Marlon Bascombe Coach of Lean.Strong.Fast Suspected of Cheating for BQ

Meanwhile on Slowtwitch, Tom D is back.

I know a few former pros who run training/coaching programs. These are real pros who competed internationally, some are Olympians, but not medalists who could have gotten independently wealthy off endorsements. They gave their lives to the sport and worked very hard to establish their training programs so they could continue to be in the sport and help runners be their best. Rightfully so, they see it as a kick in the pants when some yahoo with no real running background puts up a website and holds themselves out as a running coach.

I have no problem putting a self-proclaimed running coach through the wringer for having a suspicious BQ if that person is using the BQ accomplishment as part of their business. For the couch to marathon participant, a coach espousing a BQ has more credibility and may even sway them from joining a training group run by a former pro. I have seen this happen (minus the suspicious BQ). It is hard enough to stomach seeing very good self-promoters, but otherwise unimpressive runners take coaching/training business from pros just because they have shiny website and lots of pics on Instagram, but it is inexcusable to be doing that with a fake BQ (assuming the allegations are true).

Mister T wrote:

Of all my running friends that I know more people than not think Derek is questionable person.

I don't believe you.

Also, in English please. You posts read like the spam that comes on here overnight. Nothing wrong with English not being your main language, but use a better translator or something.

Cheating BQ aside. If I have more training knowledge and am a better motivator, why should some schmoe who is a lesser coach, but ran in the Olympics be a thought of as a coach. Sorry, Being an Olympian does not make someone qualified to be a coach.

Mister T wrote:

Of all my running friends that I know more people than not think Derek is questionable person. And these are people who would never cheat.

Are they all lean, strong and fast?

Math major wrote:

doubler wrote:

Found 53 from 2015 with 100% certainty. I estimated the % of cheating in the rest of the field. This year, we will review groupings outside of the flagged runners to get a better estimate.

Can you post the names of the 53 that you found cheating with 100% certainty? Thanks.

No. But feel free to email the RW reporter. They researched the list to confirm the conclusion (through the first 47) that they cheated.

Mister T wrote:

First of all it's very clear this is public shaming came in I think Derek would admit to that

Secondly it to be us are going to say anyone who disagrees with derricks methods must be a cheater. It's like you idiots live in a binary world

You could dislike the cheaters and dislike Derek's method. The two ideas aren't mutually exclusive.

Of all my running friends that I know more people than not think Derek is questionable person. And these are people who would never cheat.

I think some of the losers here love to celebrate other people's failures. There's a lot of good things and running but people like Derek and people cheer him on only highlight the negative. It's kind of sad

This isn't a "failure," in the same sense as shooting for a fast time and blowing up at the end of a marathon. This is a deliberate act, requiring forethought and deception. Well, I guess it is a failure... in personal character.

One reaps what they sow.

I think most people agree with the idea of outing cheaters. However, it is the method this guy uses that is questionable.

I'm completely fascinated with this story because it really takes you into a person's physique, see how far they will go to dupe others for their own personal interests. This story demands attention because he is more of a public/social media figure. Actually, i think this is the first case where someone has gone this far with financial compensation as a motivating factor. Litton and Rossi didn't have much to gain but ego and some pats on the back, Marlon could gain reputation, clients, students and sponsors if he could show he was talented enough to gain entry to the Boston Marathon.

I think Derek is doing a great service for the running community. I don't understand the "who cares, so what" argument. At the end of the day Marlon stole an entry to the Boston Marathon, stole from another person. You cannot repay that experience back, an experience that would have come from a lot of effort and hard work, that would have meant something to someone. I hope one day their will be 0% cheaters in the Boston Marathon, that would be the ultimate goal. Everyone who earned the right to be there would be able to enjoy the experience together.

To support Derek again, he did make an effort to contact Marlon before the blog. Marlon had an opportunity to come clean and possibly avoid any public scrutiny, he instead chose to continue the lie with falsified run data.

long time listener wrote:

I think most people agree with the idea of outing cheaters. However, it is the method this guy uses that is questionable.

Propose a better method then.

Doubler wrote:

Math major wrote:

Can you post the names of the 53 that you found cheating with 100% certainty? Thanks.

No. But feel free to email the RW reporter. They researched the list to confirm the conclusion (through the first 47) that they cheated.

Why not?

elephino wrote:

long time listener wrote:

I think most people agree with the idea of outing cheaters. However, it is the method this guy uses that is questionable.

Propose a better method then.

Pay attention. Several have been given in this thread.

My impression was that he sent these folks emails before publishing. If that's not the case, he certainly loses the moral high ground.

As I think it through though, it occurs to me that you really better have a squeaky clean record to do this kind of thing, especially for profit. You better not have cheated on your taxes, driven drunk, flirted with someone other than your spouse, etc. because if you have, you have no room to complain if someone finds out and publicly outs you.

Personally, I've done enough dumb stuff not to invite karma to come bite me on the ass.

Math major wrote:

Doubler wrote:

No. But feel free to email the RW reporter. They researched the list to confirm the conclusion (through the first 47) that they cheated.

Why not?

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

You can confirm that the # is real, why do you need names of every bib swapper?

Mr. T. wrote:

I don't think Derek is a legally sound as he seems to think. someone will find a creative way to use the courts. You can't use the internet to harass people under federal law.

Derek's on pretty sound legal footing. There is precedent in Kimberlin v Walker that blogging about someone does not constitute harrassment.

He also can't be found guilty for libel for stating an opinion based on disclosed facts.

I'm not a lawyer, but I read a lot of Popehat.

Agreed, keep up the good work, don't let idle threats stand in the way of calling out people who tarnish our sport. For those of you who think this is over the top, go find a sport where everyone is cool with cheating. I truly feel sorry for those who choose to turn a blind eye to this sort of behavior. Torture the cheater, not the messenger.

Doubler wrote:

Math major wrote:

Why not?

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

You can confirm that the # is real, why do you need names of every bib swapper?

Why don't you just publish them? Are they not real? Are there really just three or four that you found and have put on your blog?

long rime listener wrote:

elephino wrote:

Propose a better method then.

Pay attention. Several have been given in this thread.

No, not really. Sending a private email to the RD accomplishes next to nothing. Best case scenario, the RD issues a DQ to the runner and maybe bans them from that race in the future.

The cheater may or may not even know they have been DQ'ed. They already ran Boston in most cases so that can't be taken away either.

None of the cheater's friends or family is going to look back at the race results from last year so they will never know either. If they did, they'll just see a DQ (maybe) next to the person's name and the cheater will say, "Oh, my chip malfunctioned so they didn't count my time. But I did run that time and Boston accepted so it must be true."

So why does anyone else need to know about the cheater being exposed? Because bragging about the race time, or the BQ, is pretty much the only reason that these people are cheating. These people aren't cheating to win any prize money, just for "likes" on FB or being able to get a "BQ" tattoo (I actually know someone who did this).

Thus, the DQ after-the-fact that no one knows about does not serve as any kind of deterrent for the cheater.

If people know that there is a good likelihood that there cheating will be exposed after the fact, many will not go through with it.

So, I'm fine with the Blog posts. Weirdos who then harass the cheater on social media are going too far - Ken Stillman was obviously deranged on the whole Mike Rossi thing. Ken wasn't even a runner though, just some douche from Philly.

long time listener wrote:

However, it is the method this guy uses that is questionable.

This guy Doubler is obviously a troll. At some point he even suspected Mike Rossi, although Mike didn't miss any mat whatsoever in his BQ mary, occurred in several photos including a selfie, and thankfully got cleared later. Even USATF couldn't find a reason to disqualify Mike.