Another Serial Cheater taken down by Race Buster and Marathon Investigation!

YIKES! Did anyone read the comments below the article? Ed the dude being accused brings up that he was actually a pacer for San Diego RnR marathons 2016-2018. Anyone who has actively paced knows how whacked that it makes your official results appear - I looked it up, he in fact was a pacer. I actually think his response to the accusations seem legit, i wonder if dude who posted the article is going to touch base on the pacing thing?

Yikesssss bro wrote:

YIKES! Did anyone read the comments below the article? Ed the dude being accused brings up that he was actually a pacer for San Diego RnR marathons 2016-2018. Anyone who has actively paced knows how whacked that it makes your official results appear - I looked it up, he in fact was a pacer. I actually think his response to the accusations seem legit, i wonder if dude who posted the article is going to touch base on the pacing thing?

LOL.

Yikesssss bro wrote:

YIKES! Did anyone read the comments below the article? Ed the dude being accused brings up that he was actually a pacer for San Diego RnR marathons 2016-2018. Anyone who has actively paced knows how whacked that it makes your official results appear - I looked it up, he in fact was a pacer. I actually think his response to the accusations seem legit, i wonder if dude who posted the article is going to touch base on the pacing thing?

What's your reasoning behind a pacer having wonky official results? Shouldn't they, by definition, have the MOST consistent results?

Yikesssss bro wrote:

YIKES! Did anyone read the comments below the article? Ed the dude being accused brings up that he was actually a pacer for San Diego RnR marathons 2016-2018. Anyone who has actively paced knows how whacked that it makes your official results appear - I looked it up, he in fact was a pacer. I actually think his response to the accusations seem legit, i wonder if dude who posted the article is going to touch base on the pacing thing?

It looks like Ed's explanation is he was a pacer for the San Diego Marathons that cut the course but still crossed the finish line and took a medal and photo. Curiously, Ed never bother to get himself disqualified.

For the 3:11 and 3:18 marathon times Ed claimed for the Phoenix Marathons, I think this is still very worthy of seeing his Garmin files to see how that is possible for a guy of his size and results history. Even accounting for a bit of downhill on the first part of the course, I find it hard to see how he set such a fast time from his typical ~4 hour finishes. This is not to say I know what happened, but simply that this warrants data analysis.

I'm not part of whatever group is doing this investigation but I would love to analyze Ed's Garmin files. Also, let's keep things civil.

scam_watcheroo wrote:

Also, let's keep things civil.

We agree.

For SD they sometimes split pacing duties. For 2018 he says he quickly fell back and handed stick to a non pacer in the group who seemed strong. He cut near the end and ran in and waited for the unofficial pacer after the finish..

For 2016, the claim is that he just paced the first half. His first split was fast, but he was fairly steady after that to 1/2 . Again, he cut and says he ran in with an earlier pace group.

The track club confirmed the pacing stories (granted after I got the bogus story from the person that responded to my initial inquiry). And it make sense if you just plan to pace the half that you may cut across to get to finish. You’d need to get to the finish line to your transportation.

Taking medal and posing for photos is a bad look as Ed admits.

Advice to Ed, come 100% totally clean old mate, otherwise the hole you're digging yourself will get deeper and more destructive, just read all those cheater threads here on LetsRun and Marathon Investigation if you don't want to believe me.

Jail time

GeGa wrote:

Yikesssss bro wrote:

YIKES! Did anyone read the comments below the article? Ed the dude being accused brings up that he was actually a pacer for San Diego RnR marathons 2016-2018. Anyone who has actively paced knows how whacked that it makes your official results appear - I looked it up, he in fact was a pacer. I actually think his response to the accusations seem legit, i wonder if dude who posted the article is going to touch base on the pacing thing?

What's your reasoning behind a pacer having wonky official results? Shouldn't they, by definition, have the MOST consistent results?

I paced a 4:00 marathon last year, the reason for the inconsistencies are for a few variables. Some races use multiple pacers for one secondly 4:00 pacers start 10mins or so after the gun in big races which is also consistent with him NOT lieing. I paced the second half of a marathon awhile back too where it made it look like I cut the course or "missed mats" in the first half. If you read the guys comments it does sort of make sense - the pacing results aren't even official so why is the investigator even focusing on them?

The Fap Scientist wrote:

I paced a 4:00 marathon last year, the reason for the inconsistencies are for a few variables. Some races use multiple pacers for one secondly 4:00 pacers start 10mins or so after the gun in big races which is also consistent with him NOT lieing. I paced the second half of a marathon awhile back too where it made it look like I cut the course or "missed mats" in the first half. If you read the guys comments it does sort of make sense - the pacing results aren't even official so why is the investigator even focusing on them?

The problem there was that Ed Elsner's times from being a pacer was/is listed in the official results of San Diego along with an official photo of him with a finisher medal.

scam_watcheroo wrote:

The Fap Scientist wrote:

I paced a 4:00 marathon last year, the reason for the inconsistencies are for a few variables. Some races use multiple pacers for one secondly 4:00 pacers start 10mins or so after the gun in big races which is also consistent with him NOT lieing. I paced the second half of a marathon awhile back too where it made it look like I cut the course or "missed mats" in the first half. If you read the guys comments it does sort of make sense - the pacing results aren't even official so why is the investigator even focusing on them?

The problem there was that Ed Elsner's times from being a pacer was/is listed in the official results of San Diego along with an official photo of him with a finisher medal.

I agree. And that is still a problem. Common sense should say that you don't pose with a finisher medal if you didn't finish. I do know that in past years RnR gave medals to everyone - they drove runners from behind the cut off pace up the course and told them to finish. There was definitely an organizational breakdown on the race's behalf, with the pacers, and lack of judgement on Ed's behalf.

I tend to believe that I am now getting a accurate story as to what happened on the course for San Diego. The explanations regarding how he got in the photos and the justification for being in the photos and taking a medal are a bit more fuzzy.

Let this be a cautionary tale of how you should not jump to conclusions and try to publicly humiliate another innocent person. You have a track record of this now on the record. If someone decided to file suit down the road, these previous false accusations and public shaming will come into play.

Be careful wrote:

Let this be a cautionary tale of how you should not jump to conclusions and try to publicly humiliate another innocent person. You have a track record of this now on the record. If someone decided to file suit down the road, these previous false accusations and public shaming will come into play.

I wouldn't say that Elsner is exactly "innocent" regarding the San Diego marathons. He shouldn't have crossed the finish line after cutting the course on both occasions, taking a medal, and posing for the official finisher photos. And yet, he never disqualified himself for either year, making it official.

As for the Phoenix 3:11 and 3:18 marathons, I am not convinced he is capable of those times.

Scam_watcheroo >> honest athlete >> marathon investigator.

seattle prattle wrote:

show me what's in your wallet.

One should not have to disclose anything just because someone with no rights to it demands it.

Obviously he doesn't have to disclose anything. He's free to keep all of his data private and allow people to believe he cheated. Of course, if he wanted to end the entire conversation, he could do so very quickly and easily by sharing his GPS data. Much easier than posting lengthy, angry comments on the internet.

My question is why is GPS data even considered reliable? You can juice your files just like how all the Strava dopers do so its not reliable its very easy to make any 8:00 average pace run for 26.2 miles into a 2:35 marathon.

Someone running a 1:28 half in a marathon doesn’t run 9:30 miles downhill at Boston regardless of weather. He’s a cheater. If he can’t produce a Garmin file, which can’t be altered enough to hide, he can run a 5k at 6:45 pace to show any ability to run the pace. Just like Rossi, he can’t and won’t.

Tardocraft wrote:

My question is why is GPS data even considered reliable? You can juice your files just like how all the Strava dopers do so its not reliable its very easy to make any 8:00 average pace run for 26.2 miles into a 2:35 marathon.

But this is also easy to spot

I'd like to see an analysis of why age groupers cheat.

Once you're out of high school/college or out of the money category, what the heck is the point of cheating in these races or to obtain that BQer?

I thought the whole point of attempting the BQ time is that it's a fun and difficult challenge to accomplish for many, especially for the less gifted, and especially while juggling life, but it's humanely achievable. It's really really tough for many, but it's generally not an impossible endeavor if you put in the work. Isn't it about the journey to get there (carefully drafting a training schedule, logging the difficult miles, reaping the health benefits of training, actually feeling and experiencing the highs and lows or training and racing)?