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

If he were only Tarahumara this could be cleared up immediatley ....or a Chilango.

Took me a while v2 wrote:

I am just sick of all of this. It is so rotten and mean. Frank is a wonderful man, a fantastic fluid runner and a marvellous human being.

To be honest he has become my reason for living. Saving him and saving his reputation is arguably just as important as saving an endangered species. Yes, I said it. Men like Frank are in danger of dying out. Real men brought up in adversity, who are humble, help others and make something of themselves. He deserves to be left alone.

If that's your reason for living, then you're pretty f'd up.

Took me a while v2 wrote:

Yes, I know. In the short time I have spent becoming besotted with him on this thread, I have grown to love the man. He has truly magnificent legs - two of them , in fact. And they are wizened and wise like Aztec oak trees, with roots that stretch back to his ancestors.

The way he chooses to dress is also very attractive to me. An older man, with a nice hat, and flattering shorts is something I find very appealing. I honestly don't think he gets enough credit for that on this forum.

I am flattered that you're so enthralled with the cause, brother. Let us carry on and vindicate Dr. Meza! Aztlán!

Do you ever feel guilty about ruining someones reputation based on a blurry pic from 500 yards which could be a million people wearing a blue shirt including the woman wearing a blue shirt standing not more than 10 feet from another person wearing the same blue shirt? How do you even get to this point in your life?

I'm glad you asked. This is how we get here:

Hope Frankie buys you a nice Xmas gift for your work on getting his name out there!

Oye, Frank, donde vas?

Scott Dominguez wrote:I find the consistent lack of photos one of the most damning pieces of evidence. Having only run one marathon myself, how likely is it that someone who doesn’t look like they would be running at the front end of the field but is would be intentionally ignored by the photographers?

That's actually not the most damning, because it can still be 'explained away', despite the low odds of not being photographed.

What is more damning is the actual visual observations, of points on course such as the 18.7km of LAM19, where he is for at least 45sec, then the time lost to the 20km marker (vs target pace), a clear indication that he didnt run particular splits at the recorded time, unless he had vehicular assistance.

The photos lead the trolls to say 'absence of evidence' is not 'evidence of absence'

That explains everything wrote:

https://imgur.com/a/UCmOqOi

When I scrolled down and saw this I laughed out loud (in a barking kind of way...like if you'd imagine how your own dog would laugh). This post just won the internet for the day!

Thanks for making my day...

Woof! Woof!

Gotta hand it to Frank, who has become a viral sensation. He broke the internet.

I Am Sam wrote:

What is more damning is the actual visual observations, of points on course such as the 18.7km of LAM19, where he is for at least 45sec, then the time lost to the 20km marker (vs target pace), a clear indication that he didnt run particular splits at the recorded time, unless he had vehicular assistance.

The photos lead the trolls to say 'absence of evidence' is not 'evidence of absence'

I'm glad you memorized my quote. It was a great quote. It took me almost as long to come up with it as my slew of ancronyms for LRC. It makes this all worth it.

However, you are discounting the video evidence where he ran _faster_ than his WR pace. You cant play it both ways. You have no idea how he was running for the other 26 miles of the race, other than that you may have witness him catch his breath for a portion.

Took me a while v2 wrote:

I am just sick of all of this. It is so rotten and mean. Frank is a wonderful man, a fantastic fluid runner and a marvellous human being. To be honest he has become my reason for living. Saving him and saving his reputation is arguably just as important as saving an endangered species. Yes, I said it. Men like Frank are in danger of dying out. Real men brought up in adversity, who are humble, help others and make something of themselves. He deserves to be left alone.

Granting your wish that he be left alone. He must have been all alone somewhere near the six mile mark in the race. Because he ain't in the pix....

I held this one back a while because these photos don’t typically show up in the collections you can search via bib number. The photos are lower res, and the bibs are hard to see. But the colors runners are wearing are easy to see. So, my methodology from the prior posts should help with this one.

This fixed camera was on Glendale Boulevard, right near Echo Park. This would put the camera at just before the 6 mile mark. And also just before the 10K mat. Based on the aspect ratio of the photos and the distance runners get between frames, I’m thinking it’s a GoPro on a one-second time lapse. That’s especially helpful, because you can count one second between each of the photos and determine how far apart the runners were at this point.

End of the fourth row in the series is #1299. You can tell him by his red shirt and blue shorts. He crossed 10K at 7:35:58 a.m.

In the ninth row, you can see one of my favorite of our old friends, #22397 in the yellow top and red shorts. He waved at pretty much every camera he passed on the course, I think. He crossed 10K at 7:36:18.

The last in the series has our old friend #19087, the woman in the bandana and sunglasses. She crossed 10K at 7:36:29.

Frank crossed 10K at 7:36:07, or a mere 9 seconds after #1299, 8 seconds before #22397, and 22 seconds before #19087.

But in this series right before the 10K mat, Frank’s nowhere to be seen.

Yes, he's all alone somewhere. Just not here.

Deadesq -

This is amazing. Thanks so much for posting these. Awesome work.

And the hits keep coming. ? ?

deadesq wrote:

Yes, he's all alone somewhere. Just not here.

Doesn't add anything to the thread. This is worth than worthless. This thread is over. LAM is not disqualifying him. Anti-Frankers have lost. Frank has lost. Running has lost. The only person winning here is me.

Good work deadesq,

These photos are after the 10K mat. Frank was caught by photo stretching out on the sidewalk right before the 10K mat. This proves he left the course again after crossing the 10K mat.

https://www.lamarathon.com/event-info/the-course/course-map

letsrunstacks wrote:

Deadesq -

This is amazing. Thanks so much for posting these. Awesome work.

+1

One last thing before I sign off for the night.

Frank made his own bed here, so I don't feel too sorry for him. But I tend to be a person who wants to make the world a better place. So, if the moderators of the board are interested in putting up money, how about this?

In exchange for a chunk of change to be determined, but something substantial, as a donation to Aztlan, Loyola High School or some other charity of Frank's choosing, Frank agrees to sit down with Doubler and explain exactly how all this went down. All the way back to when he first started. Putting up money to have him prove something that will simply not be proven, i.e. his inability to run a 2:53 marathon, is a waste of effort. Channel it into something good. I'll kick in some myself.

Then, Doubler, with the assistance of some on this board who have put in additional investigative work, authors a book on the matter, all proceeds again going to Frank's charity. The Reddit thread on this whole affair indicates that there's a ready population of potential buyers for such a book, and frankly, it would read like a great mystery novel if done well.

Frank doesn't have to name names if he had accomplices, but he could rest better knowing that some good came out of what appears to have been an ENORMOUS amount of pre-planning on his part. I'm working on a map that I may or may never finish showing how Frank could have done this with locations and timestamps. Not to prove whether he cheated, but rather to prove how he cheated. It would be a lot easier to just have Frank tell all.

So, Frank?

Brilliant! Incredibly well done!

Many pages ago, when the thread cooled, we busied ourselves talking about prevention measures including one or two random video cameras on the course. I support that. Others felt it would drive up race fees. Regardless, this just about serves that purpose.

If L.A. fails to DQ in light of evidence like this then it really is just a bush league, minor, hack of a race.

There is no reason for Frank to comply with this because Frank is innocent and won't be DQed. What part of that is hard to comprehend?

You aren't a RD. You have no idea what evidence they have to keep his time up. I'm sure it's plenty.

Frank will disappear and now you've alienated a whole group of potential new runners who came from LA Times to find out that if they run a marathon Derek is going to chase them down and try to get them fired. Well done chaps.

So what was solved in the last 100 pages?