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

Score one for the internet trolls, you all have done an amazing job! First visit in some time, no way in hell am I reading the past 100 pages, I have better things to do. I've heard about and seen some of the evidence you all have uncovered. Just thought I would take a minute to drop in and say that I was 100% wrong and regret my email to the LA Times defending coach Meza. I have been unsuccessful in reaching coach, so that is a conversation yet to happen.

We all make mistakes and no matter what faults have led to his cheating, they don't negate the positive influence he had on my brother and I or the many other contributions he has made to society. I hope he finds the courage to admit his faults and wrongdoings and he can eventually be viewed in a positive light again.

Maybe when this has all blown over I will return to seek advice on improving my own marathon time, legitimately.

Sincerely,

Scott Dominguez

Nice post. I wish you, your brother, and Frank the best.

Monsieur Hulot wrote:

Also, I can't see a bike lock of any type, either on the bike itself with a frame clamp or pannier, or in the form of a chain wrapped around the top tube, or on Frank's person either. Before this photo was discovered, the cheating-with-a-bike scenario had me wondering how Frank secures his bike to ensure it's still there when he returns to it after crossing a timing mat. In most urban areas an unsecured bike, even a crappy one, will vanish in seconds if it's not locked up, or even if it's locked up with a less-than-sturdy device.

I used to leave my bike lock attached to the railing at work instead of hauling it back and forth every day.

Frank could have dropped locks in different places along the course before the "run", and picked them up after.

It's too bad that Inside Edition and LATimes are parroting incorrect information that Dr. Meza is retired.

He's the chief medical officer at AltaMed. He's probably got a salary of more than half a million dollars. He's pretty much the face of a company that's worth almost a billion dollars. Call any of their clinics and ask who their Chief Medical Officer and they'll confirm what I'm saying here.

Since he's lied about have entered in Chicago Marathon, anyone able to confirm whether he's entered in for this year's Long Beach? I guess the website doesn't have any web page to do a query.

https://motivsports1.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026788992-How-do-I-know-if-I-am-registered

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WTF^n wrote:

Koopa wrote:

because he doesn't deserve it.

Nobody really deserves anything - even being alive is completely by accident, certainly not a result of any "goodness" on the part of the living individual.

I think that teachings such as "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" and "Wish for others that which you would wish for yourself (or for your own child if one has that perspective)" are good and applicable.

I wholly agree, and I’m certain this philosophy is taught at Loyola HS, along with honesty and integrity. Yet as kegboy (Loyola alumni) stated previously: ‘everyone new his times were fake’. However, no one there spoke out about it. I wish for truth, honesty, and integrity when I sign up and compete in a race, and wish that the competition is fair.

HS stepped up? wrote:

If my running club was located in the LA area we'd start up a "Frank Meza Memorial Race", an informal race recreating the journey of Meza through the streets of LA.

Here are the rules:

1. You have to accurately follow the "course". Run the parts he ran, bike the parts we believe he biked.

2. You must stop and stretch/pee/wait at the correct known locations, and for the correct amount of time.

3. Proper attire is required. Baseball cap, long-sleeved shirt over a tank-top, and long baggy shorts.

I wonder what the winning time would be? Figure about 2 miles of total running, 26+ miles of cycling, and 2+ minutes of stoppage time. Someone fast might be around 1:15?

Trick question.

Answer - about 2:53.

I was worried FM’s lies may still be believed when all we had were the pics from LAM 2019 and the weak LAM DQ statement. Not anymore. Its very possible FM will go down as the biggest cheat in the history of running. And deservedly so. Thank you and congratulations to everyone that contributed to the cause, especially deadesq and Derek. And definitely keep going. Every race FM entered should be scrutinized. I’ve been telling everyone I know that the entertainment from this LRC FM thread is better than anything on tv. I’ll keep checking back as long as someone is searching for and posting the info.

I do have a few questions I am hoping more knowledgeable board members can answer. What is the structure of the running race industry in the U.S.? Is there an entity that oversees all races? Is every race owned by a business? Are those businesses always for profit (a lot of races have a charity side)? What got me thinking about this is for a while there each time evidence on FM was found some people would say something like the Director of this race or that race has to DQ now. Or there was encouragement to contact the RD to try to pressure them into looking into the evidence and of course wanting that pressure to result in a DQ. I’m wondering if the pressure would be better coming down, from someone or some entity higher up than the race. I have no idea if its really like this but if an entity like USTAF was in charge of all races (or at least all USTAF licensed races) would it be better to get them to look at the evidence and then pressure the RD of a certain race to DQ? Same if its not an entity like USTAF and maybe it’s a municipal government entity like a city council that authorizes a race to be run in its community by granting it a license or something. I would think a call from the head of the USTAF or a city council or mayor telling an RD about a cheat and that they need to DQ unless their race is in danger of being cancelled would have a lot more pull than emails from regular people asking for the same. But I have no idea how all this works and can be completely wrong. What do those in the know think?

+1

Best wishes, Scott.

What the What? wrote:

500k? Really? At least the guy's pretty frugal. That bike pictured earlier is a POS 10-speed from the 1970s. And you think he could afford more than two running outfits. A blue shirt and an Azland singlet.

For someone running marathons his form sucks ass, no one crosses the end of a marathon as tightly wound as he is. Hands clinched, shoulders tight. For any endurance runner he would be wasting too much energy with his shitty form over 26 miles. Inside Edition did a good job, especially with the SFM biking. But who was that freaky ghostly dude commenting? I didn't see a name. Also, did anyone catch the name of Frank's spokesman?

Anybody else curious about Frank skipping LA Marathon 2016?

Oakland Marathon 2016 was on March20, 2016

LA Marathon 2016 was in February 14, 2016 (Valentine's day?)

So he could of actually ran both the Oakland and LA Marathon since they were about 5 weeks apart..

According to marathon investigation site, he took part in Pasadena and Los Angeles about a month apart in 2010 (2/21/2010 and 3/21/2010)

In 2011, he is listed for Surf City and Los Angeles (2/6/2011 and 3/20/2011)

2012, Surf City and Los Angeles (2/5/2012 and 3/8/2012)

2013 - Surf City and Los Angeles (2/3/2013 and 3/17/2012)

Looks like he pretty much didn't want to run with that observer in LA Marathon for 2016.

Frank had a good run. Not literally, of course, but getting away with his cheating for years before it all blew up and Inside Edition rang his doorbell.

It's clear that a lot of work went into meticulously lowering his times little by little each year, and ensuring he had believable split times for the most part. The bicycle, the change of clothes, etc, it shows a man dedicated to his craft.

Compared to the usual idiots who go out at 10 minute pace, speed up to 4:50 pace for the middle 12 miles which just happen to include an out and back section and then revert back to 10 minute pace for the big finish... Frank gave us a cheater worth catching.

Look at stupid Mike Rossi. He cheated at a race with zero on course timing mats, and still managed to f*ck it up but finishing 20 minutes faster than he needed to for his precious BQ, thus eclipsing his documented 10K PR pace for the marathon. Rossi didn't even bother to cheat at shorter distances in his build up. Amateur.

So, Frank, honestly I thank you.

In SoCal that’s probably closer to a million a year. Another article stated he oversaw 144 medical personnel. So Frank’s cheating helped him on the cocktail and golf circuit of the corporate medical world. He was like the high school starting QB and known as the run guru. His times get faster - he rises in his field. CHA-CHING $$$

potkos wrote:

It's too bad that Inside Edition and LATimes are parroting incorrect information that Dr. Meza is retired.

He's the chief medical officer at AltaMed. He's probably got a salary of more than half a million dollars. He's pretty much the face of a company that's worth almost a billion dollars. Call any of their clinics and ask who their Chief Medical Officer and they'll confirm what I'm saying here.

Since he's lied about have entered in Chicago Marathon, anyone able to confirm whether he's entered in for this year's Long Beach? I guess the website doesn't have any web page to do a query.

https://motivsports1.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026788992-How-do-I-know-if-I-am-registered

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Hopefully, the guy fesses up, seeks forgiveness, and gets into legitimate duathlon racing.

Pike's Peak Mule wrote:

I think it is likely he ran Pike's Peak in 1988 without cheating. Wasn't that also about when he ran 1500m on the track? Obviously, cheating is not possible in that situation. As far as 2009-2013 Pike's Peak, it might be possible that he ran those legitimately, but does anyone really think so? It just seems terribly out of character. "I'll cheat at all these races except for Pike's Peak?" At that point, he was well onto his way on a new path, where cheating was the norm, and not cheating was, well, apparently unthinkable.

He ran the 1500 (4:39:82) in 1981. Not bad for a thirty-something American. Maybe he had some better track times in his thirties; that just happens to be the only one I found.

I'm still somewhat inclined to believe that his later races on Pikes Peak are legitimate. Among other things, I looked at the 2013 downhill segment that you flagged as suspicious. The times for that short segment seem all over the map, and Frank's doesn't seem way off to me. It's true that Chris Reveley's time for that segment was slower, but falls, injuries, dealing with traffic in the other direction, increasing exhaustion, and a variety of other exigencies (one year, Reveley stopped to assist a guy who had a heart attack during the race) may account for that. Reveley's descent on the Peak that day was generally quite slow relative to his ascent.

Although it's certainly possible that not cheating in any race had become unthinkable to Frank by 2009 to 2013, I haven't yet seen the case for that. I do recall that he has competed in a number of long trail races; I don't recall any extensive investigation into or analysis of his performances in those races. I can certainly see why he might be much more concerned about running fast times in standard marathons or shorter races in which his times will be scrutinized more carefully. Perhaps long trail races give him a respite from obsessing about race times to demonstrate his worth.

Despite a lot of remarks on this thread about how slow he is, or how old he looks, or how out of shape he appears, or how silly his comments about just running for fun may seem, my overall impression is that, as a distance runner, he has probably been in the top one percent or so of the U.S. population in his age group for a long time. I also believe that he genuinely loves running and has done quite a lot of it over the years. I think that's true of a number of cheats. But for some reason (I hate the glib comments that it's all about "ego," as if that significantly illuminates the etiology of this rather bizarre pathology), he has not been content with that. Maybe he'll be able to understand and get past that, and learn to appreciate what he legitimately already has. And maybe not.

None of what I've said should be taken to suggest that I believe that he is an especially honest person, or that he has run any legitimate marathon performances on the roads in recent years, or that he deserves to be treated better than any other cheat. In fact, I think that this investigation should press on; I think there's much more to be brought to light and much more action that should be taken regarding his past performances.

And by the way, I still want to find out more about the purported track scholarship that paid his way through U.C. Berkeley, or Cal State Northridge, or wherever else he claims to have received a bachelor's degree. I'm skeptical about some of those claims, which suggest to me that he may have been embellishing some facts well before this string of road marathons began.

It’s good of you to come back and follow up. I’m not sure you know the definition of ‘troll’ though...

Since so many have been clamoring for a new video, I thought I should oblige:

https://youtu.be/LmrzM-dSK3A

Took the advice of some who suggested a series of photos of our favorite skulker doing what he does best... Share if you think it worthy... BTW, I get no money for my lame videos, I was told I need 1k subscribers before I can monetize videos on Youtube, I have two!

Well done. You should have three now.

triathleteguru wrote:

Since so many have been clamoring for a new video, I thought I should oblige:

https://youtu.be/LmrzM-dSK3A

Took the advice of some who suggested a series of photos of our favorite skulker doing what he does best... Share if you think it worthy... BTW, I get no money for my lame videos, I was told I need 1k subscribers before I can monetize videos on Youtube, I have two!

your video has 7 views. I'm responsible for 2 of them.

Doesn't it seem all these cheats are working from the same playbook?

From a 1981 Neil Amdur NY Times article about Rosie Ruiz:

Almost one year after she became a household word, Rosie Ruiz still insists that she ran the Boston Marathon from start to finish. But the publicity generated by her alleged fraud in that race, she says, has made the ensuing months almost unbearable.

"I do feel as strongly as I did last year," Miss Ruiz said yesterday of the truthfulness of her position. "A little more worn-down perhaps. It's been a long year."

Like the peerless Frankie vowing to run L.A. in 2020 with an observer, Ruiz also claimed she would run another marathon after Boston to prove her bona fides. This was supposedly going to be the low-key Green Mountain Island Marathon in Vermont. However....From the same Amdur article:

Four days before the race, while running on the Upper West Side, Miss Ruiz said, she tripped on a curb and was taken by ambulance to St. Luke's Hospital, where she was treated for a hip injury.

"Any kind of tendinitis takes a while, " Miss Ruiz said. "I have been running 50 to 60 miles a week now, but very easy. The doctor feels that until the condition clears up, I shouldn't try to run a marathon."

Big surprise. Ruiz never raced again, and neither will Frank.

P.T. Barnum once famously said "There is no such thing as bad publicity." At this point Frank would beg to differ.