Half marathon course cutter Ashley Paulson, who served 6 month contamination suspension, wins coveted Badwater 135.

Her World Athletics profile says her marathon PR is 2:40:07. Scott Jurek's is 2:36.

To continue with my previous post. The bases of the skeptics is the following:

1. Ashley Paulson's past doping.

2. Cutting course at a half marathon race.

3. The "impossible" split.

4. Doubt in if she has the talent to best other great female ultra runners.

But according my analysis in the previous post, it seems like she's well on par with other top female ultra runners, if not better, in term of running talent (as demonstrated by the Olympic trials result, which is unlikely to be a fake).

As for doping, it's the reality of ultra running that drug test is almost non-exist. Thus while I despise her for doping, we have no idea if other top female ultra runners are doping or not.

For the course cutting, even though many people said she did it in multiple occasions, the only time I found that she benefited from it was the half marathon. I read about she made a wrong turn at an ultra marathon, but I believe that's quite common. I personally made wrong turns a lot on my trail runs. She also (claimed to have) got back on the course and thus didn't really cut course. Unless if someone update me on this, it seems to me she's not a really repeated offender.

At this point, for me, the case for skeptics is really crumbling.

And also, her impossible split is not impossible, as noted by Jennifer Vogel in a post on another website:
"[The accusation:] 'She ran the 3.9 mile section almost 12 minutes faster than any female ever.'
She did it in :54
I did it in :50 In 2011"

Ultras are not like Marathons.

Competitive Ultra runners are fit, but not necessarily top-tier by Marathon standards.

Success in Ultras significantly depends on support logistics.

Short answer, I have no problem believing a 2:40 female marathon winner can win Badwater and it is conceivable she could set a CR doing it.

Ellie Greenwood won the 100K Champs twice as well as Comrades and has a Marathon PB of only 2:42

The RD statement is a joke - I believe the result for Parvaneh Moayedi still stands. I agree it may be hard to prove she cheated, but in part because there is little effort/incentive to prevent cheating. More reason to ignore this race all together.

Agreed. It will always be an amazing race, but this is a stain.

I’m gonna chase her around the Aravaipa race and see if she’s legit. I want to see this record breaker in action. She will withdraw before race day. So predictable. She cheated . Boooooo!! 👎👎👎👎👎👎👎

I'm stuck on her splits vs. Jurek's best performance in the race. The segment splits (there were fewer segments when Jurek ran so I added them up):

Start to Furnace Creek: 6 min slower than Jurek

FC to Stovepipe Wells: 12 min faster

SW to Panamint Springs: 39 minutes faster

Panamint to Darwin: 22 minutes faster

Darwin to Lone Pine: 44 minutes faster

Lone Pine to finish: 6 minutes faster

The segments where she started going way negative on Jurek's splits occurred during the hottest parts of the day, whereas Jurek ran them at night. Then you have that huge climb at the finish. The road up to the finish is pretty desolate, it was dark, and I don't think she had any competitors near her. Her twin pacer ran some of that portion with her, with the twin frequently pausing her watch when she seemingly got back in the van. Just saying...

Wasn't Jureks best performance at Badwater literally like 9 days after he won Western States 100?

2:40 is fast, but her speeds do not improve with longer distance. 17:26 is not as good at 100 as 2:40 is at 26.2 and there's no chance in hell that a 17:26 runner on the course she runs hits 17:09 in the first 100 of Badwater and then gets stronger than runners who run 100s in the 14s. There's no way. She's a great athlete, but she's not an elite-level ultra runner.

100K and 55 miles are a far cry from 217K and her previous 100 time (17:26) is much more important when looking at her Badwater potential. Her marathon time is pretty insignificant. She wouldn't win a 100 with anything better than local competition ... there's no chance she set a CR at Badwater.

Sorry, ladies. This is not adding up. I smell a 🐀. Has she spoken up yet or is she still hiding out ?

I don't think you can look at her heart rate data at all given the fact that her watch was turned around and loose. It had to be totally inaccurate.

Yes, the athlete has responded. It's my understanding that MI is wading though information, including GPS data and statements from crew, and Derek will release his conclusion at some point.

It strongly appears there will not be enough evidence to disprove the result. Time will probably ultimately tell whether it was a legit performance. Can the athlete perform at future ultras under heightened scrutiny?

The sleuths probably should've played the long game with this one, staying quiet while observing future performances, building a case for or against the result. If this performance if not authentic, it would've been easier to disprove by monitoring her body of work over time at future events.

It really sucks for the athlete if the performance is legitimate.

Jurek: 26.2 Mile Road Marathon: 2h38,mm, Austin Marathon 2006

you mean like this?

ultrasignup.com

Ashley Paulson's Results

Open link

She ran 4 ultras in the last 2 years - and won all of them.

Or this? 4 full ironmans in the last 3 years, all under 11 hours. 15 ironmans overall.

https://www.sportstats.ca/search-results.xhtml?query=ashley+paulson

She has nothing to prove to message board clowns, or Derek, who is way out of his league trying to interpret splits in an ultra endurance event.

Jurek ran it SIXTEEN years ago. Is it that hard to believe many people - including women - are better now than he was then?

This hero worship of old-time ultrarunners is ridiculous. If Jurek were racing today, he'd get his ass kicked by Walmsley and Hawks here, Francois and Killian in europe, Harvey and Courtney in ultra-long events. He'd be Eric Senseman basically.

Full Ironmans have nothing to do with predicting Badwater. Her ultrasignup results speak for themselves ... 17:26 100 (on a downhill hill net course in cool temps with three climbs that look to be about 1/5 what the climbs at BW are), 18:26 100, 22:42 100, a 9:22 50M ... that's not somebody who breaks the Badwater CR.