Frank Meza 2:53:10 at LA Marathon (70 years old) unofficial time (just finished)

Thank You.

I will mention I kind of hit the tipping point as it related to the woman that we had to DQ at CIM for using a bandit pacer.

I wrote on her more as a public service..so runners are clear that they may get DQd for using unauthorized assistance.

I then dealt with a flood of emails where someone hopped on the course to pace a runner for a few miles.

Someone emailed me asking if a runner that had an epidural was breaking the rules.

Someone emailed me about an Instagram met that exaggerated their times by a few seconds.

While banditing and accepting unauthorized assistance should be discouraged and not at all accepted, I have, at this point, stopped dealing with those cases. Unless there is a victory or prize money, I will not be publicly involved in cases like that.

If races accept hundreds of bandits on their courses, that’s on them to act.

I shut down user posts on my Facebook Group because of the general pettiness I started seeing. My focus was on babysitting the group and not where it should be.

I also have gone back to working full time, so I have neither the time or inclination to police every aspect of running.

It’s been awhile since I really had to dig through the minutia to put a case together. This was absolutely a crowdsourced effort. Without the discovery of The LA photo, as well as other work done on here, I wouldn’t have had an article to write.

I think you are fair person, so you will realize that I have not the intention to ruin the life of FM. That would be out of proportion. It is a matter of sporting spirit and athletics, nothing else. I think if someone has nothing to give but fake results I think it is fair enough to protect all those who believe in fairness. They all are proud about what they achieve by one's own effort. Please don't forget what might happen if someone realizes the perfect fraud.

Addendum: Donate Derek!

If he is like other frauds we have seen, [pleading sad-eyed face]"You see, I was doing it for the kids!

On May 29, 2009 -- ten years ago today -- Oscar Miranda died. I don't recall much about his life, but I do remember the 1979 Boston marathon and the initial results showing that this apparently normal and mild-mannered Floridian had just run a 2:16 marathon at the age of 53. He was later disqualified because he didn't show up at various checkpoints along the way. As far as I know, he never ran another race -- although he was certainly invited -- and never acknowledged any wrongdoing in connection with the Boston marathon. As a quotation on his tribute page indicates, he had his defenders to the end:

“Oscar Miranda finished the 1979 Boston Marathon in a time of 2:16, winning the overall masters age group division. ”

http://www.tributes.com/obituary/show/Oscar-A.-Miranda-86067134

I don't think that I've ever seen a really good, fairly comprehensive work discussing the psychology of course-cutting, "race-muling," and similar types of cheating and embellishing of results in this sport. So many of the suspects in these cases seem to have had sterling reputations in their professions and communities, and for the most part, I don't recall that the often-abundant evidence of lying and cheating within the sport was later found reflected, to any unusual degree, in the other parts of their lives. (Perhaps it was; I just don't recall seeing or hearing about it.)

Wyman wrote:

I didn't mean to prove that this is the way FM does it. But it can be done without someone else being in the know. Finding someone waiting for you in a car or on a scooter is even harder and more likely to fail than merely going back to the place where you locked your bicycle yourself.

Frank wouldn't have done it using a bike, he just wouldn't have the fitness level to run back, cycle to the next photo/mat location, rinse and repeat who knows how many times. But could perhaps do it with a scooter as no physical effort required other than jogging/walking to it.

My bet is an accomplice (don't forget the handover incident before plodding on to another of his awesome times), meticulous pre planning and the use of phones. As Derek has proven Frank is meticulous and has developed the ability to record near perfect splits, wearing the two watches helps too, in previous marathons he's shown wearing only one and stuffed up with 18 minute plus 5k splits.

Let’s be clear, what this person has done is bad. Furthermore, he is working in a school setting. He did this to himself. Obviously has some psychological issues. If this tarnished his reputation, it is deserved. Shameful behavior.

Frank wasn't too meticulous with his excuse to Derek about jumping off the course for a quick piss stop, obviously got caught on the hop and didn't have time to meticulously plan a response.

When you look at the photo of him jumping back in there are people every where, and when you look on Google Streetview there aren't any alley ways to duck down to do it, which means he did it on the side walk against a building in full view of everyone.

Frank, you're been pissing in a lot of ears and pissing in to the wind for a good many years and it's all showering back on to you now.

It is a cheater thread bingo standard that at some point someone gets convinced with no evidence that accomplices must be involved.

What goes around comes around. wrote:

Frank wasn't too meticulous with his excuse to Derek about jumping off the course for a quick piss stop, obviously got caught on the hop and didn't have time to meticulously plan a response.

When you look at the photo of him jumping back in there are people every where, and when you look on Google Streetview there aren't any alley ways to duck down to do it, which means he did it on the side walk against a building in full view of everyone.

Frank, you're been pissing in a lot of ears and pissing in to the wind for a good many years and it's all showering back on to you now.

'Your innate' sense of Frank is 'golden'

I have been involved in the Southern California high school XC coaching scene for decades and have been a regular in many of the road races and marathons in which Frank has claimed to have posted his record setting times. I know and highly respect Lalo Diaz, the head coach of Loyola High School's XC program. He consistently develops some of the nation's best prep talent (Matuzak, Torrence, Gedyon for example) and is generous with his time to mentor other coaches. Lalo is an icon in the Southern California XC community.

I think Lalo's status and the general respect that people have for him and what he has accomplished at Loyola have protected Frank Meza up to this point. Trust me, there has been a lot of whispering and raised eyebrows regarding Frank between many in the SoCal coaching and road racing communities for several years. But no one wanted to be, or even wants to be, the person who stepped forward with accusations against the "good doctor" (Meza has been involved with the Aztlan Track Club for years which does great work with underprivileged kids) and by association Lalo Diaz and the Loyola HS program.

I know that Frank did not run the full course at Long Beach a few years ago. He crossed the start line several minutes after the gun. He would have had to pass me some time after mile 10 or so when that race has really spread out. There just aren't that many sub 3:05 marathoners at Long Beach. I would have seen him. No doubt in my mind. When I saw his name in the results and did a little sleuthing, I discovered that he did not appear in ANY of the photos on the backside of the course. None. Every one else of that "speed" has multiple photos.

I have seen Meza on training runs for many years. He often runs in the Arroyo Seco just south of the Rose Bowl. Frank shuffles along, barely lifting his feet. His leg turnover does not show that he could come close to running the kinds of times he claims to be running. I am not surprised to hear that he does not work out with the Loyola team. He would be left in the dust...but his claimed times would indicate that he should be able to run solid workouts.

I now another respected, local high school XC coach who reported to me that he saw Frank walk off the course in the LA Marathon several years back. He knows Frank well. He saw him off to the side, walking up the sidewalk, against the direction of the race. He knew it was Frank based on the distinctive Aztlan tank and seeing his face. He thought to himself, "Bummer for Frank. Must have dropped out due to today's heat." This coach went on to run a 3:10 marathon. Imagine his surprise when he saw Frank's "finishing time" of a sub-3 hour marathon. No way.

Sadly, Frank appears to be digging in his heels on this one. But the evidence will continue to mount. In my opinion, there are several smoking guns already and probably more to come.

I know for sure that Meza will never toe the line at another marathon. Game over.

Thank you to Derrick/Marathon Investigation for the time and effort to help keeping our sport clean. Let's all contribute what we can to support his work

Money talks, BS cheats wrote:

Derek-I'll donate 50 bucks for every FM DQ you get.

I anticipate at least 2 DQ's sometime soon so just sent you $100. Keep up the good work!

RI red wrote:

Money talks, BS cheats wrote:

Derek-I'll donate 50 bucks for every FM DQ you get.

I anticipate at least 2 DQ's sometime soon so just sent you $100. Keep up the good work!

Thank You!

Unfortunately LA is not on board. Maybe they will change their minds when I share the Pasadena Half details. The same organization is in charge of both races.

Maybe if the Brojos could be brought on board, they could make a difference. LR.com seems to carry some weight in the running community. If they start referring to the LA marathon as a race that can't be bothered to address cheating, LA mgmt might take notice.

Good work. Just seeing this for the first time. I would be suspicious just from looking at a still photo of Frank mid stride. He doesn't look fast.

DC12 wrote:

Good work. Just seeing this for the first time. I would be suspicious just from looking at a still photo of Frank mid stride. He doesn't look fast.

Yup, I’d be surprised if he could run 2:53 marathon pace for a 5k.

Wonder what compels him. It’s got to take a good amount of planning to (almost) pull this off. And you might think after a couple DQs that he’d be gun shy about continuing.

XC Guy - thanks for the insightful post. Just wondering, since you mention seeing Meza training from time to time, does he have any regular training buddies? Personally, I'm neutral on the idea of him having accomplices, but anybody that runs with him regularly would have to be suspicious to say the least. The guy probably never cracks a 9:00 mile all year long, but then goes and pops out a 2:53 marathon?

And what about his son? He has to know. He's run some of the same marathons as his dad, and gotten crushed by him. I think Francisco might have actually run the races, though. That's one of those difficult calls - is Francisco an okay guy himself who knows his dad is a cheat but doesn't want to turn on his own family member...or is he in on the scam?

Haha no, Vince is a good guy. He just needed to see more concrete data, and backtracked today after reading the Mesa article.

Golgi Body wrote:

Maybe if the Brojos could be brought on board, they could make a difference. LR.com seems to carry some weight in the running community. If they start referring to the LA marathon as a race that can't be bothered to address cheating, LA mgmt might take notice.

After humiliating M.R., they don’t seem interested in exposing cheaters any more.

And poor M ... he just wanted a BQ. This guy is after world age group records.

I don't think he can run 400 meters at 2:53 pace. Look at his appearance in Hollywood. He jumps in with .8 miles to the timing mat. He then loses 1:40 during that time, so he's running at about 8:30 pace. I would think that in order to keep up appearances and not stick out like a sore thumb with people zipping past him, he'd attempt to run somewhere close to 6:35 pace, but he can't.