Robert Young fakes run across America

Andy's your man. wrote:

The Scot wrote:

'apersson' despite the handle is a real UK runner, I checked that out a little last night and it only took a couple of minutes searching in the likely places.

Yeah, Andy Persson, that was on the Strava thingy he posted a while back to show he ran with RY.

He seems legit, hopefully he had just been up a long time without coffee when he wrote that stuff about the 30' 10k sector in a marathon!

Thanks for continuing to follow this, and provide input about your experience with Rob. I posted my experience to get everyone's experience with him, and so far it seems I may be the only one with a negative experience. You bring up some questions about my story such as why I didn't flag down the RV, and as others have said, and I posted earlier, I tried to run up to the RV, they stopped, then drove away before I could talk to them. My purpose was not to call into question his history, or abilities. I just don't believe he is legitimately completing this attempt. Now, both Rob and myself are encouraging people to get out and run with him. So runners, get out there and see for yourselves![/quote]

Rob has asked why you would not make yourself known to the crew, why would you take the time to follow the van and not keep following it or stop the van and ask the relevent questions. He is very genuine and is happy to run with you and anyone else who cares to take the time to turn up. It does seem very strange that you have taken lots of time to start this whole thing and yet didn't follow up with more investigation. If I had gone out in the middle of the night and did what you had done I would have followed the van for ages, stopped them, asked questions, filmed the entire thing and actually made contact.

now for some other points and before you say anything I have been sleeping as it's now 8.25am in the UK.

I can understand how Rob did his first few marathons and hear me out on this before you all go running your mouths off.....Of course I wasn't there so don't know the full story but here is my theory for what it's worth. Rob would have done his first marathon as a run just to finish it for his bet. He would have had no idea how it would affect him or not. It appears that it wasn't that stressful so he did his second one faster and so on. This is not a crazy thing and I see it often. People do hold back until they see what they can really do. I know Rob has a preferred speed that he runs at optimally.

Rob has had a plan for this race as he has also had in other races to run walk. It suits him and allows him to refresh his legs in the early stages of the day and wake up his muscles. He also gets distance in the bag and then recovers with walk breaks. The run walk strategy is nothing new and has been done by ultra runners for many years, but Rob's strategy of going hard and fast and then slowing down is different and I for one think people should actually try to take this as a lesson rather than being so nasty.

As for how did I run 7 min miling with him I think if you check the video on my blog you will see my watch. I can run at 7 min pace for around 5k but not more. My local park's run in MK is a tough little run with a nice uphill to climb that won't kill you but it certainly slows you down. I have never said i'm the fastest runner. I can run at 6 min pace for around 2 miles but then i'm dying. I ran for around 2 miles trying to catch Rob at that pace and this is where I estimated his pace at being 5.30. I can only give an honest estimate and this is documented.

His domestique bike days seem to be with the team mentioned, it appears that the team was disbanded and I have no further information at this time but will report back if I get more.

Rob has confirmed to me in a voice message that he has a GPS watch on at all times so i hope this clarifies things. He also has a tracker on his shorts.

Dustin Brookes is doing lots of the driving and Michael Speicher is the other crew member.

ESPN and CCTV America have been filming constantly for the last 11-12 days.

Lots of other runners have joined Rob and can testify to distance and pace i'm sure.

I have seen email contact with the British Triathlon association about his achievements and will report back when I have more data. Their record are only from 2010. This is not a wonderful coincidence but fact. If you doubt it please feel free to contact the BTA yourselves and ask the question.

I have also seen email contact with Rob's mentor and old coach who should find more data to back up his achievements when he was younger.

I'm soooo sorry this isn't all instant and i'm appalled that so many take time to write dreadful comments about me and other people. I am not in Rob's van and am writing this in the UK. Maybe I should post a video of my typing things like this and posting it so all you conspiracy theorists can see that I am genuine.

I have no vested interest in this other than to put across some facts and truths and not just speculate and spread rumours and untruths.

Once again I encourage any of you to run with Rob. If you have never taken the time to do this how can you actually be so horrible with your comments.

For those people who have commented in a fair way i applaud you and If I am totally wrong about all of this I will be the first to apologise and say I was wrong. Having run with Rob I know I won't be doing this, how many of you can say the same?

ceraffen wrote:

I've been running ultras since 2008 and have rarely heard of instances of cheating, although I'm not an RD either so haven't been in a position to verify the results. Yes, it does occur, but to infer that "many" people are cheaters in the sport is off-base and disparaging to the great majority of us who don't cheat. I would venture to say that cheating is more rampant at the marathon distance because the recognition is greater among the general public...ultras are still largely unknown to most people and somewhat of a fringe sport.

I ran Comrades two weeks ago. Page 42 of the race program is titled "Comrades Issues Warning to Potential Cheats." The secondary headline is "This year, thanks to the tip-offs, we have some names which we will watch carefully. If we catch them and they are found guilty, we will name and shame them." 9 paragraphs of detailed warnings. Cheating is obviously a rampant problem in the greatest of the ultras.

Amen to that!

If Scott Jurek can do it... wrote:

Second thing. Rather than spending all the time and money to spend a team to tail him, why not have someone that owns a drone find the RV without being too conspicuous and film from above for an hour during daylight. This way Young and his team won't know they're being tracked and we would have conclusive evidence proof if he is not actually running near the RV. If a team of runners show up to tail him he can jump out and start running, but he can't fake it if he never knows the drone is watching.

THANKS OBAMA!

Rob old mate it's my experience that when a cheating accusation thread gets to this many pages on LetsRun it's because all the information and data is stacked up against the person and can't be logically argued against, and still isn't, even by Kev and Andy who just offer meaningless platitudes.

My friendly advice, pack your bags and go home before it really goes viral.

FInally Contributing wrote:

I got suspicious of his twitter account because for how many followers he has (15.8k) he gets surprisingly few likes and RT's.

So I put it in an analyzer to see how many are fake. Everyone has fake followers, even with big accounts it's 10-20%. But with Rob it is:

68%!!!

Out of his 15,800 followers, over 10,700 are FAKE.

What does that mean? He bought his followers.

The guys a narcissist and a liar.

Nice! I noticed the lack of likes and retweets when I glanced at his timeline last night. Way to put some numbers to it!

is he still on target to break the record?

CoachKev wrote:

apersson wrote:

What amazes me is the extreme nature of people's reactions on here. Assuming that just because I said something to back Rob up, that I am on the van! Same with Kev,

Amen to that!

Thought you English were supposed to have a sense of humor not get all cut because some anonymous troll jokingly calls you out as being on the van. Lighten up boys.

Watch the Drone wrote:

FInally Contributing wrote:

I got suspicious of his twitter account because for how many followers he has (15.8k) he gets surprisingly few likes and RT's.

So I put it in an analyzer to see how many are fake. Everyone has fake followers, even with big accounts it's 10-20%. But with Rob it is:

68%!!!

Out of his 15,800 followers, over 10,700 are FAKE.

What does that mean? He bought his followers.

The guys a narcissist and a liar.

Nice! I noticed the lack of likes and retweets when I glanced at his timeline last night. Way to put some numbers to it!

funnythat how the dynamic duo don't want to answer the hard ones that have been raised.

CoachKev wrote:

Rob has confirmed to me in a voice message that he has a GPS watch on at all times so i hope this clarifies things. He also has a tracker on his shorts.

UPLOAD THE FRIGGING DATA TO STRAVA EACH SLEEP BREAK!

Yes that still leaves wiggle room but its a big start.

Rob has confirmed to me in a voice message that he has a GPS watch on at all times so i hope this clarifies things. He also has a tracker on his shorts.

Dustin Brookes is doing lots of the driving and Michael Speicher is the other crew member.

ESPN and CCTV America have been filming constantly for the last 11-12 days.

ESPN must have a record of a camera crew being assigned to this story.

rojo here you go

Working Members of the Media:

•Send press-related inquiries to

Did he actually say he rode for Milram? You do realise they were a top level team who ride grand tours and included Petacchi and Zabel on the team. That a British rider with no major victories and seemingly only 2 years effort would ride for one of the premiere teams in the world, one whose domestiques were expected to chase down breaks and contribute to a sprint train in the finale is beyond comprehension. You don't just jump straight in at world tour level. What continental and pro conti squads did he ride with prior to the big leagues? Seriously it shouldn't be hard for the guy to list his teams and wins.

Lighten up boys. wrote:

CoachKev wrote:

Amen to that!

Thought you English were supposed to have a sense of humor not get all cut because some anonymous troll jokingly calls you out as being on the van. Lighten up boys.

Trouble is fellas there's been dozens of these cheat threads and we hear the same old things all the time, some come clean, some don't, even when the evidence is overwhelming. FMD there's one fella who stands gain $100,000 for himself and $100,000 for charity just to run the same time for a marathon that he supposedly did before, he had 12 months to do it and on any course as long as it was certified, guess what... Just Google 'Mike Rossi cheat'.

Unless you can come up with hard evidence on Rob's current effort and answer some of the shonky stuff from his past you're wasting your time.

Mr Young's bike time in the 2004 ITU Long-Distance race indicates that he was at that time nowhere near the standard required to ride for a pro team. However, punctures and mechanicals do happen.

I haven't yet been able to find anything to back-up the bronze medal that Young says he won in the 2004 ETU long-distance race (did this race even happen?).

CoachKev wrote:

I can understand how Rob did his first few marathons and hear me out on this before you all go running your mouths off.....Of course I wasn't there so don't know the full story but here is my theory for what it's worth. Rob would have done his first marathon as a run just to finish it for his bet. He would have had no idea how it would affect him or not. It appears that it wasn't that stressful so he did his second one faster and so on. This is not a crazy thing and I see it often. People do hold back until they see what they can really do. I know Rob has a preferred speed that he runs at optimally.

No. Absolutely not. Not even remotely possible. You do not get off the coach and run your first marathon on a whim with no training and no prior marathon experience in 4:08, and then run a second one nine hours later in 3:28, and then a third one seven hours later in 3:19. All of this he quite plainly claims in his book. I explain that here:

The times should deteriorate, not progress as Rob claims.

You can read Rob's own account of this in his book at:

Click on "Look Inside" and read it for yourself. Or you can go to the local bookstore and find it in the comedy section.

I'm not being stubborn to insist upon this. You would be a fool to even consider it a possibility.

I've seen data for only 3 certified marathons he has run (London 2015, 2016; Brighton 2016). He ran those in 3:07 (quite impressively in the midst of the Race Across the USA), 4:02, and 3:30, respectively. And yet, after first becoming a marathoner on a whim and untrained, he claims he was able to run a second and third marathon within the next 24 hours at times faster than two of those certified marathons he ran later.

Or to put it another way. The 30K run leg of his 2004 triathlon was run at a pace of 8:14/mile.

Yet, Rob claims he ran his second and third initial marathons at a pace FASTER than that. A 3:28 marathon is 7:56 pace per mile. A 3:19 marathon is 7:36 pace.

You say this is not a crazy thing that Rob claims and you've seen it often. Name one other person who ran similar times in a massive batch of 78 mile running on a whim with no training or no prior experience. Name one if you've seen it often.

CoachKev wrote:

I can understand how Rob did his first few marathons and hear me out on this before you all go running your mouths off.....Of course I wasn't there so don't know the full story but here is my theory for what it's worth. Rob would have done his first marathon as a run just to finish it for his bet. He would have had no idea how it would affect him or not. It appears that it wasn't that stressful so he did his second one faster and so on. This is not a crazy thing and I see it often. People do hold back until they see what they can really do. I know Rob has a preferred speed that he runs at optimally.

And no. Rob does NOT have a "preferred speed" that he runs at optimally.

One of his fellow runners in the 2015 Race Across the USA clearly remarked that every day Rob would sprint the opening few miles like a bat out of hell at 5:00-5:30 pace and then finish in a jog/walking.

And his splits at all 3 of his certified marathons show absolutely no even pacing. At Brighton, he ran an opening mile in 5:23 and yet was running 30 minute 5K splits at the end of the race. Similar precipitous splits at both of his runs in London.

Rob has the most erratic splits I've ever seen by someone who has allegedly done so many marathons. No exaggeration.

Watch the Drone wrote:

FInally Contributing wrote:

I got suspicious of his twitter account because for how many followers he has (15.8k) he gets surprisingly few likes and RT's.

So I put it in an analyzer to see how many are fake. Everyone has fake followers, even with big accounts it's 10-20%. But with Rob it is:

68%!!!

Out of his 15,800 followers, over 10,700 are FAKE.

What does that mean? He bought his followers.

The guys a narcissist and a liar.

Nice! I noticed the lack of likes and retweets when I glanced at his timeline last night. Way to put some numbers to it!

I'd like to see where you got the information as I could say that 90% of women find me attractive when we all know its actually 95%

Kev, am I right in thinking we may have met on a terrain somewhere