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

Postscript, then a lurch. I will start taking the odd screenshot of blob positioning for extra backup. I am still very keen for this all to be above board. It's just strange to see these random figures, and I am certain that we will see wild cadence and HR crashes on Strava for miles 25-33.

This summarises a crazy 80 minutes:

1138 28.73
1148 30.16 [fail]
1158 32.58 [superduper fail]
1218 31.33 [totally loopy - coinciding with my conversation with HQ]
1229 32.66 [fail]
1249 33.48 [fine]
1309 34.56 [fine]

The odd thing is that he had literally hundred of updates on days 1-5 that hit spot on... and then he's getting loads of strange readings, usually - and frustratingly - tied into super quick splits.

What I do see, and I don't know if it makes me happy or sad, is that I pushed the panic button at 1158 after the 3.85 miles in 20 minute spell. With me bleating away at them he then did 1.98 miles in 1:11.

We'll sort it! Dealing with Rob compared to Robbie is like dealing with a poodle over a pitbull.

sorry for the deluge. He absolutely screamed into Prescott. The last 5k seeming to take under 30 minutes. The blob was like an electric eel on acid. I do wonder if the physio they were meeting there said, "I can see you at 1430..."

to continue from the above:

1352 35.86
1402 38.19 [wtaf?]
1412 38.08 [another bonkers backwards track, although the blob went forward]
1422 38.9

Still not calling sharp practice because it could just be an unreliable tracker that has started to go completely berserk after 5 days' perfect behaviour. I am reminded of Hal in Space Odyssey. "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that..."

Google has them on a massive detour coming up - surely they won't take it.

Will, I have a theory about the tracker which may be relevant to your dot-watching. Maybe you already knew this.

The daily distance progress number is as measured along the preplanned route. Not the distance between update points (which is what Strava does). So when he did that little shortcut just now, covering in 2.7miles what the route had slated would be 5.5miles, the daily number will probably have ticked up big time. Does this align with what you're seeing right now?

I think perhaps it looks for the closest point on the preplanned route in relation to the GPS location ping, and then calculates daily distance that way.

Obviously has no bearing on the straights, e.g. miles 25-30 yesterday. But perhaps explains some of the anomalies we saw on the switchbacks up to Prescott earlier today.

Prescott is long disposed of, he's way up the Cordes Junction Prescott Highway.

Here are the next numbers:

1442 38.65
1502 40.32
1512 42.12
1522 43.44
1532 44.7
1542 47.2

The blob is barreling along, perfectly matching those distances. As you can see that's 8.37 miles in a hour - the expectation is a little under 5.

After a simply horrible first 28 miles of the day in 8 hours, he's bashed out the next 19 in around 4.

The Strava 5 mile splits later will be crucial.

My perplexity is monumental.

Thank you. I'd really love this to be so, but it's still all so strange. That short cut thought is a nice idea, but isn't a tracker a tracker? It really doesn't track the athlete's movements? I have got out a measuring tool which says he's a good 10 miles on from Prescott now, which he left 90 minutes ago... it's a half marathon to Prescott Valley - he could do it in 2 hours. Also, this has been going on for the last 4 hours, and quite frankly on and off for 3 days.

Anyway, his first 25 miles today took 7.5 hours, then next a little over 5. It's a great comeback.

I remain open to all theories... I just know the tracker behaved so beautifully, and now it's betrayed me in a big way. It's gone rogue. Or he has.

Ps, the reason he's always paced from behind is on direction from Guinness. A silly, unnecessary rule. As if that really matters. You can get world records in much, much more important things than this paced. They simply don't understand the sport, but the upcoming documentary about cheating in endurance events is gonna sock it to GWR in a big way.

But he's now costing himself 5% in help, because Guinness say he can't, when the record attempt is over!

If he had run the blue line since his start today, he would be at the 53.22 claimed on the tracker at the time of writing. I traced it out. Additionally, the day's distance is measured up to where the line turns from blue to red, not where PJ's icon is located. There is often some variance between those two points.

But we know he didn't follow the blue line today, in fact he (smartly) chose a shorter route. He saved himself 3 miles through the eastern fringes of Prescott. Mapping the route he actually ran (according to the moving icon, not the line) is bang on 50 at the time of writing.

So the tracker is not actually a tracker, it is more of a progress bar instead. It doesn't show where he ran, only where he planned to have run.

Ok, I am assuaged. This was always a bewilderance more than anything. It will still be interesting to analyse the cadence and HRs because this has been an astonishing fightback. By far his best session of the last 6 days. And the cadence and HR wipeouts of the last two days with terrific paces, have looked awful.

I hope they're clean and stay clean. The projected finish has come back down to 47d9h in the last few hours from late 49, and they're not going to allow pacing because, "you never know, people love a good comeback..."

Strava data for day 8 released. There are numerous instances of PJ having a cadence of zero while moving. HR data and pace is still fluctuating (i.e. watch is on and working) but no footsteps! These instances last minutes, not seconds. All occur while moving uphill.

I think that settles it.

Yep: 2 different watches (Garmin Fenix and Garmin Enduro) uploaded the same route and show the same stretches of cadence: 0 while still moving. That boy is riding in the rv.

...and now he has deleted the Fenix file.

Will, I did manage to get a screen capture of both which shows moments of zero cadence while still moving on both watches. How can I share this with you?

Pete Johnson Day 8 Transcon report.

The best and clearest way to cover this dramatic day's running is to compare it to the men and women's world records, which are widely regarded as impeccable, incredibly fast and perfectly paced.

25 mile splits:

Kostelnick 4:23 & 4:32
Hoffman 4:38 & 4:48
Johnson 5:43 & 4:26

The Kostenick and Hoffman splits are as one would imagine, a 10 minute fade with solid, oaklike times. Johnson's 5:43 is in line with his ability too, but his 1:17 acceleration is a concern, particularly as it nearly beats Pete's 4:23.

Elevation of first 50 miles:

Kostelnick circa 700
Hoffman 900
Johnson 1500

So, by far the toughest day's climbing for Johnson.

Sub 10 minute miles in the first 50:

Kostelnick: 4 [9:53, 9:55, 9:55, 9:58]
Hoffman: none [best 10:31]
Johnson: 16 [7:50, 8:10, 8:28, 8:37, 8:46, 9:08, 9:14, 9:17, 9:19, 9:28, 9:31, 9:36, 9:37, 9:39, 9:47, 9:54]

Many of these splits raise an eyebrow, particularly as some involved climbing.

Five best 5 mile splits:

Kostelnick: 50, 50, 51, 51, 52
Hoffman: 53, 53, 55, 56, 57
Johnson: 45, 51, 53, 53, 55.

Johnson's 45 is most irregular, as he has been running around 60 mark for the last week. The first two 5 miles sets on this day were 85 & 78.

Johnson's cadence is also a major concern as it is only regular for around half of the day, with many empty patches, that usually coincide with fast running. His average of 150 compares with days 1 & 2 of: 179 and 180.

His heart is highly erratic and for such a strenuous day of climbing and the fearsome speeds above, he has a 130 average, when his norm is 145. Four times he dips into the 90s, and twice into the 80s.

WVLC 9/3/24 0845hrs

Influencers expect to get things for free, and you're more likely to get that from putting out an appeal to your followers.

Goodge does this. I saw him put out a call if anyone new anyone that worked for Virgin Airlines. A couple of days later he was flying first class back to London from New York. Doubt he paid.

And as a postscript. How LOW do you dare?

Day 9 in underway, and more spectacularly fast running is afoot. The needle is jumping up to 1.5 miles in 10 minute increments. And he's operating at 10kph.

14.7 miles today, and it's only 6 o'clock in the morning.

A great way to see how these fraudulent runs are compiled by no-hopers is to see how many super-quick splits they lay down. If you look at Johnson's training he is incredibly slow, often operating at 9.30 minute miling, but here he is going through the roof. As they do so much slow stuff [when they're actually running] the influencers HAVE to balance it with quick stuff, otherwise the maths simply don't add up and there aren't enough minutes in the day.

For Kostelnick's incredible world record, on days 3-8 he found 112 sub 10-minute miles. But ask him to go sub 9.30 and he has a big problem, with just 13 of those, and a mere three sub 3. This clearly shows how difficult it is to go sub 9:30 in a multiday. The leap is enormous.

Right! Let's compare to Goodge and Johnson:

These figures are for sub 10, sub 9.30, sub 9, sub 8.30, and sub 8 [here be monsters]

Kostelnick: 112 13 3 0 0
Goodge: 64 26 9 0 0
Johnson: 71 32 7 6 1

And there you have it. The difference is shocking. And beware Goodge's stats are only set to go through the roof - we know what he has in store. In short he can't handle the amount of sub 10s that PK gets, but he then somehow doubles his sub 9.30s and trebles his sub 9s.

And Johnson is off the scale. His numbers are very similar to Goodge's and he nearly trebles PKs sub 9.30s. But he then goes bigger: he then has no fewer than six sub 9s, and has even found a 7:50.

PKs numbers show just where the biting point is for this, and it's sub 10. I haven't even bothered to show Jenny Hoffman [47 days] because she only went sub 10 nine times in the entire event.

This will be a fascinating chart to track going forward.

As the World record attempt is now back on, "so you're saying there's a chance," is their quote, hopefully this bubbling story will attract more attention.

@willvlc I know you’ve been in touch with the crew. Have you asked them about the zero cadence portions of his runs?

Yes, stuff like the gadgets not being perfect, and cloud cover affecting satellites. Stuff like that.

I will ping him today's cadence chart for his info. He's just sent me a video saying 'don't freak out, lots of 7.30 miling today...'

22 miles by 7.40am is nutz. Set to post a huge number.

This is a wild ride, WR is clearly being retargeted.

Cloud cover doesn’t affect cadence and according to frothrippa the zero cadence was reflected on two devices.

I just went and watched him run through Cottonwood AZ. His legs looked a bit stiff, but what do you expect? No sign of any support van. One other guy running with him. Slow but not crawling like I imagined he might be. I feel a LOT better about the 10 miles I’m about to run now!

Thanks for that.

The chief has reported in that he feels if he can go into the last 22 needing 78 a day it's still just about possible. Thus trying to go nicely over 60 today and tomoz. Admits it would be a "wild" play.

It's back on then, and all fascinating, layered and complex stuff.