Frank Meza 2:53:10 at LA Marathon (70 years old) unofficial time (just finished)

Out of touch with reality wrote:

1/10

So piss weak it's not even worth quoting.

triathleteguru wrote:

https://youtu.be/Fd2gOjjlvis

Definitely not perfect, could have done a better job with the volume levels on the videos versus my narration. Regardless, I think it is easily view-able and hopefully somewhat interesting to a wider audience than just those of us on this thread! If you feel so inclined, please share on social media!

Top job, also a photo of him jumping in on HB would have been good.

Hard not to puke though when looking at Frank and hearing him bullshit.

Sounds like your a family member, friend, or patient of FM. Tell him to man up and come clean, he already is a disgrace to the running community, soon it will escalate even further. Also, tell us how he did it, did you help him with you car, or did you just give him a ride on the handlebars of your bike?

frank? frankie? Francisco? No? Regardless, it's all over. We're all good here, though. Having fun seeing your fraud being revealed. Oh, the kids/alumni at Loyola really are "loving" that they're being dragged into your deceptive mess.

triathleteguru wrote:

https://youtu.be/Fd2gOjjlvis

Definitely not perfect, could have done a better job with the volume levels on the videos versus my narration. Regardless, I think it is easily view-able and hopefully somewhat interesting to a wider audience than just those of us on this thread! If you feel so inclined, please share on social media!

I like the idea.... but sorry, it's not helpful and way too abstract for non-runners to get.

Talking age graded times is just confusing; non runners are going to tune out. I'm a runner and still find the AG odd and far from perfect. Do they mean Whitlock should have been able to beat elites in his prime? If my AG is 95%, does that mean that 1/20 people his same age should be able to beat me?

And singling him out for appearance isn't going to earn you points. Yes he's not super slim and not dressed the part, but he doesn't look unfit either.

The articles on Marathon Investigation are the best thing to spread.

bill the pillow wrote:

but he doesn't look unfit either.

?ROLF?

?ROLF? wrote:

bill the pillow wrote:

but he doesn't look unfit either.

?ROLF?

The point is regarding non-runners.

The average Joe doesn’t understand that a world class age group marathoner is going to be super slim.

They do not look at pictures where Frank appears to be the most robust and healthy and think he is the outlier in a bad way.

Clown Fest. wrote:

marshallini wrote:

FM on one bike and an accomplice...they use a tandem.

Haha, we have a winner.

The frustrating thing is, as with Litton, the Philly cheater, etc, there are people out who have taken happy snaps with their phone/camera and have all the evidence we need, they just don't realize it.

He's been doing this for at least ten years, he has to have a helper and there has to be plenty of people who know about it.

This clown couldn't do all the riding/walking/jogging required.

https://imgur.com/a/op2eFPk

Meet the 70 year old world record holder.

The psychology of this is fascinating if he does has helpers.

Has he convinced himself that he is doing some greater good by inspiring the Latino population?

Good effort wrote:

The point is regarding non-runners.

The average Joe doesn’t understand that a world class age group marathoner is going to be super slim.

They do not look at pictures where Frank appears to be the most robust and healthy and think he is the outlier in a bad way.

Good effort wrote:

The point is regarding non-runners.

The average Joe doesn’t understand that a world class age group marathoner is going to be super slim.

They do not look at pictures where Frank appears to be the most robust and healthy and think he is the outlier in a bad way.

Yep, this. Thanks.

One more suggestion for TG's video: let viewers know a typical slow down for 10k over the course of a marathon. Again, a non runner will not at all understand that a minute being off the overall 10k AG record is a huge outlier; it actually would seem plausible to most without some context.

He is actually doing it for the kids wrote:

The psychology of this is fascinating if he does has helpers.

Has he convinced himself that he is doing some greater good by inspiring the Latino population?

Going by the videos, Instagram posts, etc, it would seem so, not only him, but others who know about it or are involved in his cheating.

We need someone at the LA Bike share with access to rental records..

It would seem so. wrote:

He is actually doing it for the kids wrote:

The psychology of this is fascinating if he does has helpers.

Has he convinced himself that he is doing some greater good by inspiring the Latino population?

Going by the videos, Instagram posts, etc, it would seem so, not only him, but others who know about it or are involved in his cheating.

I'm not inspired. I'm ashamed.

Frank Meza Report wrote:

Accomplices would be helpful but not necessary to pull off cheating at LAM.

2. The Hollywood section where Frank jumps off the course from his “little boy break” has a 90 degree turn. He could have parked his transportation at a midpoint and saved time since he doesn’t have to run back against the course.

I considered this, but then he would have had a similar problem in making his 10-15k split. Even if you split the distance halfway, he's still backtracking about 700m on both the 10-15k and the 15-20k splits. I agree that it could be doable, but it cuts the margins to make the split times really thin. Whereas, having a 2nd bike prepositioned on the course makes it reasonably easy. There would be no need to backtrack on either split. By my calculations, he could exit the course, walk to the bike (1min), unlock bike (15sec), ride at only 15mph to the next mat (14min), lock bike (15 sec) and walk 2 minutes to the jump in point (Total Time... ~17 1/2 minutes)

I don't think the other splits would have been as problematic as this one. The real question is why would someone choose to run this far on one leg? My guess is that he knew that there would be a course photographer just ahead of the jump-in point and he wanted to get in the photos.

I'm only a recreational rider, but I have three road bikes. Frank is a triathlete so he probably has at least three bikes. It makes far more sense to pre-position your own bikes than to rent a bike or beat yourself up trying to make a difficult split time with only one bike.

Some one posted this in the MI comments on FB.

https://imgur.com/a/vfow0pk

The person on FB noted that he runs all the way to the side of course and seems to pause briefly (per still posted)... hard to make much out but interesting.

https://ktla.com/2018/03/18/live-video-watch-final-leg-of-l-a-marathon-on-finish-line-cam/

In the video you can watch him run, for me it's from 1:26:05 LEFT in the video through about 1:23:00 when he's up to the camera.

fisky wrote:

I considered this, but then he would have had a similar problem in making his 10-15k split. Even if you split the distance halfway, he's still backtracking about 700m on both the 10-15k and the 15-20k splits. I agree that it could be doable, but it cuts the margins to make the split times really thin. Whereas, having a 2nd bike prepositioned on the course makes it reasonably easy. There would be no need to backtrack on either split. By my calculations, he could exit the course, walk to the bike (1min), unlock bike (15sec), ride at only 15mph to the next mat (14min), lock bike (15 sec) and walk 2 minutes to the jump in point (Total Time... ~17 1/2 minutes)

Ride at "only" 15mph? Um, you do know that Meza's 70 and has nowhere near the athletic ability he claims to? Those of you focusing on Meza using a bike or bikes to aid and abet his cheating are giving this bozo way too much credit. To pull this cheating off using a bike he'd have to be doing the equivalent of a top age-group duathlon, which is not something he's even in the neighborhood of being capable of.

Whereas with an electrically assisted bike, the effort to do 20 mph is almost nothing

I still think solo, but if it’s accomplice, I’d go with 1 family member. He’s been at it a long time. If he threw in friends to the mix it seems like it likely would have blown up at some point.

fisky wrote:

Assuming he doubles back to the bike immediately after crossing the 20k mat, it would take 6 1/2 minutes at 8min/mile to get back to the bike. He is next seen entering the course at the intersection of Doheny and SM Blvd. That's about 3.9mi from the 18.7km entry point by what appears to be the fastest bike route.

The very first time I saw Derek's analysis and splits I posted that it would be impossible for him to do it alone or even with a bike. He had to have had a car driven by someone else.