Robert Young fakes run across America

Ben is the real deal. He has run his "marathons" in different towns and sought company from local runners. He's also run the very slowly and not claimed any records.

Ultraboy wrote:

Ben is the real deal. He has run his "marathons" in different towns and sought company from local runners. He's also run the very slowly and not claimed any records.

Totally agree with the above.

Has also been discussed on this and another thread. Plenty of evidence to prove Ben was legitimate and was never out to set any records.

Ultraboy wrote:

Ben is the real deal. He has run his "marathons" in different towns and sought company from local runners. He's also run the very slowly and not claimed any records.

So why did he make his Strava profile private? Quite strange if you are seeking attention for your charities, no?

And why is he refusing to accept Strava requests?

Anyway, even from his hidden profile, it is clear that he didn't upload all his activities, because you can see that there have been months without any run.

I won't call him an outright cheater, but this is very shady at least.

Not shady at all. I can think of lots of reasons why someone would want to control who sees this data (his past bullies perhaps?) have you actually tried to add him? He has hundreds of strava followers. He accepted me and I've never even met the gorgeous chap.

Brit basement dweller wrote:

Not shady at all. I can think of lots of reasons why someone would want to control who sees this data (his past bullies perhaps?) have you actually tried to add him? He has hundreds of strava followers. He accepted me and I've never even met the gorgeous chap.

Oh dear, I think we have another Rob Young, Parvaneh Moayedi, Lance Armstrong, etc, type cult developing here.

I hate cults. wrote:

Brit basement dweller wrote:

Not shady at all. I can think of lots of reasons why someone would want to control who sees this data (his past bullies perhaps?) have you actually tried to add him? He has hundreds of strava followers. He accepted me and I've never even met the gorgeous chap.

Oh dear, I think we have another Rob Young, Parvaneh Moayedi, Lance Armstrong, etc, type cult developing here.

Absolutely not. I know many runners personally that have run Ben Smith's marathons. He posted the routes for all marathons on his website and facebook, and never did one step alone.

He had a large group of runners with him for EVERY marathon.

Every day a running club would post dozens of photos of running with him when he came to their town.

Lets Run has done some great work - dont spoil it by assuming things about people.

Ben Smith is legit wrote:

I hate cults. wrote:

Oh dear, I think we have another Rob Young, Parvaneh Moayedi, Lance Armstrong, etc, type cult developing here.

He had a large group of runners with him for EVERY marathon.

Every day a running club would post dozens of photos of running with him when he came to their town.

ah shit we definitely have a cult developing.

its happening wrote:

Ben Smith is legit wrote:

He had a large group of runners with him for EVERY marathon.

Every day a running club would post dozens of photos of running with him when he came to their town.

ah shit we definitely have a cult developing.

Rob would definitely give kudos to Ben for unselfishly assembling a community around him toward raising funds for the children.

Go find the Ben Smith thread this is the Rob Young thread.

I can just imaging Rob Young smiling while reading the last few comments thinking "They are getting distracted by another runner.....yipppeee"

its happening wrote:

Ben Smith is legit wrote:

He had a large group of runners with him for EVERY marathon.

Every day a running club would post dozens of photos of running with him when he came to their town.

ah shit we definitely have a cult developing.

Nah, its just not like that. He's just someone people have enjoyed running with.

He created marathon routes in loads of different towns that were laps, so even if people couldn't run a marathon, they could turn up with their club friends and run a lap or two.

Nothing shady about him at all. He has never asked the general public for money and all his marathons were genuine. No silly claims and no lies.

I see that our hero's Wiki page has been updated and heavily edited. Never seen the word 'claims' used so often in so few sentences !

It would be the final nail in his story to prove that the first 200miles of his 373miles alleged (ok, fake) run was made up.

A UK marathon happy to use Robert as advertising ?!

Gutted to see his picture still being used for advertisement purposes.

I sent a message to the organisers pointing out the problem. They can be contacted here http://www.thewalesmarathon.com/contact/

can we start a gofundme to line up to shit on robert youngs chest? he'd probably be down.

Brit basement dweller wrote:

Not shady at all. I can think of lots of reasons why someone would want to control who sees this data (his past bullies perhaps?) have you actually tried to add him? He has hundreds of strava followers. He accepted me and I've never even met the gorgeous chap.

Please explain this:

Seems like there is no GPS data for about 2 months.

I can't access his other data, because he refuses to accept my request.

A private profile for a very public person just seems weird.

dupl wrote:

Brit basement dweller wrote:

Not shady at all. I can think of lots of reasons why someone would want to control who sees this data (his past bullies perhaps?) have you actually tried to add him? He has hundreds of strava followers. He accepted me and I've never even met the gorgeous chap.

Please explain this:

http://imgur.com/a/Bj3Go

Seems like there is no GPS data for about 2 months.

I can't access his other data, because he refuses to accept my request.

A private profile for a very public person just seems weird.

It's shady to not share everything? I go for months without sharing and they I will share for awhile.

An excellent role model wrote:

http://www.thewalesmarathon.com/

A UK marathon happy to use Robert as advertising ?!

What's this about? I've gone to the website. What am I looking for or have they already taken it off?

RobsBook wrote:

Trinity1976 wrote:

Yes, it was saying well over 100 comments straight after the event but the number has gone right down now. What does it mean by setting posts to 'custom'?

'Custom' allows him to specify exactly who can or can't see each individual post. For example, he could create a list of all people that have liked his recent photo and only allow that list of people to see a new post. Or, he could create a list of anyone that's posted something negative, and not allow them to see certain posts. The visibility of the post can only be seen by the page owner, so he gets his own perfect positive feedback zone.

To be fair he left my comments up on his FB about his fake pb's. The fans claimed their pb's where not on po10 either or 'can't even remember what my 10km pb is!' I checked - about an hour

He's too posh to have been in a care home. Accent gives everything away in this country