I read a few articles on the subject. He's averaging 11:12/mile, so that part doesn't sound unlikely at all to have a low heartrate. …
I don’t think it was just the sense of: “hey, that looks like a low heart rate.” If I remember correctly from the other thread, it’s that it’s basically very low in sections when he’s not observed, higher at other times, and that he either shows higher heart rates (or simply doesn’t share heart rate data) when he’s been in sanctioned, monitored runs, so that if you even factor in different paces at those runs, the difference is very, very suspicious. But I may be remembering incorrectly or could be wrong about details overall.
You're about right. I read almost every page of the OG US transcon Willvc thread and also poked around with some downloaded files of his runs.
His HR was wildly variable and not in a way that wrist-based monitors usually are. He would pick up the pace, up a very long climbs, and his heart rate might decrease. His pace would slow to a walk, but his cadence might indicate 160SPM. There was a lot of nonsense data in there that looked nothing like the occasional nonsense I'm used to observing from my watch as well as all my friends' watches/Stravas.
To understand Goodge, his dad, and everyone else connected to his endeavors, you need to start with the psychology of the "content creator".
If you see your mission as one of creating compelling, moving narratives online, the distinction between truth and falsity becomes irrelevant, or at least no more relevant than it would be to someone making a biopic or other form of entertainment based on real events.
When addressed by mainstream media, Goodge continually deflects from the athletic side of his stunts to the fundraising side, and to the story about his mother in particular. In these instances, I don't think it bothers him, or even necessarily crosses his mind, that he has not actually done what he's claiming to have done athletically. In his mind, he has done what he set out to do, which is to create compelling online content and engagement, the quality of which is measured by his number of followers, which is in turn measured by the value of his "brand partnerships". I'm sure everyone involved, including his dad, recognize that it's THIS, and not doing the actual athletic thing in its entirety, that is the point. And their collective conscience, if they have one at all, is probably salved a little by the fact that he probably did do a fair bit of running both in the US and AUS.
But the truth that he actually knows he's a fraud when it comes to the athletic side is revealed in his engagement with the running community, whom he knows are not and never will be the target audience for his content. Where he is earnest, even angelic, in his presentation to mainstream media like CNN, he is sneering, arrogant, and dismissive toward actual runners. It's as if he's giving us all a knowing wink, acknowledging that he's a fraud but at the same time taunting us because he's getting away with it. (Note that in the interview posted, he cops to drinking a beer or two at the end of the day but not to smoking cigarettes-- something he pointedly does to troll actual runners).
If anyone, Goodge's dad included, really cared about the athletic side of what he's doing, and about what actual runners think, they would go to whatever lengths necessary to substantiate what he claims to have done. That they haven't tells you all you need to know.
This might be the best recount of the "content creator" ever
I read a few articles on the subject. He's averaging 11:12/mile, so that part doesn't sound unlikely at all to have a low heartrate. You could imagine that someone who is not particularly fast at running (2:57) because of fat and muscle might have greater stores for endurance. On the plus side as well, you had various people show up and run with him until he stopped allowing that at a certain point. They saw him running, not riding slowly in a van, like Young. The only really damning data that I saw was the 80km/h speeds popping up, don't know for how long. That right there demands an explanation, though I'm sure they would just say that they were driving back to a restaurant or the like and then heading back to the point at which he stopped running.
His HR was never that low when running slower while being observed but the min he was alone boom pace increased and HR dropped. Definitely faked
LRC visitors, it seems most of you think he is a fraud. How confident are you that he is a fraud?
I mean it seems quite brazen for him to have his father as part of the team and say he's inspired by your dead mother. How would you get everyone else on board? I can only imagine what my own father would say to me if my mom was dead and I said, "Hey let's fake a run in honor."
Rojo, as the owner of the finest guerilla running website on the planet, I am disappointed you haven't put this to bed already. Where were the rallying calls to arms? The public admonishments? The financial incentives for Goodge to lay down mediocre but out-of-reach performances in public? You grew your website from these sort of stunts in the early days, and drew in many new visitors, like me.
There is no debate, Goodge is a mediocre marathon runner who gets worse as the distances get longer, except when no-one's watching, when he becomes superhuman (without a pulse). But he has the powerful backing of some ignorant or willfully blind sponsors and a bunch of flat-earthers who wouldn't accept he was cheating if they saw a video of him sat in the back of a van driving through the Outback at 8 kph posing for selfies in his pants, who've managed to keep the forum threads going for about 300 pages.
He's been telling anyone who'll listen that he's going to enter some legitimate races, and thinks he can compete / podium / win. If he goes through with this it will probably be in the US and we have to catch him. Will Cockerell can't do it all on his own.
Finally, here in the British running community, Will Cockerell is a national treasure. Well, a South of England treasure. Well, a South London treasure. He ran a 66 half marathon over a decade before there was anything super about running shoes and this guy, Goodge, a 2.57 marathoner, prances about on national television referring to him as a so-called expert AND THROWS ROCKS AT HIM!!