Robert Young fakes run across America

Robert H P Young wrote:

is it over? wrote:

I don't understand why everyone seems to think that this is over. RY hasn't said that it is over, has he? It is still on until either RY says it is over or the time of the current record has been exceeded.

What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!...

And it ain't over now, cause when the goin gets tough, the tough get goin. Who's with me? Let's go! Come on!....What the fvck happened to the RV I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. 'Ooh, we're afraid to go with you, Robert, we might get busted by Letsrun.' Well, just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Laz, he's a dead man! Delmott, dead! Rojo...

Coach Kevin ORourke wrote:

Robert H P Young wrote:

What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!...

And it ain't over now, cause when the goin gets tough, the tough get goin. Who's with me? Let's go! Come on!....What the fvck happened to the RV I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. 'Ooh, we're afraid to go with you, Robert, we might get busted by Letsrun.' Well, just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Laz, he's a dead man! Delmott, dead! Rojo...

Dead!

Robert's right. Psychotic, but absolutely right. We gotta take these ba$tards. Now, we could fight them with conventional weapons. That could take years and cost millions of lives. No, in this case, I think we have to go all out. I think this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.

Robert H P Young wrote:

is it over? wrote:

I don't understand why everyone seems to think that this is over. RY hasn't said that it is over, has he? It is still on until either RY says it is over or the time of the current record has been exceeded.

What? Over? Did you say over? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!...

And it ain't over now, cause when the goin gets tough, the tough get goin. Who's with me? Let's go! Come on!....What the fvck happened to the RV I used to know? Where's the spirit? Where's the guts, huh? This could be the greatest night of our lives, but you're gonna let it be the worst. 'Ooh, we're afraid to go with you, Robert, we might get busted by Letsrun.' Well, just kiss my ass from now on! Not me! I'm not gonna take this. Laz, he's a dead man! Delmott, dead! Rojo...

curiously interested wrote:

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:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&thread=7355147&id=7362520#7362520

The times should deteriorate, not progress as Rob claims.

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

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marathon-Man-One-Year-Marathons/dp/1471152871?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&tag=simonsacouk-21

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.

https://www.athlinks.com/Athletes/114076336/Race/24188953/Details

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.

curiously interested wrote:

curiously interested wrote:

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:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&thread=7355147&id=7362520#7362520

The times should deteriorate, not progress as Rob claims.

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

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marathon-Man-One-Year-Marathons/dp/1471152871?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&tag=simonsacouk-21

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.

https://www.athlinks.com/Athletes/114076336/Race/24188953/Details

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.

Since someone linked Rob's facebook page, I scrolled back to April 2014 and found what he posted about his initial 3 marathons. He has no mention of running anything, not even park 5K's, for months and months prior. Then suddenly on April 14, 2014 (day after London Marathon like he claims in the book), he starts running "marathons" (not races, but 26.2 mile runs). Here's the proper order as he posted on Facebook and clearly indicated by time stamps and comments:

April 14, 2014 - first marathon in 3:19. In the book, that time is presented clearly as the third one, the next day and even described as "another personal best." But here on Facebook, that was his first one. I must admit, a rather impressive time for a first marathon, on a whim, without much if any training. There's no gps data. Just a link to the mapmyrun data that was manually drawn. And the route doesn't do 4 loops in Richmond Park like he claims in the book. He goes from Twickenham out to Regent's Park (basically point to point but not in a straight line).

April 15, 2014 - second marathon in 3:27:53. "Tough morning stiff from the fast pace the day before. After 7 miles my legs came back and the running speed picked up, however i started to drop at around 19 miles and suffered to the finish. I was also almost 40 minutes late to work this morning! 'oh dear'"

So his second marathon was the next day, not later on April 14 as he claims in the book. Same route as first.

April 15, 2014 "afternoon 2nd marathon in a day" in 4:07. "blisters all over my toes, not nice at all. finished my 2nd marathon at just past 9pm and i recommend never trying 2 marathons in a day. it was absolute torture with the last 2 miles feeling like i am dragging my feet and not really in running mode. i sat down straight after only to fine myself not able to stand after as my body fell into manic stiffness, i will remember to stretch straight after next time. I realize that you need alot nutrition needs to sustain the amount of miles covered. I really need support on route to even get just the fluids in. anyway 3 marathons in 2 days. lets hope my blisters will not effect my run tomorrow."

Clearly his first 3 marathons were NOT Mon AM in 4:07, Mon PM in 3:28, Tues AM in 3:19 (a 30-hour period of time) as he claims in the book and I disputed. Instead, on Facebook he claimed they were Mon AM in 3:19, Tues AM in 3:28, Tues PM in 4:07. His times deteriorated, not progressed, just as I had argued. No mistake, those times are impressive for a sudden 78-mile series of runs for a non-marathoner to pull-off on little to no training, but Rob and Dustin as ghostwriter clearly exaggerated the story by editing the starting times, rearranging the order, and changing the routes for dramatic effect in the book. But it does appear that he became a sudden instant long-distance runner if the Facebook posts and mapmyrun data can be trusted. There's no way to know if the distance of 26.2 miles and the times he claims are authentic since there is no gps data.