Robert Young fakes run across America

113 wrote:

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.

113 wrote:

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.