rollinbones wrote:
Or maybe a teenager on the track team. That he showered with.
He cheated at a marathon. You don't have to go into the gutter.
A marathon?
Been a decade of cheating.
With all the help FM must have had with his cheating, he has no choice but to stay quiet. It's too risky to those who helped him. If he confesses, the next question will be "who helped you?"
He was probably helped by others at Loyola, and their jobs, and possibly careers, would go up in smoke.
As far as this thread goes, it will still get lots of posts no matter what, but it will explode if any new evidence comes up, like a pic of him getting in/out of a car during the race. Whose car? I suspect the Loyola coach is probably in on it, since they both did LBM17 together and started long after the gun. Those are pretty damning pictures, coach!
Try this is right wrote:
With all the help FM must have had with his cheating, he has no choice but to stay quiet. It's too risky to those who helped him. If he confesses, the next question will be "who helped you?"
He was probably helped by others at Loyola, and their jobs, and possibly careers, would go up in smoke.
As far as this thread goes, it will still get lots of posts no matter what, but it will explode if any new evidence comes up, like a pic of him getting in/out of a car during the race. Whose car? I suspect the Loyola coach is probably in on it, since they both did LBM17 together and started long after the gun. Those are pretty damning pictures, coach!
Don't forget the wife and son. They had to know and I think were complicit.
He needs to burn for this wrote:
Don't forget the wife and son. They had to know and I think were complicit.
And daughter in law.
Does Frank have a dog?
Credit to LAM with doing their homework, and ultimately doing the right thing. Looks like they have an eyewitness beyond what has already been presented here. Also credit for catching the flawed 'Rob Lautz/Rob Lautze' finish.
Congrats to Dan Adams!
June 28, 2019
After an extensive review of original video evidence from official race cameras and security cameras at retail locations along the race course, Conqur Endurance Group has determined that Dr. Frank Meza violated a number of race rules during the 2019 Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon, including re-entering the course from a position other than where he left it. The video evidence is confirmed by a credible eyewitness report and our calculation that Dr. Meza’s actual running time for at least one 5K course segment would have had to have been faster than the current 70-74 age group 5K world-record [an impossible feat during a marathon].
Dr. Frank Meza is disqualified from the 2019 Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon.
The revised results for the Men’s 70-74 age group are:
1st - Dan Adams - 4:10:07
2nd - Marek Malolepzy - 4:11:08
3rd - Joe Ogata - 4:25:24
Dr. Frank Meza is disqualified from the 2019 Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon.
Disqualification Notice
June 28, 2019
After an extensive review of original video evidence from official race cameras and security cameras at retail locations along the race course, Conqur Endurance Group has determined that Dr. Frank Meza violated a number of race rules during the 2019 Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon, including re-entering the course from a position other than where he left it. The video evidence is confirmed by a credible eyewitness report and our calculation that Dr. Meza’s actual running time for at least one 5K course segment would have had to have been faster than the current 70-74 age group 5K world-record [an impossible feat during a marathon].
Dr. Frank Meza is disqualified from the 2019 Skechers Performance Los Angeles Marathon.
The revised results for the Men’s 70-74 age group are:
1st - Dan Adams - 4:10:07
2nd - Marek Malolepzy - 4:11:08
3rd - Joe Ogata - 4:25:24
Thank you. Hopefully now we can move on.
"The video evidence is confirmed by a credible eyewitness report"
?
FAR wrote:
Thank you. Hopefully now we can move on.
To all the other events over the last ten years or more.
rollinbones wrote:
I assuming he is. wrote:
Frank's a good Catholic, so I'm also assuming they'll be at least one person he'll be confessing too.
A good Catholic. That’s funny. So cheating at marathons is likely not worst he’s done.
We all know being associated with a Catholic institution means he’s beyond reproach.
He’s immoral. All it takes is one person to come forward about the cheating..
Or maybe a teenager on the track team. That he showered with.
The Penn State training camp victim reveals himself. Please get mental counseling. Don't blame yourself.
Frank: "telling his team that he would be running in Chicago" - Source: marathoninvestigation.com
.?. wrote:
"The video evidence is confirmed by a credible eyewitness report"
?
They seem to have been fairly thorough, i.e. including " security cameras at retail locations along the race course", so I'm guessing they've approached marshals who were on the course, especially the ones on the corner at the 25k.
I think FM was playing a long game. If you look at his race history, his times start diverting from the expected results of aging by 2007 at least. Maybe his first infraction was for a BQ, but his improvement from year to year after that isn't dramatic. It's very carefully incremental.
And he made sure to include supporting evidence. People have objected that a sub-3 marathoner should easily be able to run decent times in the 5K, 10K, and HM - and he did. His 10K dropped from 47 in 2008, to 44 in 2012, to the low 40s in 2013 and 2015, to sub-40 in 2018. He ran a 20-minute 5K in 2016, and he has HM times under 1:30 in 2016 and 2018. (Merely training runs, of course.)
He ran the same races year after year, improving his time each year and probably his technique as well. He learned what races were lax about timing and security, and he got a sense for where he could race a sub-3 marathon without calling too much attention to himself. He figured out how to show up in the expected number of photographs and hit all the timing mats.
He made some mistakes. In a big way at CIM, but he probably found himself persona non grata at other races as well when his times flew too close to the sun. But FM is not stupid and clearly learned from his mistakes.
You can set an AG record with a sub-3 marathon at 70+. And you can run a sub-3 marathon pretty unobtrusively at the right kind of race. Big enough to not stand out from the pack, but small (or small-time) enough that you've got a shot at evading security measures.
Of course, to capitalize on that realization, you have to start building a plausible performance history a decade out. He was probably getting close to the big payoff this year. All he needed was the AG record marathon time. Give it a few years after that for data to rot or become unavailable, and proving he hadn't run the whole course would have become almost impossible. Even now, with overwhelming evidence, LAM still won't DQ him. He didn't need official recognition from the IAAF or anyone else. All he needed was to be able to say, Take it from me! I'm the 70+ marathon record holder.
No, this thread is not close to being over. There are dozens of interesting road races left to look at.
maybe this wrote:
I think FM was playing a long game. If you look at his race history, his times start diverting from the expected results of aging by 2007 at least. Maybe his first infraction was for a BQ, but his improvement from year to year after that isn't dramatic. It's very carefully incremental.
And he made sure to include supporting evidence. People have objected that a sub-3 marathoner should easily be able to run decent times in the 5K, 10K, and HM - and he did. His 10K dropped from 47 in 2008, to 44 in 2012, to the low 40s in 2013 and 2015, to sub-40 in 2018. He ran a 20-minute 5K in 2016, and he has HM times under 1:30 in 2016 and 2018. (Merely training runs, of course.)
He ran the same races year after year, improving his time each year and probably his technique as well. He learned what races were lax about timing and security, and he got a sense for where he could race a sub-3 marathon without calling too much attention to himself. He figured out how to show up in the expected number of photographs and hit all the timing mats.
He made some mistakes. In a big way at CIM, but he probably found himself persona non grata at other races as well when his times flew too close to the sun. But FM is not stupid and clearly learned from his mistakes.
You can set an AG record with a sub-3 marathon at 70+. And you can run a sub-3 marathon pretty unobtrusively at the right kind of race. Big enough to not stand out from the pack, but small (or small-time) enough that you've got a shot at evading security measures.
Of course, to capitalize on that realization, you have to start building a plausible performance history a decade out. He was probably getting close to the big payoff this year. All he needed was the AG record marathon time. Give it a few years after that for data to rot or become unavailable, and proving he hadn't run the whole course would have become almost impossible. Even now, with overwhelming evidence, LAM still won't DQ him. He didn't need official recognition from the IAAF or anyone else. All he needed was to be able to say, Take it from me! I'm the 70+ marathon record holder.
No, this thread is not close to being over. There are dozens of interesting road races left to look at.
This DQ should create reverberations. After all FM's Phoenix 2:53:54 now becomes the FKT for 70 plus.
just this years race? hasn't he run other unbelievable times at LAM in the past? I was hoping they would all be scrubbed.
its like these athletes that get caught doping but get to keep the medals they've won prior to testing positive.
https://i.giphy.com/media/26xBFg4zXVwzdI9lS/giphy.gifBye Bye FM at LAM 2019 wrote:
https://www.lamarathon.com/news/disqualification-notice
