Robert Young fakes run across America

I have to admit he does have some charisma in the video and does come across as generally likeable. Two things that stood out for me other than addressing the obvious questions were;

1) The video appeared to be somewhat rehearsed with the cameraman guiding the questioning up until the CCTV guy showed up. At that point Robert became excited to offer more proof and the cameraman appeared to become a little nervous as to what would be revealed. This leads me to believe the crew is managing Robert just as much as Robert is managing the crew.

and 2) Robert's slyness is exposed as throughout all correspondence including the earlier part of the video Robert has implied that the CCTV crew has been following his every step for at least 7 days. Now we find out that most of that 7 days was before the journey started and right after it started back in California. They have only rejoined Robert in Missouri coincidentally at the same time his pace has slowed down markedly. And it still isn't clear whether CCTV is there 24 hours or just for a couple hours in the day time when he is not even running (as in today when the video was shot). And where was ESPN?

113 wrote:

The journalist from CCTV is amazing:

"I am Associated Press Photographer of the Year twice: 2014 and 2013."

No you aren't, because there is no such award.

You won an award in the Class 2 television division for the Associated Press Television Radio Association of California and Nevada, but I guess that doesn't have the same ring to it:

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Ih6ANcLZAKwJ:https://www.aptra.com/awards_2014_winners.asp+&cd=4&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

"The national Edward R. Murrow award for feature stories"

No, you didn't. Your station won a regional Murrow award for a story on whalers in the small market television division:

http://rtdna.org/content/2014_region_1_murrow_winners

Not really upping the level of credibility here.

The CCTV journalist is Kuba Wuls. He is Polish, just like Rob's fiancé. Coincidence? Or is he an accomplice? I am pretty sure they knew each other beforehand

I've got a pretty good idea who might have sent that edit of his page. Suffice to say it won't be him editing it. The 7k is because there is a 7k duathlon run leg he recorded that time for, which is a remarkable co-incidence.

From 1:40 into the video:"With that [the tracker], what I normally do is it goes into my back pocket, so if any of you guys ever come out, you'll always see maybe a little bulge..."From the blog:

The tracker, in response to a couple of queries on social media, had remained in the RV during our separation, which it does much of the time. It’s purpose is for folk to see where we are at, at any given time, not to measure speed, mileage or performance – that’s what the GPS watch is for.

So is the tracker with Rob or in the RV? Let me take a wild guess: it's on the RV when something fishy or unbelievable happens with the speed, a shortcut, or otherwise unaccounted mileage; it's with Rob when everything appears normal.

What worries me is that they may plan to only upload all the GPS data after the whole thing is complete which isn't acceptable IMHO - gives a lot more opportunity for 'tidying up' like those bits where they drive to MacDonalds then honestly drive back to the exact spot he stopped running etc.

1) GPS date without the corresponding HR and cadence is useless at this point if he is just sitting back with his feet on the dash board inside the RV. He brought this one himself by not appearing Asher's videos and not addressing the simple question of where he was.

2) Why has Rob or any of fanboys simply cannot provide a single answer as to where was he running in Asher's videos? The video from gas station camera clearly does not show him or anyone else running. Telling people to "come run with him" is not an answer to the question.

3) Why go through all this convoluted way of documenting his record run when a simple $350 Garmin 235 with Strava uploads after every run would greatly suffice? Every cheater exposed here and elsewhere someone don't have GPS/didn't wear it that day/refuse to provide the data/provide the manually entered and obvious fake data.

4) How about a $200 dash cam in the RV? I am presuming he is running in front of it so he doesn't eat the smoke from the exhaust.

Joe mama wrote:

I'm not sure what is crazier: (1) thinking you can just change the distance of your pr from 10K to 7K and think no one would notice, or (2) thinking 7K is a distance people legitimately compete at... The jury is out on this one

Someone on this thread found a published triathlon result where Rob's run split, a 7k, was 30:47, the same time as his claimed 10k PR.

Someone, probably someone from this thread and not Rob himself, changed the 10k to a 7k on the Wiki page. Rob's website still shows his 10k PR as 30:47.

The 7k in 30:47 was a real, recorded race time. I'd guess that Rob has no idea the Wikipedia page was changed.

I have spent 2 days now going through all this hoping that Rob was legit. I was rooting for him going in to this but now I think he is a cheat.

At this time there is nothing he could say or do to convince me otherwise. No one has explained the videos or any of the other discrepancies.

Furthermore, I have taken down the list of his crew, as they should also be called out as cheats. There is no room for this in the ultra community. If people are going to take ultra running seriously then me have to get the cheaters out.

I feel that a ban should be issued not only for Rob but for everyone in his crew. This has been a team effort and they are just as guilty as him.

Moo Goo wrote:

3) Why go through all this convoluted way of documenting his record run when a simple $350 Garmin 235 with Strava uploads after every run would greatly suffice? Every cheater exposed here and elsewhere someone don't have GPS/didn't wear it that day/refuse to provide the data/provide the manually entered and obvious fake data.

+1

Common theme amongst the cheats. So simple to do even hobby joggers do it. Rob must not like how simple it is and how much data it collects. He also isn't concerned about the accuracy of ensuring he runs the full route. He is very nonchalant about starting and stopping the watch. Having meticulous data and always recording would be the most important thing to me when taking this endeavor on. Seems like I'm not the only one.

Sorry Rob, get that watch on and upload to Strava as soon as each segment is done. Include the other data not just distance and pace. You have half of the event to go, it will be clear if your earlier paces were at least in the realm of possibility or not.

One Q. Put to Bed wrote:

runneron wrote:

Okay, so someone mentioned him on a triathlon message board. Not conclusive proof but his time is listed as 8:48 or over an hour and 20 minutes slower than the fastest guy mentioned by that poster in the forum (who may or may not have been the winner since the full list or official result is not available). Sounds plausible if not exactly champion material...

Bear in mind that the times on that post contain all age groups - so although he is 1hr 20 slower than the fastest time it is likely that would be a senior time while Rob would have been competing in a youth age category (20-24). Naturally they would be slower than grown men.

Slower than grown women too apparently. Since the leading times for his AG are not listed it's hard to fairly say how his performance ranked in that case, or how many others were competing in the AG. The only other tri result that has appeared in this forum for RY puts him solidly midpack and nothing exceptional, consistent with the averagely decent but nothing amazing quality of his other verified race performances.

Rob's FB page has blown up with his supporters defending him.

https://www.facebook.com/marathonmanuk/?ref=ts&fref=ts

Joe mama wrote:

I'm not sure what is crazier: (1) thinking you can just change the distance of your pr from 10K to 7K and think no one would notice, or (2) thinking 7K is a distance people legitimately compete at... The jury is out on this one

The jury isn't out. The jury is locked in a van at 7MPH

New blog post:http://www.marathonmanuk.co.uk/2016/06/10/day-25-27-june-06-09-running-through-a-storm/

So at some point on June 6, the CCTV crew shows up. The first post on this thread will go up on June 7. During the entire span referenced in this post, they are very well-monitored and clearly feeling the pressure to better document what is going on.

At 6am on June 7, they are in Clinton, MO. Currently, they are just outside of Pendleton, MO. So that's a little less than 160 miles in a little over three days. Impressive! But of course that won't be enough to break the record:

This is bizarre, though, because earlier in the trip he was pounding out 70 and 80 mile days through the desert and the mountains. What's more, he felt great-- even wanting to put in extra miles and go sight-seeing!

From Colorado:

From Arizona:

From California:

Note that all of these 70-80 mile days had significant climbs, off-road running, desert heat, or all three! But now running on the relatively flat Missouri roads is destroying him:

Also note that he did 65 miles the previous day-- a day on which the film crew only showed up halfway through.

But this is by far my favorite thing posted in this whole affair:

These internet trolls are awful! How can we escape them? Also, we can't access the internet.

Born in the 856 wrote:

Rob's FB page has blown up with his supporters defending him.

https://www.facebook.com/marathonmanuk/?ref=ts&fref=ts

I like this one: "Markus Mueller if you haven't lived his life you know nothing at all."

Well, by that definition, everyone on the planet except Rob Young knows nothing at all.

This is critical, we need someone intelligent and reasonably internet/gadget savvy to go out there now intercept them and call them out on this 'oh we can't get on the internet to upload' and/or do the uploading for them. Some woman on FB is moaning that they are out in the sticks but they drove through towns and cities too didn't they?

It's amazing....he goes on and on and on in that video about the volumes of data that they are collecting, yet all of it is meaningless and doesn't differentiate between a guy sitting in a van and a guy running on the road. A Garmin with cadence, and hr, continuous Strava uploads and a Gopro mounted on the dash of the RV with strict instructions for him to run in front of the RV at all times. It's as simple as that, yet they are doing none of it. Either he and his team are absolute idiots, or they are not doing it this way because it prevents them from cheating.

The TomTom watches that were shown need a separate heart rate strap, and so possibly won't show a HR if he doesn't wear one - BUT they do record strides per minute.

I haven't ever tried seeing what strides per minute come up if I am in a car, but this should be data that helps to prove his case, if he is genuine.

I have also met and run with Asher many times. He is the real deal. I am always giving him a hard time about his poor video skills. I even offered to pay for film lessons because I make 250k/yr and have a trophy wife, but he refused. His iphone is cracked and you can barely see the screen, but he still uses it anyway. Asher also gives away all his money to the poor. He even gave away his bed, which is another reason why he was out in the middle of the night. Why all the hate on Asher? He would never lie. I'm sure all the haters will be proven wrong when more information comes out. You'll see.

According to this video, he has a pretty elaborate system of recording his run.

Multiple backups. Several GPS's, Go Pro, satellite pings, documentary film crews following him, paper logs signed by policemen/film crews/other runners, Open Tracking,

He can't fake all of them.