Sandra Vi going for record across America

basement dweller wrote:

Marvellous Boots wrote:

Ahem, boots caught RY as he fled in his RV. Many of the boots will be in stealth mode. Tell Mimi she has no way of knowing when to be on the bike and when to actually run.

It wasn't letsrun boots, it was a bunch of old ultra guys.

letsrun just talked about getting boots on the ground.

Erm, it was Asher from LRC that initially busted RY. LRC then organised funding Laz and the geezers to go out there.

No one has even witnessed Mimi running yet. Part of a record attempt requires witnesses, and how do you find her when the live tracker is off for hours?

Even if someone did join her for a run, that no way proves all the other days happened

excuze me wrote:

Gary kiernan wrote:

But you clearly have a FB account as you're reading the URC page so why didn't you just use that? I'm not sure what the data mining considerations would have been.

A FB account is not required to read your page. There are very valid concerns why people do not get Facebook accounts. Yet, if you Facebook folks wish to share info with others for the benefits of ubiquitous availability, then it behooves you also to not make the FB page private.

This is correct. You need no FB account to view the uk ultra group, anyone can see it as it's public.

And it's not his group, he just got asked to help admin, then took over!

Gary you clearly know nothing about how FB works and know nothing about tech, so not sure why you are getting involved here as you have nothing at all to contribute. Just the usual getting involved in things that do not concern you.

You do not work for FB therefore cannot know what is a fake profile, only FB knows, you just guess and assume and ban folk.

Report as fake to FB direct if you have concerns. If that account has not been verified with photo id then FB will request this, if none provided the account is removed. It's not for you to guess and jump to conclusions.

That's the wonderful thing about the internet, just as you can view the URC and comment here I can both view and comment in both places. What a time to live in eh?

Now as to fake profiles and reporting to fb I have no need to. As long as the admins are all in agreement then that person is removed. Democracy, isn't it wonderful?

Also what is wonderful is that I don't feel the need to hide behind a fake name. I stand by what I say like a grown up.

Asher busted RY wrote:

Erm, it was Asher from LRC that initially busted RY. LRC then organised funding Laz and the geezers to go out there.

LRC didn't organize funding. It was the old guys.

[quote]Asher busted RY wrote:

Quote

"That might have been the end of it, except for the Ultralist. The Ultralist was aware of this whole exchange, and I found myself hit with a lot of offers. Many people said they would pitch in: $20, $50, or even $100, to pay for me to go and observe the RY run. Other veteran multi-day runners, mostly retired, offered to join me in the effort."

Now some guy on URC is claiming Scamwatcheroo is an "expert in this kind of thing" and has "claimed this is legit"

Sorry I missed where he said that

TBH I'm actually on the fence and could be convinced either way but I really don't get why Mimi and her team aren't addressing the questions (which as we all know will only get louder!)

Also Gary - I take your word you didn't see my message but as I said I have very legit concerns about FB/ data / how they use it and prefer to not have them know a) who I am or b) where I am

Though I said in my original message I'm happy to tell you via PM

St Marker wrote:

TBH I'm actually on the fence and could be convinced either way but I really don't get why Mimi and her team aren't addressing the questions (which as we all know will only get louder!)

Me too and me neither. Except that I guess they only have GWR to answer to. Officially at least. Do they even care what LRC or URC think or say?

St Marker I can only apologise for seeming like I was ignoring you. It wasn't intentional. As far as Mimi's crew is concerned their primary job is looking after her and making sure she has every need catered for. No disrespect to you guys but you come way down their priority list.

That said they have been made aware of the tracker issues and are making that a priority to sort out. They'd welcome people joining them once that is but I'm sure they'd understand once trust is damaged it's difficult to regain.

Scam_Watcheroo wrote:

It would be easy to spoof any number of runs once the tools are set up and the rough routes generated by any number of means. The spoofing would then involve interpolating the GPS coordinates between the ones recorded in the route and filling in the calculated time, heart rate, and cadence. A GPX or TCX file essentially contains human readable text in XML that consists of the longitude, latitude, elevation, cadence, heart rate, and GMT time so it is trivial to write one out. In fact, I will just be using a preexisting GPX library to handle the file input and output for dealing with the GPX syntax so I don't even have to give it too much thought.

And there are already existing websites out there that offer to spoof GPS for you if you pay them......

OK Scam I am up for a challenge!

Provide 4 Strava runs that are all similar with 2 real ones and 2 fake ones. Similar means distance, pace, elevation gain, geographic area.

Include cadence and heart rate.

Scam_Watcheroo wrote:

Another thing I want to add, Mimi and her team have two Volkswagen support cars they are using plus the RV yet only one of the Volkswagen cars is tracked by the GPS trackers. What has the other Volkswagen been doing all this time? Also, they claim there is a film crew with them in a second RV that I believe they hired to follow them. Where is the footage from this film crew and what exactly are they filming?

So Mimi's team has four vehicles, which means four drivers plus a film crew and any other support people. That seems like a lot of people to be in on a scam.

I haven't seen any daily totals that are extravagant or any Rob Young style mountain climbs. As of now, I would think they are just bad with their tracking devices instead of doing anything fraudulent.

For all the talk of how great a runner Mimi is, I can find very little about her besides her web page.

The about section is mostly self promotional ("Mimi Anderson is considered to be one of the World’s most inspirational female distance runners. Women all over the World can relate to her on every level. She is a mother, a grandmother, a wife and daughter. She is witty, beautiful, smart, kind and very normal.") but eventually you get to results which are extremely difficult or even impossible to verify.

For example, let's just take the first three "accomplishments":

ICE ULTRA 2016

230km self-sufficiency staged race in Sweden. 1st Female, 4th overall

I can't find the results for the 2016 race anywhere online. Perhaps one of you other sleuths will be able to. Not a lot of people enter this race. I did read several accounts which make this run sound fairly easy (it is only 230 km after all). One blogger recommended a caloric intake of around 3100 kcal to maintain. However, the most interesting thing I found was a race report from another woman, not Mimi, who also claimed to have finished 1st Female, 4th overall that year. I also don't see her in the photo of group participants. Perhaps there is some explanation for all this.

http://ultrarunningcommunity.com/13-report/1039-race-report-fire-ice-ultra-icelands-toughest-foot-race-september-2016

https://ultrastageracing.com/fire-and-ice-ultra-2016/

TOUGH AS NAILS AWARD 2015

Outside of her webpage, I can find absolutely nothing about this? What is it? Did she make it up? Who knows?

DOUBLE SPARTATHLON 2015

Ran from Athens to Sparta 153 miles in under 36hrs,

slept for approx 6 hrs then ran back to Athens total 306 miles. FIRST FEMALE TO ACHIEVE THIS.

In this account, Mimi is overcome with emotion upon finishing the 150 mile race. She commits to do the return trip to her credit, but I can't find how long it took. She crows that she was the first female to achieve this. Has anyone else even tried? It seems to be another made up record.

http://ultrarunningcommunity.com/13-report/976-2015-spartathlon-race-report

I could go on, but I'll stop there.

There is absolutely nothing here to suggest she is capable of 50+ miles days every day for weeks and especially not at her age when any athlete would be slowing down. This is a blatant publicity grab from someone who makes a career out of self promotion. The issues with the lack of record keeping and tracking are well established by now. Nothing about this is legitimate. This is not a real attempt at the record and should not be taken seriously by anyone who values the integrity of ultrarunning.

All that said, she sounds like a lovely lady. I do wish the best for Mimi and hope she is able to sell many books on her publicity tour. I for one am not going to waste my time trying to convince her fans. There will always be the supporters of the Amy Hughes, the Dave Readings, the Rob Youngs who will never admit they were duped. Sit back and enjoy the show if you like.

Going by the last Strava update (sept 25) they should be at or near La Junta CO right now.

I just rang three local businesses in the area and they assured me cell phone coverage is "fine" throughout the region - multiple towers around etc

2 of the 3 also told me they offer free WiFi

Maybe someone could pass the offer on to Mimi and her team?

Interesting, the Ice Ultra link I posted says 2016 in the body, but it says 2015 in the title. I'm not sure which is correct, so I retract that portion of my argument. As I said, perhaps someone more skilled than I can track down the results of real races Mimi has run. I cannot find anything to suggest she has suddenly become a world class ultra runner in her 50s.

Mimi's Pedigree wrote:

However, the most interesting thing I found was a race report from another woman, not Mimi, who also claimed to have finished 1st Female, 4th overall that year. I also don't see her in the photo of group participants. Perhaps there is some explanation for all this.

That's not even in the same country as the race Mimi refers too!

The Robert Young transcon was EPIC.Best. Thead. Ever.

Asher busted RY wrote:

Laz and the geezers to go out there.

I'm pretty sure that the data on Mimi's movescount page can't be edited. It's a mirror of what's on the watch. So if her Movescount data is matching that in Strava, I think it's safe to say that the data is not being manipulated. Perhaps her timing in posting Strava updates is just laziness on the part of the team.

Any Movescount experts care to share an opinion?

Extraordinary feats require extraordinary documentation. Hving a nice smile and people saying good things about you are fine, but give us the raw hard facts first.

Mimi's Pedigree wrote:

Interesting, the Ice Ultra link I posted says 2016 in the body, but it says 2015 in the title. I'm not sure which is correct, so I retract that portion of my argument. As I said, perhaps someone more skilled than I can track down the results of real races Mimi has run. I cannot find anything to suggest she has suddenly become a world class ultra runner in her 50s.

unless you take the not so obscure option of checkling