Robert Young fakes run across America

skyrefuge wrote:

Watcher of videos wrote:

Using the un-timestamped gpx downloads from Joanna's account, I found that "week1 - joanna/Night_Run (15).gpx" had 18382 points, which exactly matches this run of 5:06:21.

I then recreated the start time from the open tracker data, and repopulated the gpx with 1 second time intervals. Upload is here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/625342148

We should be able to target the others the same way.

Damn, I throw out an idea, go to bed, and when I wake up, someone has already run with it and done the job. You guys are awesome. If only my real job worked like that!

So are you going through and adding timestamps to all of them now? Would it be quicker to just run them all through a script that uses the same dummy start-time, upload them to Strava, let the LR community crowdsource the real start times based on their locations, and then re-run the script with the actual start times?

team1.kml wrote:

skyrefuge wrote:

Damn, I throw out an idea, go to bed, and when I wake up, someone has already run with it and done the job. You guys are awesome. If only my real job worked like that!

So are you going through and adding timestamps to all of them now? Would it be quicker to just run them all through a script that uses the same dummy start-time, upload them to Strava, let the LR community crowdsource the real start times based on their locations, and then re-run the script with the actual start times?

I've got approximate start times based on intersecting the first point with the tracker data. Technically, it assigns the time based on the nearest tracker data so it could be some minutes off (usually less than 6 I would imagine). Better would be to search among the first 10 GPX points for the best match and use that as a reference. This is assuming the watch isn't stopped for the whole run.

I actually now have the nearest tracker point and timestamp for every point in all of the non-timestamped data. Just trying to figure out how to stitch the times back into the GPX file.

moanswers wrote:

Hiro wrote:

I wrote an executive summary, you can find it here:

http://ryinvestigation.blogspot.com/p/a-summary-of-major-pieces-of-evidence.html

It ended up being longer than I originally planned, but I think it is a good introduction to everything that has been uncovered in the investigation. I tried to write it in a way that would be accessible to non-runners. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Even as someone who has been following this thread from day 1 this was very hard to compile. It simply isn't possible to sort through this thread, and the google doc doesn't have a lot of context in it. Without more high level, easy to understand material, our accusations won't get much traction.

Excellent summary! This would be a great piece to send to a journalist.

However, it might be better to find a flatter 100 miler than western states to compare the ridiculousness of RYs pace. One could argue "Of course the mean pace for WS is just 8:51, it climbs over 18,000 feet".

Consider the Western States 100, a well established 100 mile ultra marathon that takes place out west. The course record, 14:46, translates to an average pace of 8:51 min/mile. This is the course record. That means that the fastest time that any of the multitudes of elite, well rested, ultra-marathoners could manage was almost 9 minutes per mile.

To me this is the biggest smoking gun in the thread. I really don't know what information we could find that would be better, (other than a longer and faster run.)

We have a lot of info at the micro and macro level that proves the running was impossible for Rob to accomplish. Long runs at 10+ mph, 34:45 10k at 8000ft, 300+mpw at sub 7, etc, etc. We know it's proof, but the fans keep saying, "you're just jealous cause you aren't that fast, it's downhill, he took breaks".

I guess it's because they believed Rob to be some kind of distance prodigy, they see each run is humanly possible, and they don't grasp how absurd those performances are collectively. So we are left trying to prove that Rob is actually just a 17min 5k guy who can't sustain that pace.

This run though, is impossible for everyone. It needs no explanation or analysis. The only drawback is proving that it can from Rob's GPS.

Hiro wrote:

To me this is the biggest smoking gun in the thread. I really don't know what information we could find that would be better, (other than a longer and faster run.)

We have a lot of info at the micro and macro level that proves the running was impossible for Rob to accomplish. Long runs at 10+ mph, 34:45 10k at 8000ft, 300+mpw at sub 7, etc, etc. We know it's proof, but the fans keep saying, "you're just jealous cause you aren't that fast, it's downhill, he took breaks".

I guess it's because they believed Rob to be some kind of distance prodigy, they see each run is humanly possible, and they don't grasp how absurd those performances are collectively. So we are left trying to prove that Rob is actually just a 17min 5k guy who can't sustain that pace.

This run though, is impossible for everyone. It needs no explanation or analysis. The only drawback is proving that it can from Rob's GPS.

This segment was posted on his wife's Strava account, and then deleted? I'm guessing a quick thinking forum member grabbed it in time? It also sounds like we did some manipulation on the data? Are there any other segments he has uploaded that overlap (IE is this a "missing" segment)?

Essentially what I'm asking is how we prove this came from Rob. For a journalist or even the blog we need to clearly state how we obtained this data.

Ray & Stacey? wrote:

Looking back to when Rob did his "RECORD BREAKING NO SLEEP" run I found this interesting post on his FB page

https://www.facebook.com/marathonmanuk/posts/843337205750539

What's interesting is that the first 7 Crew teams which appear to cover the first 280 miles all seem a little vague with first names only. It's only when you get to Crew 8 onwards that there are full names given and these are the only sections which Rob needed volunteers for according to the post.

So either Rob just happened to have already sorted out the first 7 crews and didn't feel the need to give their surnames as they are all such good friends,

or they are made up like most other things in Robs life.

The initial set of FB updates regarding the run are all very short and far between and look decidedly fake, it also appears that Ray dumped Stacey and got a new wife called Claire for crew 6!

https://www.facebook.com/marathonmanuk/posts/848001408617452

If you were going to try and fake a run like this and you could only see yourself running a max of 100 miles then you might as well get as many witnesses as you can for that 100 miles after faking the first 270!

Investigator wrote:

Damn! Take a look at Google streeview for that fast section - it's two lanes coming down to one. The footage was taken last year and it looks temporary, but we all know how long construction projects can last so maybe it was still there? They got forced into one lane, were being honked at, had to speed up, and the spot that they regroup and backtrack a little is actually right where the lane opens up again!

Investigator wrote:

Hiro wrote:

This segment was posted on his wife's Strava account, and then deleted? I'm guessing a quick thinking forum member grabbed it in time? It also sounds like we did some manipulation on the data? Are there any other segments he has uploaded that overlap (IE is this a "missing" segment)?

Essentially what I'm asking is how we prove this came from Rob. For a journalist or even the blog we need to clearly state how we obtained this data.

Do we still have the link for the now empty Joanna account? I mean, a screenshot, the fact that I don't think Joanna Hanasz was trying to concurrently set a transcon record, and that these activities were deleted once we started talking about them are pretty good evidence that it was really Rob Young using that account.

I really like this new 1:56 mile/deleted activity/speeding up in the RV due to lane closure stuff. Will try for a new blog post tonight.