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

Amazing sleuthing. wrote:

Was he wearing a long sleeve black top earlier in the race, cos that's what it looked like he was handing to someone. What part of the race was that?

The final miles I think. I know i like to carry my sweatshirt 23 miles on a warm day. Don't you? This is bizarre IMO. This is what got Kip finished.

He runs the easiest marathons to cheat at and knows the most about. Phoenix didn't have much for timing mats. LA is easy to jump in to hit the timing mats, be photographed, and then leave the course without drawing too much suspicion. (I've run the LAM route enough and have even paced a few during friends for LAM to know people jump in and disappear later all the time.)

After CIM, he probably asked why the race rejected his time. Based on CIM's probable reasons, timing mats and lack of visual evidence, he improved his cheating methodology. But you would think a doctor with ethics would challenge CIM's decision based on several reasons: 1. personal integrity 2. record/performance purposes 3. financial commitment. Frank runs with TWO watches, there's a very high probability one of those watches is a GPS running watch containing race data and splits.

Frank Meza Report wrote:

He runs the easiest marathons to cheat at and knows the most about. Phoenix didn't have much for timing mats. LA is easy to jump in to hit the timing mats, be photographed, and then leave the course without drawing too much suspicion. (I've run the LAM route enough and have even paced a few during friends for LAM to know people jump in and disappear later all the time.)

Phoenix had a timing mat at 10k, 1/2, 20k which is hit. Smaller marathons often have fewer timing mats. Other famous elderly marathoner have raced marathons with a similar number of timing mats.

LA in 2019 would have been nearly impossible for him to cut the course by foot after the 10k mark. If he cheated after 10k he’s a logistical genius and had help with a bike and/cars

Mark’s Thoughts2 wrote:

If he cheated...had help

Having followed this thread this is what I'm beginning to believe.

So Dr. Frank Meza's 8th and final marathon of 2014 (at age 65) was by far his fastest. C'mon, he should have been a physical wreck by December.

Mark, by foot yes, but he’s most likely not cutting by foot. In 2014 I biked and cheered friends on over the last 20 miles of LAM. It was easy. We would cheer. Jump on our bikes and go to the next cheering which were generally 5K segments. Imagination and resources could accomplish this. Strategically placed bikes and/or cars along with bib mules (but not necessary) would allow someone to move from timing mat to timing mat with room to spare.

I wonder how many bikes or cars Dr. Meza owns?

Marathon habits and observations of the good doctor:

1. Bib belt

2. Fanny pack

3. Two tech watches

4. Long baggy shorts

5. Wore half zip and tech T entire 2019 LAM during good weather.

6. Pre CIM 2014 habit of missing timing mats or malfunctioning chip and photo ops during multilole races.

7. Timing chip works perfectly at the finishing line for all those pre CIM 2014 races.

8. Post CIM races with 18 min 5K splits

9. High level performances within 2 weeks (LAM and Carlsbad 2014)

10. Eight high level marathons in 2014

11. World elite performances within 5 weeks (LAM an Phoenix 2019)

12. Avoiding fast marathons outside of urban areas where it’s harder to cheat.

13. Where’s the bib during many of the races?

14. Bib magically appears for finishing pics.

15. Does not have physical stature of an elite runner. Carrying extra weight in some elite “performances.”

16. Avoids track and USATF local and national meets.

...

Resting my fingers for now.

messi wrote:

So Dr. Frank Meza's 8th and final marathon of 2014 (at age 65) was by far his fastest. C'mon, he should have been a physical wreck by December.

As a long time running 68yo I've gotta agree, the man really is a machine lol. Did he run any other races between the marathons?

Enough already.

LRC needs to grow some testes and track down this guy and ask some questions.

Enough of the clickbait BS.

John Gault, if you have any cred as a journalist, deal with this.

Otherwise you are just a limp puppet.

Frank Meza Report wrote:

Mark, by foot yes, but he’s most likely not cutting by foot. In 2014 I biked and cheered friends on over the last 20 miles of LAM. It was easy. We would cheer. Jump on our bikes and go to the next cheering which were generally 5K segments. Imagination and resources could accomplish this. Strategically placed bikes and/or cars along with bib mules (but not necessary) would allow someone to move from timing mat to timing mat with room to spare.

Yes, for his 2:53 at LA 2019 he would have had to cut after 10k using bikes or cars. He would have had to know in advance that the 2019 LA Marathon had a different photo vendor and where the photos would be taking place. Then the team of people would have to make sure to get him to all the photo locations by car or bike and pop out far enough back that he’d show up in the distance for other runners’ photos. After the photo shoot he would hop on a bike or into a waiting car to either hand the bib off or go to the next timing mat or photo shoot. All this would have to be done with fairly consistent 5k splits:

20:02 (Downhill)

20:17 (Uphill 1st half of 5k)

20:33 (Flat)

21:21 (Flat)

20:02 (Downhill)

21:23 (Uphill)

20:44 (Uphill)

19:47 (Downhill)

09:01 (Downhill)

Him and his team members would be very talented if this is what they’re doing.

Mark’s Thoughts2 wrote:

Him and his team members would be very talented if this is what they’re doing.

Yeah well, they are all used to doing things with surgical precision.

His only pics show up near the timing mats and normal places like usual. So it didn’t matter LAM used a new photo vendor. You’re giving him too much credit. In fact he can’t be found the last third of the race.

Can someone tell me which timing mat this is?

3017_246512

And the location of this photo. 3017_067805 It will save me some time.

Thanks!

Link for the above photos in question.

https://www.finisherpix.com/gallery/photo/en/usd/3017/1151/3017_067805#3017_067805

That's a total misrepresentation. Yeah, "uphill" and "downhill" - right! Technically, maybe - but anybody running the course would call it basically flat.

How come the runners before and after him didn't have variations in time like that. Here are 5k splits for the guy before him and a couple of guys who finished just after. They don't seem to have encountered the same terrain. Meza ran his 5th 5k 1:19 faster than his 4th, so you conveniently label it "downhill"; these guys were plus 0:26, plus 0:02, and minus 0:24 for their 5th vs 4th.

20:10 19:49 20:31

20:52 20:25 21:30

20:15 19:48 20:53

20:02 19:56 20:36

20:26 19:58 20:12

20:48 20:45 20:44

21:18 21:01 20:39

20:49 21:11 21:08

I don't want to get too far into micro-analyzing splits, because it gets tedious and anyone can find counter-examples of anything if they look hard enough. Just don't try to make the course out to be this incredibly varied terrain. It's a flat road course.

And anyway, how do you explain his 2018 splits? After all, if it is shown that he cheated in 2018, not many people would believe his 2019 race was legit. How do you explain those 5+ minute swings?

LA sure has a lot of unregistered runners. 10k mat.

https://fp-zoom-us.s3.amazonaws.com/3017/3017_046299.JPG

Yeah, no doubt. If I were one of the best age group runners ever, and I found out that people questioned my results, I would invite people to follow me and record me with video cameras.

Frank Meza Report wrote:

And the location of this photo. 3017_067805 It will save me some time.

Thanks!

Sorry, can't help, but what is interesting is that the big fella he's running with in 3017_067805 , Bib: 1108 Race Time: 03:04:21, has gazillions of photos in the race compared to Frankie (well, heaps more anyway), funny that, wonder where Frankie was?

I’m camera shy.

Golgi Body wrote:

That's a total misrepresentation. Yeah, "uphill" and "downhill" - right!

I think you won that one.