Robert Young fakes run across America

3 Swiss riders listed on the RAAM race roster.

Karl Haller

Nicole Reist

Philipp Amhof

http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/raam/racerlist.php?s_N_Year_ID=40&s_N_Race_ID=1&s_N_Category_ID=&s_N_Country_ID=206&s_T_Last_Name=&s_T_First_Name=&s_tblentry_T_Entry_Name=

Team Scam must have had a mountain bike or at least a hybrid, because one of them rode it off road east of Riverside when Robbie was trying to cut off a little mileage. If a Swiss cyclist was scouting out RAAM, he would probably be on a road bike or a touring bIke if he was attempting it solo.

4 5 6 yellow wrote:

Better comparison wrote:

Good work on the histograms but surely we need a comparison with a transcon or similar length 'run' by a known/trusted ultra guy, so we can look at the run-walk distribution of his effort? Not his regular training (or sub transcon racing) where he is probably 100% running.

You should have a look at Patrick Malandain GPS data from his consecutive 100 days with 100 km/day in a row from Feb 18 to May 27, 2016:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/ultrapatrun

I did not do the exercice, but his pace distribution seems to be distributed around a running pace of 8min/mile, with not more then about 10% time spent to walk. RY "performance" seems bleak in comparison ;-)

Cool, thanks. Don't know if I can download files from Garmin Connect though...

I like the idea of a Strava pro like Sage or whoever. But also, a comparison to a multi-day would be good. Anyone know of a high-performance multi-day running effort on Strava? Adam Kimble's transcon is there, but at 60 days the haters will say he's nowhere near the same league as Rob.

Tracking MarathonMan wrote:

DMulvee wrote:

Could you have the same x axis for both the pre and post Laz arrival? This way the change in speed would appear more dramatic at a first glance

These are great. If it isn't too hard I'd use miles rather than minutes for the vertical axis - seems like that would more correctly reflect the distribution of pace as he worked across the country. E.g. 40 minutes at 20:00 pace followed by 20 minutes at 5:00 pace is actually covers 2/3 of the mileage at the faster pace (despite only spending 1/3 of the time at that pace).

Fixed x-axis:

Sorry can't do miles I don't think.

At the end of that run it looks like there are mixed segments of walking and riding, with the telltale "buttonhook" pattern at many transition points. The question is: why switch back and forth? It's very remote, so doubtful that anyone would be out there.

I looked at the area on google maps, but couldnt find any landmarks that might explain the behavior. Maybe they were looking for a good photo op?

4 5 6 yellow wrote:

Better comparison wrote:

Good work on the histograms but surely we need a comparison with a transcon or similar length 'run' by a known/trusted ultra guy, so we can look at the run-walk distribution of his effort? Not his regular training (or sub transcon racing) where he is probably 100% running.

You should have a look at Patrick Malandain GPS data from his consecutive 100 days with 100 km/day in a row from Feb 18 to May 27, 2016:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/ultrapatrun

I did not do the exercice, but his pace distribution seems to be distributed around a running pace of 8min/mile, with not more then about 10% time spent to walk. RY "performance" seems bleak in comparison ;-)

If you're doing a comparison and need a base, just use his tracks from when the geezers were tracking him. Those were real miles under real conditions.

team1.kml wrote:

investigator, I think wrt to histograms of pros, strength is in the numbers. No matter who you pull you are going to have a unimodal distribution, so pull a bunch.

PS how are you pulling the data and generating the histograms?

The data source is the .tcx files representing all of RY's Strava activities (plus the 32 mi deleted one from your fake account). Google drive links are in the doc. Pulled data with this:

Histograms and analysis with GoldenCheetah. Open source software, powerful, but hard to use. And some bugs apparently.

Read the entire thread. What a story. Here is how I think you package it for maximum non-expert understanding:

1. RY does dishonest things like buying fake twitter and facebook followers and claiming to have professional cycling experience.

2. People became suspicious when his early trip postings seemed unrealistically fast and included activities like playing football and making a side-trip to the grand canyon, and his pictures didn't look like someone breaking a grueling endurance record.

3. People who tried to meet him unannounced found the RV but not RY running.

4. RY refused to upload the TomTom watch data which would show his cadence and HR to verify his effort.

5. When a group of veteran ultrarunners showed up to watch him in person, he was unable to produce anything like his previous performances, in a far easier section of the country, and medically collapsed after a few days of effort and terminated his attempt.

6. RY and team have still refused to share the core TomTom watch data, instead uploading incomplete manually edited data to Strava, and even their cooked data shows a clear division between realistic segments of mixed effort run-walking, and unrealistic segments of smooth fast travel at a pace far beyond what RY is capable of, based on extensive documentation of his publicly verified results.

To summarize, multiple sources of evidence consistently demonstrate both deliberate cheating during the early Western portion of his trip, and an organized effort to conceal the cheating once questions were raised. If they were being honest, they would have shared the TomTom data as soon as questions were asked during the trip. When the Geezers showed up to watch them in person, they fell apart and the attempt ended.

Case closed to any reasonable person.

There are many other supporting details about fabrications in his previous history, individually impossible segments of GPS data, questions about many of his other claimed achievements, and lots else, but the core narrative of "RY rode in an RV to cheat on his WR attempt and he and his team lied about it" is indisputable without willful blindness to the evidence.

Hiro wrote:

At the end of that run it looks like there are mixed segments of walking and riding, with the telltale "buttonhook" pattern at many transition points. The question is: why switch back and forth? It's very remote, so doubtful that anyone would be out there.

I looked at the area on google maps, but couldnt find any landmarks that might explain the behavior. Maybe they were looking for a good photo op?

I think it's very telling that all of the cheating is at night and in the rural, open American west. Too many people around in CA to start, then they get out in the open, and all of the blistering paces are at night with no one around, and you can see exactly when they slow to normal pace as soon as they come into towns.

fred wrote:

quote]Peter Sagan wrote:

Moveon.org wrote:

No smoking gun after weeks of investigating?

https://www.strava.com/activities/617303559

Climbing from 8,500 to 9,000 feet at 6 miles @ 6:06 average when his marathon pace is 7's, and running without EPO or altitude training.

Plus the previous day's fatigue in his legs.

The stint in Flagstaff would not have yet created the necessary RBC's. Is that correct, RJM?[/quote]

Has there been any investigation into any use of PEDS by Robbie?

Sorry I haven't been able to read all the posts.

First, look through the Strava distance challenges to find transcon or high mileage runners. I found this guy, for example, through the April Distance Challenge(https://www.strava.com/challenges/April-2016-run-distance-challenge):

Name: Jason Romero

Route: VisionRunUSA Transcon from LA to NY from March 25, 2016, to May 23, 2016.

Talk about a completely different looking routine! This guy ran 50 miles a day every day for a couple months, but went a more southerly route (through Phoenix and Payson, AZ, which added some steep climbs). There are a couple auto segments, but they are complimented by actually runs over the same route. Fore example, this one in Twenty Nine Palms, CA:

https://www.strava.com/activities/529925890

(auto, left at 5pm)

https://www.strava.com/activities/529918577

(run, same route, left at 5am)

This guy actually DID run 50 miles unsupported through the California desert (although there may have been a support vehicle I suppose) but his fastest half mile was 4:03 and his fastest marathon was over 6 hours that day.

On his last day, he ran 70.3 miles, and, surprisingly, recorded his fasted 5K of the whole route: 21:17, going down Broadway in Manhattan. Looking at the GPS track there is a lot of GPS noise but he did indeed travel a bit faster here, but he's not laying down 6-minute miles for 20 and 30 miles... Anyway, I think this is what a transcon would actually look like because, well, it was one.

Btw, Andy Persson was #2 for April.

Investigator wrote:

Cool, thanks. Don't know if I can download files from Garmin Connect though...

If you have a Garmin account, you can export all files in TCX or GPX.

Investigator wrote:

Hiro wrote:

At the end of that run it looks like there are mixed segments of walking and riding, with the telltale "buttonhook" pattern at many transition points. The question is: why switch back and forth? It's very remote, so doubtful that anyone would be out there.

I looked at the area on google maps, but couldnt find any landmarks that might explain the behavior. Maybe they were looking for a good photo op?

I think it's very telling that all of the cheating is at night and in the rural, open American west. Too many people around in CA to start, then they get out in the open, and all of the blistering paces are at night with no one around, and you can see exactly when they slow to normal pace as soon as they come into towns.

And just a reminder - I've resisting getting so obsessed with this that I actually get on the phone - but if anyone wants to check, here is a partial list of places where he forgot take it easy through populated areas, and more footage of a ghost RV may exist. Though I realize pretty unlikely that: a) someone's camera had a good view, b) the video still exists, AND c) someone would hand it over.

4 5 6 yellow wrote:

Investigator wrote:

Cool, thanks. Don't know if I can download files from Garmin Connect though...

If you have a Garmin account, you can export all files in TCX or GPX.

Of your own files though right? Or anyones?

@Here is your summary: well done!I don't mean to hijack the thread here but I did want to highlight Jason's run because it is so different in almost every way.Reading more about Jason Romero... he's legally blind, and sometimes runs with his own "Wilson" volleyball to keep from getting lonely. http://trailrunnermag.com/people/profiles/article/2183-jason-romero-first-blind-run-across-usThe article even talks about his fast running through Manhattan. He can't run at night because of the vision.. Quoting from the article:

Romero crossed into New York City on the evening of May 23, almost exactly 60 days after beginning his journey.

“The sun was about to go down, and my headlamp was dead,” he says. “I was pushing seven-minute miles trying to get it done before dark—sprinting against traffic, dodging cars, potholes and people. When I finally got to City Hall, I was numb.”

The building had already closed for the day, but several representatives from the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes convinced the police officers to let Romero through the gates, so he could climb the steps and officially finish his run.

“I experienced a lot of overwhelming kindness during this journey,” he says, “and I think that is something we should all aspire to.”

Besides the feel-good story of a person overcoming odds to do this, there's also a lack of pretentiousness to the whole thing. It's not peppered with "I'm doing it for the children" or anything like that. Here is a person honest about overcoming his own personal challenges to do something extraordinary. Fun story, huge contrast!

Great summary. I'm convinced.

RoJo should offer these places some $$$.

Interesting that Andy Persson has jogged quite some miles, but still doesn't understand anything about (ultra)running.

And was this the "executive" summary?

Thanks for posting this info about Jason Romero. I live in Arizona and I drove past him on April 5 when he was outside of Payson. I had been wondering who he was and how far he was running.

Of note, he was traveling with a minivan that had a large WARNING: RUNNER AHEAD sign on the rear window. When I passed him, he was running a couple hundred yards behind the minivan. The minivan was pulled over on the side of the road waiting for him.

Is it possible to alter that TomTom screen they took pictures of? I ask because the strava segment in Emporia has a clear south jog, while the mystery 35 mile segment in the screenshot has a north looking section at the beginning. The mystery 8.2 mile section in the screenshot also doesn't match the strava route profile. The strava starts right from where the previous strava section ends, and the data lines up nicely with where the tracker data starts back up from a rest. It's almost like they omitted sections in the TomTom images. I also think the two watches were maybe set in different timezones? Some TomTom segments are 6 hrs offset from their corresponding strava segments, while others are off a few minutes. It's all just very unclear what TomTom segment in the screenshot is the actual Emporia segment.

It's also clear a runner had the watch during the Emporia strava segment. Zoom in all the way and follow the route if you want some lolz. There's the characteristic hook when the pace goes to clear walking (2 blocks west of the CCTV), circling of a sports bar parking lot, and he went to the front door of two houses before finding the open bar to call the rv.