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

Boom!

Mic drop.

From LATimes:

"Meza suspects the only way to redeem himself is by having an official observer accompany him at his next marathon."

He was given this chance, but he decided to dodge it with a lame excuse wanting to run with Alumni during their track season.

From Frank:

“I don’t know what else I can do,” he says.

You can always do a 5k, 10k, half marathon at your alleged 2:53 marathon pace.

From LATimes:

“With them, he is guilty until proven innocent,” Diaz says. “The burden should be on them to say this is irrefutable, this is what you did and we caught you. Why is the burden on him?”

There are irrefutable evidence that he didn't run the full marathon. What else do you need?

From LATimes:

The controversy has left Meza wondering what to do next. His love of running burns strong, as does a desire for redemption. He speaks of finishing his next marathon in a fast time, with an observer by his side.

Not going to happen. He already dodge an observer given the chance in 2016, he will dodge it again.

“I’m kind of losing sleep over it,” he says. “Obviously your mind is going to run wild. … What happens if everyone starts believing this?”

Well, if you stop cheating, then nobody would believe it. Just run your alleged marathon pace at a shorter distance.

Does anyone have Frank Meza's contact?

I am trying to qualify for Boston marathon, and it seems like Frank has the ideal plan! Crossing every timing mat in believable times, coming to the finish line all fresh and cool instead of sweaty and stinky!

I think this is way worse than your regular cheater. Premeditated cheating! Probably has the course route all mapped out along with where all the timing mats are along with getting help to finish the marathon in fast times!

I wonder how many others are cheating their way to Boston through this method? By the time that someone would be found out cheating this way, they would have already ran the Boston marathon and would forget about it.

Trying to BQ wrote:

I wonder how many others are cheating their way to Boston through this method? By the time that someone would be found out cheating this way, they would have already ran the Boston marathon and would forget about it.

The people you could well imagine doing this and getting away with it are those who build up a resume of fast (but not exceptional enough to stand out) times across all distances and whatever drives them to do this, narcissism is not their reason so they don't get noticed.

Scott Dominguez wrote:

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.

Yep, they're standing up and coming out of the woodwork in their droves in support of Dr. Meza:

1. Scott Dominguez

2. To Be Advised.

3. To Be Advised.

4. To Be Advised.

5. To Be Advised.

6. To Be Advised.

7. To Be Advised.

8. To Be Advised.

9. To Be Advised.

Etc...

These "Scott Dominguez" posts belong in the LRC Trolling HOF. Well done!

10/10!

BRAVO!!!!!!

I've been absorbed in a project over the past few months and completely missed this story. Pity the dedicated LR marathon-scandal fan who wanders into p. 1 of this thread! I spent a couple of hours last night reading my way in, occasionally skipping ten or twenty pages.

It would be helpful to folks like me if somebody were able to assemble the best evidence that has been unearthed so far into a brief for the prosecution. Just a set of bullet points. If that's already been done, then please tell me (and others like me) what page of the thread that's on.

I'm a huge Ed Whitlock fan and want to be 100% sure that anybody whose times dislodge his from the top of the totem pole is 100% in the clear. With Meza, it seems, the principal evidence for the charge that he notches his record-setting times by jumping on and off the courses in question, using cars or bikes or shortcuts or some other method of getting from point to point is:

--many, many missed timing mats; missed timing mats in virtually every exceptional marathon performance

--far fewer photos of him, in virtually every fast marathon, than photos of his time-equivalent competitors in those same races.

--in the still photos of him that we do have, crossing various finish lines, he's not nearly as skinny as Ed Whitlock (fwiw, this strikes me, by itself, as extremely shaky evidence)

--in several carefully inspected video sequences, he can be seen jumping into the race from some dark location on the right side of the frame

--he hasn't run any shorter races at anything like his sub-3 marathon pace, something that would provide some basic substantiation (although not firm proof) that he has what it takes to run a full marathon at sub-three pace

--in some available video footage, when he appears in proximity to others who notch finishing times roughly equivalent to his, he's running much slower than they are.

Have I got that right? Are those the basics of the case against him? I'm simply summarizing what I absorbed from a couple of hours of moving through this gargantuan thread.

"Have I got that right?" - No.

"Are those the basics of the case against him?" - No.

"I'm simply summarizing" - Yes you are, very simply.

This is a cheating thread and we don't like course cheaters or thread cheaters.

Read the whole thread.

KudzuRunner wrote:

Have I got that right? Are those the basics of the case against him? I'm simply summarizing what I absorbed from a couple of hours of moving through this gargantuan thread.

Don't R*ssi the thread and do read Derek's articles. The LA Times article has this background which taken apart from all the other, better evidence tells its own story.

"A 2:52 result at the 2014 California International Marathon in Sacramento earned him recognition by Runner’s World magazine but, unbeknownst to much of the community, officials at that race had noticed something odd about his pace over the final miles.

They approached Meza, who offered no explanation for the timing equipment recording him at such a fast split.

'I don’t run that kind of time,' he says. 'I actually told them, if you disqualify me, I won’t protest. I don’t want any doubts to be there.'

It was the first of two disqualifications in that race, which eventually banned him. There were additional suspicions.

When Meza recorded another fast time in warm temperatures at the 2015 L.A. Marathon, officials lacked evidence to take action but requested he run with an observer the following year.

Meza agreed but ended up skipping L.A. in 2016, entering the Oakland Marathon instead. The track team at nearby UC Berkeley had three Loyola alumni on the roster that season."

As for his build, I'd say if you had nothing else, it should make you very suspicious unless you do not understand Physics.

The MI articles summarize the evidence well. Also look at the post by ‘maybe this’ on p 183, which provides a pretty convincing snapshot of anomalies in (I think) the 2016 Oakland Marathon.

There are also posts about Meza removing his timing chip from his bib and wearing it on a lanyard around his neck, or as a wristband. That alone proves nothing, but it’s an interesting data point when combined with all the others.

Wowww. I really, really hope this is a troll post. Otherwise this might be one of the dumbest most embarrassing District Attorneys in the country. I could sympathize with this guy if he had ANY other profession, but come one.. a D.A. blindly ignoring all of the evidence?? Wowww

Hi. This "Scott Dominguez" is a troll. Copied and pasted from the LA Time message board.

All good that you're being diplomatic and on the side that he cheated

Nevertheless, you stated: "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"

Really?! Frankly, we don't have ANY assurances that he has ANY accomplishments. None. Only real result that can be verified as being within his athletic ability and for his age is the over 4 hour run at the age of 59 in 2008's Boston Marathon. That's it. In fact, there's plenty of smoke that he cheated his way into a BQ at the 2007 Santa Clarita Marathon (i.e., First 5 mile split @ 6:02 pace (

) to get him into the 2008 Boston Marathon. If Marathon Investigation was around then, he may have been flagged at Santa Clarita 2007 and exposed before this madness began. I think the light-bulb went off in his head: "Hey, this is easy to do and I get so much attention that it's worth the risk". Man, he didn't even flinch when DQ'd twice and then banned from CIM. That would be traumatic to any runner let alone a "world class athlete" (snark) like the Doc. I would beg that race to place a spotter with me, I would share my garmin report. Anything to prove I'm not a cheater! Nope. Not Dr. Meza who knew he was guilty.

What is so ridiculous is anyone defending him by lying about his "fast" practice runs. They should be intervening with him NOW to get him psychological help not defending with probable lies.

Wowwww wrote:

Wowww. I really, really hope this is a troll post. Otherwise this might be one of the dumbest most embarrassing District Attorneys in the country. I could sympathize with this guy if he had ANY other profession, but come one.. a D.A. blindly ignoring all of the evidence?? Wowww

Seems like a legit post! Or at least, there is a Scott Dominguez in LA that matches:

triathleteguru wrote:

Seems like a legit post! Or at least, there is a Scott Dominguez in LA that matches:

I found plenty of evidence that such a person exists and went to the institutions claimed, it does stretch credulity that he is the person who posted but I decided to play along.

Page 183 wrote:

The MI articles summarize the evidence well. Also look at the post by ‘maybe this’ on p 183, which provides a pretty convincing snapshot of anomalies in (I think) the 2016 Oakland Marathon.

There are also posts about Meza removing his timing chip from his bib and wearing it on a lanyard around his neck, or as a wristband. That alone proves nothing, but it’s an interesting data point when combined with all the others.

Also in the "interesting data points" category are the fact that he seems to change clothes a lot during races. In one race, he starts with a pair of prescription glasses and changes to sunglasses. An odd tag has been seen on a lanyard, even after the D-tag days. It is assumed to be a cheat sheet of the splits he needs to hit at mats. He also has an odd habit of wearing two watches.

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

I found plenty of evidence that such a person exists and went to the institutions claimed, it does stretch credulity that he is the person who posted but I decided to play along.

As Brooklyn said, the letter was copied/pasted from the LA Time comments on the published article.

HOWEVER I seriously doubt a DA would write the original letter; I'd be tempted to contact Mr. Dominguez directly. If it wasn't him, the comments attributed to him on the LA Times article should be removed.

I don’t doubt that FM did some good things in the past that has given him admirers. But to now force those people into having to defend his antics is is disappointing. This is like watching everyone on the President’s Cabinet defend him. People are willing to throw away their reputation to defend someone who, because of their actions, show that their only concern is for themselves. Frank, stop this madness and for the sake of those who support you, come out with evidence that proves you are a world record holder. If you can’t, then be truthful.

bored troller wrote:

As Brooklyn said, the letter was copied/pasted from the LA Time comments on the published article.

HOWEVER I seriously doubt a DA would write the original letter; I'd be tempted to contact Mr. Dominguez directly. If it wasn't him, the comments attributed to him on the LA Times article should be removed.

I take the letter as a veil threat. It explicitly mentions libel. It's like, keep it up, "the accused has defenders and connections in high places, and they're pursue libel allegations."

L.A Times comments not working for me. Any idea how to fix this. Tries Firefox, Chrome etc and no dice.