This thread was originally titled, "Incredible development in the $612,000 Transcon Goodge run, currently ongoing" but the new title is more descriptive. The description of the run is here.
cheater watcher.... wrote:
The tracker is heading 50 miles off course to Pittsburgh. But who knows where the watch is. Could be a head fake to keep runners and eyeballs away from Will without plenty of advanced notice.
WG Strava ended near Cadiz OH and the road to Stubenville OH. Due west of Pittsburgh PA. Unless he backtracked or cutover he's headed towards Pittsburgh and 30 miles north of his original route. You'll have your answer on Strava later today.
Or maybe the tracker's shopping at a partic swish Wholefoods, but Strava is a match for the whacky blue line that flies off course. There's a fork in the road in Cambridge and the theory is that unsupervised he took the wrong path, but by the time error was noticed, it was deemed better to crack on. These forks nailed me a lot on my trip out there.
I just asked Google, "how many miles between Pittsburgh and Masontown [original route]?" and it spat back 65.8. So I'll see your 30 and raise ya'!
willvlc wrote:
We can start giving you insight into the runners Goodge is taking out. For instance, Stu Mittleman's 57 looks certain to fall to him:
Stu Mittleman is an ultradistance running champion, as well as a fitness/running coach and author.
Mittleman set three consecutive American 100-Mile Road Race records in the US National Championships 1980–1982. His fastest 100-Mile Run was 12 hours 56 min [1]. In 1986, he won the 1,000 Mile World Championship and set a new world record by running the distance (1 609.344 kilometers) in 11 days, 20 hours, 36 min. 50 sec.[1] Mittleman set three consecutive American Records in the 6 Day Race, the final one being set in 1985 at the University of Colorado Field House. One record, which still stands: 577.75 miles in 6 days.
In December 2008, Mittleman became the sixth American – the third American male – to be inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.
A tidy scalp for WG.
It seems that the Goodge defenders are saying that the Transcon is a different beast altogether than the ultra. In the Ultra fast runners are never, ever whooped by mediocre runners. They are without exception all won by fast accomplished distance runners.
I find it hard to believe that Stu could be beat by a guy like Goodge. And that Goodge can claim this is a piece of cake.
And an important correction to my 10th/350 statement. We must factor in how many dnfs. At Jogle we know the figure is around 40% dnf. Surely Transcon is 50% at least. 007 said 40 pages ago: "finishing it is rare." So, it's more like 10/700.
Indeed, just to finish is a major coup. But to do so in a huge negative split of approaching 5 days, and show little to no signs of fatigue is surely unheard of. I have the Transcon book, will start dipping into it, and studying the journeys.
willvlc wrote:
Maybe a final huge lunge at Lees' 53 yet? I wonder if they've looked up what it is exactly. 53.83... right, so if they're true about a week, they'll miss him by 1.17 days.
There's a strong hint on their Day 46 Instagram post which suggests they might be going for 53;
"Ended the day feeling like I could have carried on through the night which is great… but needs to be saved for slightly closer to NYC."
thanks, good spot, found it. Surely this scenic route they're on now scuppers all.
willvlc wrote:
thanks, good spot, found it. Surely this scenic route they're on now scuppers all.
Translation please?
sorry, replying to Goodge Street Station, that his note about them looking to pull future all nighters was a good spot. But this wild deviation from their course surely costs them a good whack of time. They'd have to get near 80s for Lees' time now.
People are starting to point out that their course was a head-scratcher from the get go. Why do a 3175m run when the recognized distance is 2900 or so? That's some 5 days more than necessary. If I was plastering all over my literature that I was doing a national record I'd go for the shortest route. Tulloh ran 2876, as did Lees. So he's going to take a week out of Tulloh, plus a cool 300 miles, and the run will be far superior in daily miles than Lees.
In fact he will be 7th on the all time board for daily mileage after McGrath, Cottrell, Giannino, Bassano, Ulrich and PK.
There is precedent for wild detours with Balenger. Up to 30 miles extra in a day, up huge climbs. When people would ask on Strava why he did it, he wouldn't reply.
It's a bit like Rivett and Lloyd at Jogle saying they did 875. They don't even know have far it is. It's about 811. 875 is the traditional cycling route and what is printed on the sign.
...because he never did it?
OK. It looks to me like Will has found a shorter route to NY. If you judge by the way a crow flies. We have plenty of runners in Pittsburgh! Get out there and get some good ole fashioned Letsrun detective work going. Watch for multiple people running with him. Watch for covering up of the face.
He is on Broughton road. at Sansue DR intersection. Lets get out there!
Come on Laz! Put those smokes down and get out there. The Barkley is finished and you have too much time on your hands these days.
By the way, does anyone know how well these trackers work? Will's looks extremely inaccurate. His path does not even stick to the roads. Not even close. It looks like simply ping once in a while for a very rough route map.
Cheater spotter wrote:
It seems that the Goodge defenders are saying that the Transcon is a different beast altogether than the ultra. In the Ultra fast runners are never, ever whooped by mediocre runners. They are without exception all won by fast accomplished distance runners.
This is actually the biggest problem for me in trying to decide what’s going on here.
In a single day race I would be back at the hotel showering and getting ready for a nap by the time these guys finished. In many of my buildups I’ve averaged around 20 miles a day, with easy pace on flat ground being around 6:30-6:45/mile. But how well does that translates to going over twice as far but only half as fast? The only times I run close to their pace is with my kids, and it feels painfully slow. My HR is under 100, but it’s only for 2-3 miles. Would it stay that low after 6 hrs at that pace?
I just don’t have a great personal feel for how well ability to train and peak for a single race correlates with going super slow but as far as you can day after day. So I have to mostly rely on the opinions of people who have actually done it, and a lot of them seem to have serious reservations about the legitimacy of this. I do know that it is frustrating seeing someone that you’ve beaten by hours in races raking in tens of thousands of dollars in sponsorship and living the life of an influencer. So is there a little bit of jealousy involved? Probably.
He's using poles on the road. Crazy.
Also seems desperate for it to be over. This means he has failed TransCon. Anyone who isn't going for the proper record and doesn't want it to go on forever has done it wrong.
Miss Crabapple awards Bart Simpson a D-
Yes, that's the problem here - these two are both totally nondescript runners. In their entire ultra careers their returns are:
RB 468/2088
WG 311/2134
If it appears they haven't done much racing, you'd be right. They clearly avoid real racing like the plague. When they race in public, their returns are pretty awful, but when they do their private stunts, they're faultless and imperious, albeit minus a human pulse. WG will be 10/700 here. Compare that to the above.
RB covered just 87.5 miles in a 33 hour race, and took 27:33 over a 100 mile race, yet for a private venture in Central Park, slams down 100 miles in 18 hours with a 1,349m of climbing [and no recognizable human pulse for a vast majority of the second half].
WG is very much a 3:05 man in the marathon, but in private run in Battersea Park, he'll rip you out a 2:50. And at Marathon des Sables his endurance limitations were hopelessly exposed, getting crushed by a W45 in 3:58 marathon shape.
But these companies who sponsor them absolutely love their huge followings they can influence sell through. Give them a choice between a pro runner with 25k followers, or WG and RB with 200k combined, and they'll take the latter any day. Balenger alone has more followers than Aleksandr Sorokin, and WG over four times that.
WG back on the ski poles today, seeing footage of him running is down to a few seconds a week, but still the conviction remains that they'll be done in a week, which would be some going. It's almost as if they know something we don't.
willvlc wrote:
haha, nowhere close, a far better runner than WG, but still pretty ordinary, just an accomplished chancer. Guinness' requisites were appalling: signatures of people saying they'd seen him go by, and photos. No checks at all to see if the runner had ability.And a logbook, but Guinness have lost theirs, and Lloyd promised Runners World he'd produce it, but of course he never will. One of the endless red flags is no days under 90 miles, with day 6 at 98; total and utter fantasy, and certainly never seen before in the 6 day race or above, on far easier courses than the tough Jogle. Even Kouros misses 90 every day on his famous run of the Century.
Have you seen that Timmy Zhou is about 150k up the course? Heading for a 90 day crossing. They might have a good race to get to NYC. Every single day's HR is pure. This is how a Transcon should really look. He writes in moving detail about the despair, loneliness and fatigue that comes with the journey.
Here's Zhou's Strava:
Going to be a busy week for WG and Timmy Zhou as they make their way into the New York Metro area on foot. It's Memorial Day weekend and here is what they can expect. : "The number of vehicles active in the New York metro area during a holiday week can vary depending on the specific holiday. However, in general, the number of vehicles on the road increases by about 20% during holiday weeks. This is because people are traveling to visit family and friends, or to go on vacation. For example, during the week of Thanksgiving, the number of vehicles on the road in the New York metro area is estimated to increase by about 25%. This increase in traffic can lead to longer commutes and delays".
Head on a swivel.
I was traveling through the Ozarks on memorial weekend 2021 and had nothing but big trucks hauling fishing boats for 5 days straight on US60. Similar story in western Virginia over 4th of July holiday. Tons of traffic. Also crossed paths with a bear just east of Appomattox on US60.
This is the first day I have really tried to zoom in on that tracker location. If you had a goal of trying to find that thing in person it would be quite a task. It looks like it pings about every 15-20 minutes. And therefore in a city it would be hard to find. The path does not stay on streets. It bounces all over. And of course, if you find the tracker you need permission from them to find the runner. Or should I say the runner(s).
willvlc wrote:
We can start giving you insight into the runners Goodge is taking out. For instance, Stu Mittleman's 57 looks certain to fall to him:
Stu Mittleman is an ultradistance running champion, as well as a fitness/running coach and author.
Mittleman set three consecutive American 100-Mile Road Race records in the US National Championships 1980–1982. His fastest 100-Mile Run was 12 hours 56 min [1]. In 1986, he won the 1,000 Mile World Championship and set a new world record by running the distance (1 609.344 kilometers) in 11 days, 20 hours, 36 min. 50 sec.[1] Mittleman set three consecutive American Records in the 6 Day Race, the final one being set in 1985 at the University of Colorado Field House. One record, which still stands: 577.75 miles in 6 days.
In December 2008, Mittleman became the sixth American – the third American male – to be inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame.
A tidy scalp for WG.
This post is quite illuminating. It really brings perspective on the level of runners that Will Goodge is overtaking with his pace. Have you contacted Stu’s family to let them know? I’m sure they would be upset to learn the circumstances under which Stu is being overtaken.
I have had a reply from Stu; it was very sharp. Basically he can't be compared to someone doing a different course at a different time. But this was illuminating:
"Some of the claims made by people who did the transcon with no credentials were not taken seriously by me."
Oh! And WG going 250 miles further.
