I'm sure some of them still think it's a witchhunt.
It's NOT!
We just want integrity at the top of the sport. Age groups matter too. DQ's across the board for every bogus marathon.
I'm sure some of them still think it's a witchhunt.
It's NOT!
We just want integrity at the top of the sport. Age groups matter too. DQ's across the board for every bogus marathon.
maybe this wrote:
Also: I think FM was feeling the head from several directions. He ran the Santa Clarita Marathon every year from 2009 to 2017 (he ran the HM in 2016), but but in 2017 his finishing time was too fast for a relatively weak field and he ended up 3rd overall (on chip time; the 4th-place finisher actually finished ahead of him, and only the winner was determined by gun time). I spent some time looking at the 2017 race, but it's hard to make a case. He hits all (three) timing mats, and there are no on-course photos. His last 4.7 miles is around 8:00/mile, but people get tired and slow down at the end of marathons, right?
There's video from the mile 1 water stop, and FM's initial pace of 6:23 and starting delay of 1:49 should put him right with the 3:40 pace group, somewhere from 3:10 to 3:40 or later in the video. I don't see him anywhere in the video, but the video quality sucks. Who thought 360p was a good idea in 2017?
https://www.facebook.com/khtsradio/videos/2017-santa-clarita-marathon-mile-1/1571964182868680/So no hard evidence and FM lives to run another day. But I think the RD was on to him.
SCM, 2018: There are thousands and thousands of on-course photos, and now the top 3 places are determined by gun time. And FM isn't running.
This may be why he started branching out the last few years, to Oakland and Mesa/Phoenix, in search of races where he wasn't so well known already.
Also, this would make a great vehicle for an aging Hollywood star. The Old Man and the Run: A sympathetic rascal hatches a hare-brained plan to snatch the AG marathon record by planning and executing the perfect race cheat, but the risk of exposure is climbing as jealous rivals and nosy snoops start to notice anomalies in his race times. (In the movie, FM would orchestrate Gene Dykes breaking his clavicle to keep him out of contention.) In the end, getting caught helps FM gain spiritual insight and his loved ones learn to accept him for who he is and not as a record-holding marathoner.
I knew I'd pop up in one of these videos, yours truly jogging by around the 1:40 mark. This is great, all my races over the past few years I move up One overall place. Too bad for Frank though. He would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids.
Stop calling the Pasadena Half Marathon a kids charity. It’s not. People can choose to run and donate towards a charity. It’s run by the same group, Conqur, that does LAM. It also happens to be owned by the scumball, FRANK McCourt, who used to own the Dodgers. He was forced to sell the Dodgers because he couldn’t make payroll due to siphoning off team money to his other shady dealings.
“With general entries closed, Conqur is offering a limited number of charity entries, which require payment of the entry fee, plus a minimum $50 donation; the charity will benefit the Pasadena Ronald McDonald House, the event’s official charity partner.”
“Baseball asserts that McCourt siphoned $189 million from the team over seven years.
;
From the LAM press release:
" 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"
which one? the 35-40K in 19:47 is the fastest I see. Or maybe there's an unpublished mat?
FM's splits:
Location Net Clock Pace
START 00:00 00:48
5K 20:02 20:50 6:27 /mi
10K 40:19 41:07 6:29 /mi
15K 1:00:52 1:01:40 6:32 /mi
20K 1:22:13 1:23:01 6:37 /mi
25K 1:42:15 1:43:03 6:35 /mi
30K 2:03:38 2:04:26 6:38 /mi
35K 2:24:22 2:25:10 6:38 /mi
40K 2:44:09 2:44:57 6:36 /mi
FINISH 2:53:10 2:53:58 6:36 /mi
" 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"
Or maybe they're using time stamps from photos?
If not, this should have not have required much investigation. The DQ should have been quick with zero excuse for that wishy washy BS they pulled "we've decided to take a different course."
bored troller wrote:
From the LAM press release:
" 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"
which one? the 35-40K in 19:47 is the fastest I see. Or maybe there's an unpublished mat?
FM's splits:
Location Net Clock Pace
START 00:00 00:48
5K 20:02 20:50 6:27 /mi
10K 40:19 41:07 6:29 /mi
15K 1:00:52 1:01:40 6:32 /mi
20K 1:22:13 1:23:01 6:37 /mi
25K 1:42:15 1:43:03 6:35 /mi
30K 2:03:38 2:04:26 6:38 /mi
35K 2:24:22 2:25:10 6:38 /mi
40K 2:44:09 2:44:57 6:36 /mi
FINISH 2:53:10 2:53:58 6:36 /mi
Believe they are subtracting "Stoppage Time".
triathleteguru wrote:
BTW, he still has this:
"I have coached five state championships, and my teams have been ranked sixth and eighth in the nation. I recently set eight California age group marathon records."
here:
https://healthy.kaiserpermanente.org/southern-california/physicians/frank-meza-9066593
I'm not sure if somebody has made this suggestion yet, and it is a very mean suggestion, but an argument could be made that this sort of serial fraud goes beyond FM's problematic career as a marathoner and speaks to his integrity as a board certified medical professional. The relevant category would be "unprofessional conduct." Look at the following page on the Medical Board of California website:
http://www.mbc.ca.gov/Consumers/Complaints/Scroll down. I'm talking about the following item:
"Unprofessional Conduct (e.g., breach of confidence, record alteration, filing fraudulent insurance claims, misleading advertising, arrest or conviction)"
The complaint would be misleading advertising. On a website designed to advertise himself as a medical professional, FM brags about his age group records. But did he, in fact, set those records? Records can only be set by people who have actually set records, not people who have cheated to set records.
Again, filing a complaint against FM for cheating on marathons and then making those factitious performances a part of his professional resume, deployed on a website for the purposes of advertising, would be a mean thing to do. But confronted with what appears to be the decade-long scope of his athletic misbehavior, we would NOT be wrong, I suggest, to wonder whether this failure of integrity ever shows up in his medical practice.
I'm making no claims. I'm just asking. It's worth asking this question--and worth thinking about whether this sort of complainT might, either now or at some point in the forseeable future, be worth addressing to the MBC.
The suggestion has been made before, and there's not actually much enthusiasm for it. We care about running and racing. The doctors of California will have to police themselves.
Do I care if a guy is cutting courses? Absolutely. Do I care if he's a fantastic doctor or a crummy one? No, not my beat.
Roderick Powell wrote:
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
Ok, so LAM also DQd Robert Lautz (formerly 4th place), allowing Joe Ogata to take 3rd place. Congratulations, Joe!
But where is the Disqualification Notice for Robert Lautz? And why have a Disqualification Notice at all if you're going to leave people in the searchable results?
maybe this wrote:
The suggestion has been made before, and there's not actually much enthusiasm for it. We care about running and racing. The doctors of California will have to police themselves.
Do I care if a guy is cutting courses? Absolutely. Do I care if he's a fantastic doctor or a crummy one? No, not my beat.
I agree. Let’s stick to OUR knitting. If Derek and the LR Sleuths can make the sport better, we win. If we start going after people’s professional lives based on tenuous extensions (a running cheat MUST be a professional cheat or whatever), then we get into an unnecessary and dangerous territory. Why bother? Let the doctors police the doctors. At this point the powers that be in the medical world are probably aware of this issue. We need do nothing on that front.
Regarding the claim about his impossible 5k split: I think they took a split and subtracted time that he was standing still to determine a “running time” and the result was impossible. Give them credit for that.
HS stepped up? wrote:
Ok, so LAM also DQd Robert Lautz (formerly 4th place), allowing Joe Ogata to take 3rd place. Congratulations, Joe!
But where is the Disqualification Notice for Robert Lautz? And why have a Disqualification Notice at all if you're going to leave people in the searchable results?
Give them time. The DQ is from the LAM and the timing company is Xacte. The DQ came down late Friday night.
HS stepped up? wrote:
Roderick Powell wrote:
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
Ok, so LAM also DQd Robert Lautz (formerly 4th place), allowing Joe Ogata to take 3rd place. Congratulations, Joe!
But where is the Disqualification Notice for Robert Lautz? And why have a Disqualification Notice at all if you're going to leave people in the searchable results?
In reply to the WR 5k split: yes, you're probably right. They're using the stoppage in that calculation.
In reply to this post: they made this announcement near the end of the day yesterday. Maybe their tech department is out until Monday? As others have mentioned, he should be left in the results but in place of a finishing time, it should say DQ.
HS stepped up? wrote:
Roderick Powell wrote:
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
Ok, so LAM also DQd Robert Lautz (formerly 4th place), allowing Joe Ogata to take 3rd place. Congratulations, Joe!
But where is the Disqualification Notice for Robert Lautz? And why have a Disqualification Notice at all if you're going to leave people in the searchable results?
Why don’t we give them time to amend the searchable results?
As for the father-son deal... if they were contacted and immediately said, “We accidentally swapped bibs and just ran from our home to the finish... sorry. Never would have taken an award or registered for Boston. Won’t do it again.” I would remove them from results but probably wouldn’t issue a press release. We know why they issued one for Frank. Let’s be happy about that.
I'm a little surprised that nearly a day's gone by and we haven't heard a peep from Derek.
Nothing posted here and no updates on his site.
self monitoring wrote:
what's happening Dwayne wrote:
Dang. They took it further than Derek did.
I would hope so, it's THEIR race!
They took it further because Derek hasn't had time to copy it yet. The Murphy doesn't do anything that someone else hasn't already suggested, written, or discovered.
bored troller wrote:
I'm a little surprised that nearly a day's gone by and we haven't heard a peep from Derek.
Nothing posted here and no updates on his site.
I almost never post articles in the weekend. I need to revise what I was working on.. will report on the DQ, and give LA their credit. Even though there seems to be a directive that they won’t respond to me anymore. Regardless the job got done relative to 2019.
I’d like to see them act on a preponderance if evidence for prior races,..and the same company puts on The Pasadena Half.
Plagiarist wrote:
The Murphy doesn't do anything that someone else hasn't already suggested, written, or discovered.
Who told Derek about the video at Phoenix that Meza doesn't appear in?
Exactly right. I only care about running. This isn't the place to discuss anything else.
I personally wouldn't even care if he opened a lousy British Themed day spa with British tea scones... and closed up shop abruptly without refunding gift cards.
Plagiarist wrote:
self monitoring wrote:
I would hope so, it's THEIR race!
They took it further because Derek hasn't had time to copy it yet. The Murphy doesn't do anything that someone else hasn't already suggested, written, or discovered.
Give me a break. I’ve never taken credit for anyone else’s work. There were photos found and posted through this forum, and there were photos that I found in my own.
The Phoenix video was never mentioned in here. And no one here obtained hi-res photos (hundreds of them) to clearly make the case.
I’m glad for what people have found and posted here, and always credit back when someone else provided something that I’ve used.
With all the additional photos from Long Beach, etc..I will likely use more that was found..and I will credit letsrun, as always.
Plagiarist wrote:
self monitoring wrote:
I would hope so, it's THEIR race!
They took it further because Derek hasn't had time to copy it yet. The Murphy doesn't do anything that someone else hasn't already suggested, written, or discovered.
I think if a local DA gets involved even indirectly, you as the city's race are going to start getting some HARD HARD evidence real fast. S.D., IMO, did his friend a huge disservice by sticking his neck out. He guaranteed his friend didn't cheat apparantely.
There was some also serious backpush against investigating real evidence of not doing the full marathon. The threats of lawsuits etc.. No doubt that's what motivated them to get witnesses and closed circuit video from local businesses. Kudos to L.A.M. for not caving to the threats and protecting the integrity of their race.