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

RossiCheated wrote:

KudzuRunner wrote:

This may already have been addressed, but does anybody have a theory about when in the course of his career he began to cheat? In this long list of races, it seems clear that Boston in 2008 is legit, and I'm guessing that the three Pike's Peak are legit. But knowing what we know now, it's hard not to wonder whether it goes back to that very first Santa Clarita in the fall of 2007, which is almost a full hour faster than Boston, five months later. Any thoughts on this?

Frank’s Marathon History

3/24/2019 2:53:10 Los Angeles Disqualified

2/9/2019 2:53:54 Phoenix

10/7/2018 2:53:27 Long Beach

3/8/2018 2:56:12 Los Angeles

11/5/2017 3:02:49 Santa Clarita

10/8/2017 2:57:09 Long Beach

3/19/2017 2:58:07 Los Angeles

12/4/2016 CIM Disqualified

10/9/2016 2:55:07 Long Beach

3/20/2016 2:59:23 Oakland

11/8/2015 3:04:48 Santa Clarita

10/11/2015 2:57:04 Long Beach

3/15/2015 2:52:47 Los Angeles

12/7/2014 2:53:33 CIM Disqualified

11/2/2014 3:06:46 Santa Clarita

10/12/2014 3:00:54 Long Beach

7/27/2014 2:59:40 San Francisco

6/1/2014 3:02:39 Rock n Roll San Diego

3/9/2014 2:59:10 Los Angeles

2/2/2014 3:04:45 Surf City

1/19/2014 3:06:41 Carlsbad

11/3/2013 3:06:03 Santa Clarita

8/18/2013 6:11:37 Pike’s Peak

3/17/2013 3:00:16 Los Angeles

2/3/2013 3:05:30 Surf City

11/4/2012 3:09:53 Santa Clarita

3/8/2012 3:04:03 Los Angeles

2/5/2012 3:09:27 Surf City

11/6/2011 3:11:25 Santa Clarita

10/9/2011 3:09:34 Long Beach

7/31/2011 3:09:09 San Francisco

5/15/2011 3:10:48 Pasadena

3/20/2011 3:19:21 Los Angeles

2/6/2011 3:11:53 Surf City

11/17/2010 3:15:16 Santa Clarita

8/22/2010 6:08:12 Pike’s Peak

3/21/2010 3:18:13 Los Angeles

2/21/2010 3:19:53 Pasadena

11/8/2009 3:21:44 Santa Clarita

8/16/2009 5:51:28 Pike’s Peak

5/25/2009 3:28:08 Los Angeles

3/22/2009 3:19:59 Pasadena

4/21/2008 4:25:58 Boston

11/4/2007 3:27:23 Santa Clarita

I’m of the mind, and I’ve posted a few times, that I think he cheated his way into Boston to make it a father-son trip. Probably got a lot of accolades. Then ran a real time at Boston, an hour slower, and made up some excuse(s) for it. To make the qualifying time look real and the Boston time a “disappointment” he “validated” the better time with repeat performances and improved from there. I don’t know about Pikes Peak but I think everything else is the result of cheating.

Look at those times... has any marathoner ever ran so many races with such consistent, slight improvement and a complete absence of a blow-up race? Even on a day with 88 degree heat he makes his little improvement.

One way that golf cheats out themselves (for handicapping purposes) is that they put in scores with impossible consistency. An extremely narrow range of scores (or marathon times) is a red flag.

Kipchoge fan wrote:

RossiCheated wrote:

I’m of the mind, and I’ve posted a few times, that I think he cheated his way into Boston to make it a father-son trip. Probably got a lot of accolades. Then ran a real time at Boston, an hour slower, and made up some excuse(s) for it. To make the qualifying time look real and the Boston time a “disappointment” he “validated” the better time with repeat performances and improved from there. I don’t know about Pikes Peak but I think everything else is the result of cheating.

Look at those times... has any marathoner ever ran so many races with such consistent, slight improvement and a complete absence of a blow-up race? Even on a day with 88 degree heat he makes his little improvement.

One way that golf cheats out themselves (for handicapping purposes) is that they put in scores with impossible consistency. An extremely narrow range of scores (or marathon times) is a red flag.

Yes, I can tell you that Eliud Kipchoge has ran many marathons and his times are pretty consistent. His slowest time is at the Olympics where he won gold (2:08:44) and the rest are all pretty much 2:05:30 and under.

With his only non first place finish (2nd) still ran in 2:04:xx. He's pretty consistent. But this might be blasphemy comparing Frank Meza to the greatest marathon runner of all time. :-)

Running Programmer wrote:

Sancreed wrote:

Go for it. I think it's a great idea and will lead to even more sightings of Frank in weird and wonderful places.

I know I'll use it for sure.

Here it is. It's very beta, but should be easy enough. I only programmed it for FinisherPix currently. If it gets enough use and there is demand for it anywhere else, it could be modified. I first recommend never doing what you are about to do - accepting code to run from a stranger on the internet. That said... here it is. :) it's very beta and I've even got a disclaimer pop-up "just in case", though I foresee no issues and have tested it.

Requires a Windows Machine

Steps

1) Download and install Autohotkey it's an open source programming language that will make this whole process easier for everybody.

https://autohotkey.com/download/

2) Save the script (Do not run it yet!. It is an autohotkey file with a file extension of .ahk:

https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=65879

Make sure to save this in whatever directory you want the folder with the marathon photo files stored. For example - on your desktop. Here is the location (Right click->Save As...) You'll run it later. Don't run it now or it will try to save everything in your browser's download folder.

https://i.ibb.co/dG8RKYc/capture.png

3) Run the script. You can download up to 400 photos at a time. It will download half of them from before the photo you submit and the other half after the photo. So if you choose "200", it will download 200 photos leading up to the photo in question and 199 photos after the photo in question. (or vice versa depending on if it is an odd or even ID... the point is 400 photos split at the photo in question)

4) After it finishes (which will vary depending on your/FinishPix's connection), open the folder location and sort the photos by name. Select the first one and scroll though - it should be chronological by the same naming convention FinisherPix uses.

5) Each time you download a set, the previous set will be deleted from the folder. For the program I wrote for myself, I had it set up to archive the files for future reference, but I didn't want to fill up people's machines with tons of photos. You may need to check your recycle bin though... So if you have any you want to reference or if you want to reference the whole set later without having to download again, save them somewhere else before running the program again.

6) Post questions if you have them (though I won't check this very often - maybe once a day). Enjoy and please use responsibly. I've put in some protections to avoid abuse, but that wouldn't stop a malicious actor from changing the code to download excessively... please don't.

deadesq wrote:

HS stepped up? wrote:

Is it likely that the LAM reached out to Frank and came to an agreement?

Something along the lines of "If you agree to never enter any future Conqur events, we will allow you to save face by DQing you in 2019. Try this again, and you're banned for life."

...AAAANNNNDDDD we'll forget about all the other years.

Oh, wait.

FRANK—THE 10K mat is the OTHER way!!!!

I don’t think he heard me….

LA Marathon 2015. Just before the 10k mat, and about a minute before Frank shows up in the photos on course. By the way, this marathon is the fastest one that shows up on Frank’s Athlinks page at 2:52:47. As if….

No wonder they wanted him to run with an observer the next year. He split 20K-25K at 18:34 and 35-40K at 18:30. That’s good—he picked it up later in the race. Uh huh. Yep. Should have worn two watches.

Because 15K-20K was 25:01. Don’t you wish you could drop six and a half minutes per 5K between 15K and 25K like Frank? But he needs to work on his pacing….

5K 20:47

10K 19:03

15K 20:28

20K 25:01

25K 18:34

30K 19:22

35K 21:28

40K 18:30

Aside from the splits, the white stripe on his shorts in these photos, along with his now very recognizable running form, gave it away for me.

But I will say this—I was running today, and I saw someone way down at the end of the street running. It kind of looked like Frank. Time to stop this stuff….it’s like when I used to have Tetris dreams. You’ll get that if you’ve ever played Tetris.

Anyway, here are the individual links so you can see them.

https://iconic-imagecdn.azureedge.net/MFT2015-02/82/774182/1005/0018.jpg?preset=phttps://iconic-imagecdn.azureedge.net/MFT2015-02/82/774182/1005/0020.jpg?preset=phttps://iconic-imagecdn.azureedge.net/MFT2015-02/82/774182/1005/0022.jpg?preset=phttps://iconic-imagecdn.azureedge.net/MFT2015-02/82/774182/1005/0023.jpg?preset=phttps://iconic-imagecdn.azureedge.net/MFT2015-02/82/774182/1005/0025.jpg?preset=p

The doctor who healed himself wrote:

Quote, LA Times:

"With this latest disqualification, L.A. officials have again asked Meza to run with an observer. He said he plans to enter in 2020 to prove he can finish the marathon in less than three hours.

“That’s my only silver lining,” he said."

On June 25 Derek reported on marathoninvestigation.com, quote:

"Shortly after telling his team that he would be running in Chicago he addressed the coaches separately, and contradicted what he told the team. He told coaches that he was diagnosed with a heart condition and that his running days may be over."

Well, along with the evidence provided by Derek and deadesq, I come to the conclusion that Frank really is a world record holder. Not in marathon running, of course.

In any case, I know nothing comparable in sports history, neither in the Tour de France nor in athletics, swimming, boxing, bowling, you name it. The annoying thing is not that he cheats, but that he is so obviously cheating.