't link).

So we know that RY was near Bannock at 8:19 and was in Laughlin with fresh clothes, sitting by the pool at 12:52. The shortest distance by road between those two points is 40 miles, and that's giving RY a couple of miles north of Bannock as a starting point. Did RY run 40 miles in 4.5 hours through the desert? The answer, obviously, is no. (For reference, the world record for a 40-mile run is 3:48.)

They claim that RY did some offroading. The shortest reasonable route you can draw on gmaps pedometer between Bannock and the casino in Laughlin is 23 miles and change. (Otherwise, he'd be running over the Dead Mountains wilderness.) Did he run 23 miles through the desert on a 95 degree day with no crew, no map, and no compass, in 4.5 hours? Again, the answer is obviously no.

Until this issue is addressed, there is no record attempt. With or without his team's knowledge, RY skipped a big portion of the 23-40 miles between Bannock and Laughlin. That portion also happens to be unrecorded on his TomTom, at least as far as he's shown us. And even if they had a screenshot that showed him running 23+ miles through the desert in 4+ hours in the middle of the day, I wouldn't believe it.

Bob Hearn wrote:

sick of attention seekers wrote:

So what? I've run a mile.

FAST.

I'll be sure to check back for your input when we're investigating a mile record attempt.

Looking at that ex-transcon guy who already is down there, I'm not sure more of them would help. Do ultrarunners get "pound-drunk" after a long career or something?

Update to Ulist from laz:

"being on hand presents an interesting change in perspective.

there would be no reason in making the trip,

if I came with a closed mind.

that said, there are questions that deserve to be answered.

some things I see a lot differently.

other questions remain for now.

some issues that raised such questions for many

were quickly resolved.

"what runner runs behind his aid vehicle?"

Robert young runs behind his aid vehicle.

one of my first comments, as we followed him thru the night,

was that whatever was blocking his taillight

needed to be removed.

it turned out to be a towel.

he spent a lot of time running at the back of the vehicle.

the had a regular aid station set up on the back bumper

and in a compartment just above the bumper.

using his flashlight (torch) to signal the driver,

they were able to coordinate their speed to allow RY access to the range of supplies,

while running.

"RY does not look fatigued enough to have run that far."

I have seen fatigue.

he started today the same as any multi-day runner;

moving slow and looking stiff.

it took about 3 miles, before he could start running.

then, after the cooker heated up,

I saw him look like death at times in the heat....

but he has remarkable recuperative abilities

(reminding me of steve warshawer, for the old-timers)

and he feeds off of human contact.

regardless of his physical state, RY animates when he talks to people.

"his credentials do not support the mile times he is claiming."

it did not take me long to figure out that "race" does not mean the same thing to RY as it does to me.

I need no further convincing that RY does not give his best effort in races.

not because he "chokes" under pressure,

but because he simply does not care.

his race results have no relationship to what he might be able to run.

we clocked him in some miles this morning, after he loosened up.

they ranged from 5:47 to 6:12.

coordinating with case, those were showing up on the tracker as 7:00 and up.

I am sure that was because he stopped at his van after every one.

not for long, but it does not take long to make the average time go up.

tracker undoubtedly did not put the same endpoints as he began and ended his running segments.

the most "6 minute" miles in a row was 4,

which is far short of the numbers strung together earlier.

but he is capable of running 6 minute miles without blowing up.

however, he does not seem to have any steady state.

his approach to multiday running seems undisciplined

with more exposure.

perhaps a pattern will emerge for me.

he did, as best I could tell, make the mileage he needed to stay on pace for his "record" today

that is the first time in almost a week.

tomorrow will be revealing.

if he can back up today's mileage by making pace tomorrow,

he will no longer appear to be spiraling out of control.

I am going to stop for now.

it is not like you can figure out everything in a single day.

and it is not like I am signing off on the run.

but, there are a lot of challenges that have been made,

which are easily explained.

i figured I would dispense with a few of those.

the more lingering questions I will give them a chance to address

before I say any more.

laz"

Natty Dread wrote:

Mr. Young is now ~20-miles west of Effingham.

He appears to have been sauntering for the past half-hour - either trying to loosen-up or today's show took a bit of a toll.

So based on his Transcons running paces thus far he could be there in between 1.5 hours and 6 hours.

Looby wrote:

rah, rah, rah, etc, etc, etc,...

Joan, (https://www.facebook.com/joansurveys) thanks for your input, try and keep it a little more succinct and to the point next time as I haven't a friggin clue what you're on about.

Here is the KML converted to a table with reverse geocoded addresses for easy searching, and elevations added:

http://pastebin.com/raw/XJzsvT0b

LurkerRV wrote:

FOIA is your friend wrote:

I have applied for 27 FOIA requests for traffic can footage along the route. Once all or most come in, I'm going to match them up with the tracking data and publish the results. I also will try to get police car recordings as well since Young said he had escorts part of his run. I haven't been able to find out where though so I haven't been able to make any requests. If anyone knows where he got escorts let me know so I can get the car cam footage. It would be invaluable since it would record a lot longer than traffic cams.

Is this serious?

Did this cost you anything?

Will they even consider this? Must be a lot of work for civil servants.

It may or not be real, but it could be if someone files. It's the law. Our tax dollars at work baby!

MightyUlist wrote:

Update to Ulist from laz:

Yes, we've been discussing this for the last three pages. Try and keep up.

mathematician wrote:

Natty Dread wrote:

Mr. Young is now ~20-miles west of Effingham.

He appears to have been sauntering for the past half-hour - either trying to loosen-up or today's show took a bit of a toll.

So based on his Transcons running paces thus far he could be there in between 1.5 hours and 6 hours.

This is the problem we are trying to observe ... can Mr. Young put in consecutive performances over the next week to make his earlier MPD tallies remotely believable?

St Elmo to Altamont is just shy of 7-miles; and

St Elmo to Effingham is 20-miles.

If he runs like this morning he should be in Effingham by 23:00 ... if he runs like the numbers posted in Az and Co, he should be there just after 22:00.

If we walks, he'll make last call.

There is indeed. I'm trying to piece together that night and so far it seems to support the Runner's World explanation but also implies there has to be some cheating (sitting in RV) going on.

Rob starts out at 38.41098900 -96.28436900 23:02:58 04

The RV hits the car wash about 40 minutes later after travelling 4.5 miles. If that is Rob in the video then he arrives after 49 minutes of starting. So he covers the first 4.5 miles at about 5.6mph pace.

After the RV passes the car wash it travels east 7.3 miles in the next 48 minutes (about the same pace it was travelling when it passed the car wash). It then backtracks 1.33 miles in the next 12 minutes. And then continues speeding back west 4.2 miles in the next 12 minutes hitting the eastern edge of Emporia. This seems to support the theory that Robert trailed off early in the run, called the RV, at which point the RV turned around and drove at regular speed to go pick Robert up.

Over the next 2 hours the RV covers 15.58 miles on its way to Ledo, not quite as fast as its pace through Emporia but still a significant speed considering Robert had to take a walk break (where he looks like he has a limp and is not moving well at all) less than an hour into his run.

One theory is that Robert started off the evening feeling ok but quickly realized it wasn't his night, called the RV back and rode in it for the rest of the night. Another is that the RV would continually get ahead of Robert, then reverse, pick him up, drive ahead, and let him out to walk for a bit before repeating the process. This would explain the weird stops you witnessed and also allow Robert to spend the least amount of time hitching a ride in the RV.

Something nefarious was definitely going on that night but I don't think it was as simple as Rob napping in the RV all night while it racked up the miles.

I donated $100 geezers when it first went up. Now I want my money back. These guys have NOTHING.

valid excuse wrote:

About enough wrote:

Pictures? Or are you the best troll on the thread?

There are no photo developing services where they are.

Wasn't aware that phones had film in them,