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

Gone viral - Worldwide! wrote:

Going viral - Worldwide! wrote:

Gone viral - Worldwide!

https://viralnewsgossip.com/is-this-70-year-old-marathon-runner-from-east-l-a-a-record-setter-or-a-cheater-los-angeles-times/

Frank is finally getting the recognition he so desperately craves

Derek's Mom wrote:

Credit wrote:

He basically steals everything from this site.

A fat and lazy investigator suspends judgement until he/she has enough murky evidence to make accusations. I commend Derek for wadling through all the info, contacting the concerned parties, and plagliarizing LRC's findings and figuring out how to make a buck or two off of it. He doesn’t make up his own facts, just presents the details that everyone else has already discovered. Great Job Derek, hopefully people contemplating cheating in the future will take heed of how this doesn't mean sh!t because old geezer records don't matter at all.

FTFY.

Hi Derek's mom. Welcome to Let's Run.

general question only, no names mentioned. wrote:

Here's a general question not specific to anyone. What's their opinion on lying? Hypothetically, would lying be worse than cheating at a Catholic institution?

yes, kegboy has claimed that he is a loyola xc alum.

I don't think there is necessarily a clear distinction between cheating and lying and one being worse than the other. cheating is lying. it seems like when Loyola's principal received news of frank he was taken down from loyola's website very quickly. i doubt any reputable school would stand for something like that.

attention seeker wrote:

Gone viral - Worldwide! wrote:

Gone viral - Worldwide!

https://viralnewsgossip.com/is-this-70-year-old-marathon-runner-from-east-l-a-a-record-setter-or-a-cheater-los-angeles-times/

Frank is finally getting the recognition he so desperately craves

Not an unbalanced article I must say. Fantastic that this thread has brought public light to bear on this case.

My name is Scott Dominguez and I am a 1996 graduate of Loyola High School where my cross-country teammates and I were coached by Dr. Meza. From Loyola High, I went on to Georgetown University and then law school at UCLA Law. I am now a Deputy District Attorney here in Los Angeles. I can guarantee you that these allegations that Dr. Meza would "cheat" on his times is FALSE! Between freshman year in 1992 at Loyola, through senior year in 1996, Dr. Meza ran every workout with us and would smoke us when it came to longer distances. He is a runner's runner, and a GREAT guy. My brother (who also ran cross-country at Loyola) and I were raised by a single mother who worked multiple jobs to get us to Loyola. Dr. Meza would give us rides to and from meets, buy us running shoes when my Mom couldn't afford the best running shoes, and covered fees for our training camps. He would buy us lunch and dinner! AND he always ran FAST. You can ask anybody on our team, from the number one Varsity runner (I never ran faster than the number three runner on Varsity), to the last kid on Frosh/Soph....Dr. Meza is FAST when it comes to long distances, and he doesn't cheat. PLEASE let your LA Times readers know that Dr. Meza's literally thousands of runners who he has coached will stand up and support him. He deserves better than the libel that has been posted by internet trolls who have nothing better to do, are uninformed, and are flat out wrong. I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you, provide any verification you may need and correct these very unfair and sad accusations against such a wonderful and positive influence for so many people.

Hey Scott,

Have your read the multiple articles about him on marathoninvestigation.com? Take a good look at those and then come back here. You claim that all of the runners he coached will support him, yet all of my former Loyola teammates (much more recent than '96) and myself have read the articles and not a single one of us will stand up for him. No one can deny that Doc can run (or at least shuffle), especially 20+ years ago, but it's unfortunately over. He is a cheat.

Why should I listen to anything from an internet troll? Kegboy? I'm actually here using my real name, who are you?

Assuming you are really who you say you are, it's embarrassing that a D.A. - someone who investigates and prosecutes individuals - would make the claim that these current accusations with ample evidence to back them up are most certainly not true because the guy seemed like a decent fella when you knew him 23 years ago. Really, it's laughable that you would truly think that having a character witness would outweigh photographic evidence, and explain away impossible splits and previous DQ's. Is that how it works in court?

I don't believe you are really the guy you claim to be. I really don't want to believe that a D.A. could be that stupid.

Scott if he is legit please explain the DQ's, the photos, the crazy spilts, the late starts, the loitering on the side of the road, the shennanigans with his bib, the lack of equivalent times at shorter distances, etc, etc.

Also if you're a runner watch the videos of him at tell me if you seriously believe that it looks like he's moving at 2:50 pace.

Scott, your direct personal experience is very helpful in providing a fuller perspective on who Dr. Frank Meza is. I don't think there is any doubt that Dr. Meza has made many wonderful contributions to his community--both in the medical field as well as in the running community. Thank you for this perspective.

However, it is equally clear that, while Dr. Meza appears to have had many legitimate running accomplishments over the years; accomplishments that he--or anyone his age--should take great pride in; there is ample, indisputable evidence that he did not run the complete course during at least 6 marathons since 2014, including the 2019 LA Marathon, the 2019 Sprouts-Phoenix Marathon.

Dr. Meza may well be capable of running under 3 hours for a complete marathon, but he did not do that at these two marathons in 2019, or at the other 4 marathons that have been analyzed.

It is noble and important for Dr. Meza's friends and colleagues to rally around and help him at this time. For what it's worth, I think one of the ways to help him would be to assist Dr. Meza to confront how and why he was unable to complete the full courses while claiming that he did.

His failure to honestly confront, explain, and offer amends for the marathons which he clearly did not complete, is undercutting his previous running accomplishments, and well deserved reputation as a leader in his community.

Marathons are tough. Maybe he got caught up in the moment. Maybe there are issues that would help explain this lapse in judgement. I hope Dr. Meza is able to honestly confront this. I think if he does, his many friends and accomplishments will help him to get past it.

Scott Dominguez wrote:

Why should I listen to anything from an internet troll? Kegboy? I'm actually here using my real name, who are you?

Also, just to fill you in, that's kind of how message boards work: most people don't use their real names. There are many reasons why that might be convenient or a good idea, and it doesn't follow that everybody not using their real name is automatically a troll.

You make it out like Meza was super-fast when you were in high school - how fast exactly? What were some examples of workouts that he would smoke you guys on? I'm finding that unlikely even then, that a then-47-year-old Meza was stomping the top kids at a historically competitive high school program. I think somebody did manage to dig up a 4:39 1500m performance for him when he was in his 30's, so I guess being only a decade or so removed from that would totally qualify him to dominate a team of high school studs. But let me guess: he didn't run races at that time that would reflect his amazing ability, even though he was super-fit from running with the high-schoolers, and even though he is clearly a guy who likes to race.

I'm sorry to see this. The lawyers in this case had been behavioring so much better than the physicians until now.

Still, I'm glad that you're willing to assist us in providing accurate information to the public, because there are holes in what we've been able to find out thus far. For example, since you knew him in so many capacities -- runner, coach, mentor, friend, physician -- do you recall any college or other teams that he ever ran on, or any of his performances in any running competitions back in his younger days? If not, do you know who would have any such information?

You say that you guarantee that the allegations of cheating are false, and you accuse "internet trolls" of posting libel. Can you identify the particular individuals and the specific false and libelous statements that they have published?

Have you reviewed substantially all of the evidence -- or at least conducted a thorough and good-faith investigation before issuing your guarantee that Frank Meza did not cheat, and before issuing your own accusations that others have made false and libelous allegations against Frank Meza? I'm especially interested in your views about all of the photographic evidence, as well as the evidence that led to multiple disqualifications and an eventual lifetime ban from the California International Marathon.

I understand that you may not know much about Frank's racing history in recent years. Could you give us names of people -- family members, fellow physicians and coaches, younger athletes, and training partners whom you would expect to know more about Frank's running and racing in recent years?

Finally, do you know anyone whose views about some of these matters might be different from your own. It makes sense to talk to them, if they are willing to do so.

Scott, I understand your loyalty to your former coach. And honestly I am sorry for your having to find this out. My reaction would be similar to yours, You have reaffirmed my faith in Frank as a person. But sometimes as we get older we find a need for excitement. I think this may be what happened. Maybe he did it once to qualify for the Boston Marathon. And simply repeated it later. Than later...and here we are. The slow improvement was methodical. I noticed it. I even thought he was so disciplined to just improve a little each year. Try to keep your prosecutor's open mind. Follow the facts. Frank says we need irrefutable proof. There actually is a lot of that. Both statistical and visual. With an eyewitness or two. Certainly now more evidences will materialize. People will try to be the one to find the "smoking gun". I hope you would stand by Frank even if he admits all.

Scott Dominguez wrote:

My name is Scott Dominguez and I am a 1996 graduate of Loyola High School where my cross-country teammates and I were coached by Dr. Meza. From Loyola High, I went on to Georgetown University and then law school at UCLA Law. I am now a Deputy District Attorney here in Los Angeles. ...

This has got to be a troll post, hasn't it?

Someone's got that name from the LA Times article and is trolling us.

Sure don't look like something a DA would write.

Covered here previously, I think you're letting the late night drink get to you though with the "would smoke us" bit lol:

Hey Scott, check this out:

Hey Coach wrote:

Diaz old son, take a look at this: wrote:

Diaz old son, take a look at this and you'll see it:

https://imgur.com/a/qjBbUZy

"you look at Dr. Frank Meza, could this have happened? I don’t see it."

http://d35l3oybk21k7h.cloudfront.net/photos/photos/6277416_race_0.3399940168106095.display.jpg?1406592670

Scott Dominguez wrote:

Why should I listen to anything from an internet troll? Kegboy? I'm actually here using my real name, who are you?

Scott, this was kegboy's first post on a previous thread about Frank Meza's previous record beating race in Phoenix. Frank Meza, otherwise known as "Doc," was one of my high school coaches! He is an assistant coach at Loyola in LA, and is an amazing guy. Super accomplished doctor, runner, and overall knowledgable and thoughtful guy. Much love for Doc!

Now which of these could be a sub three hour marathon runner?

Hey Scott, check this out. wrote:

https://imgur.com/a/qjBbUZy

FOR ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

Enlighten me. I don't get it. I'm referring to the whole cutting the bottom of the bib, holding the timing chip on a lanyard, etc. I don't understand why he'd do it. Is it so that he can hand off the timing chip without anybody seeing a bib swap? If so, then there's an accomplice out there who knows that all fo this stuff was going on. Is that what you mean?

Is there a reasonable, innocent explanation for why someone would do this ? Most of the accomplice theories are based on "I don't see how he could blah blah blah" but this is the only reasonable explanation for separating the number from the timing chip.