Hi All,
This is Pete Kostelnick and just thought I'd give my two cents.
I was a big fan of what you all did in (un)validating Robert Young's attempt last year. I can say that I followed him from the start and lost sleep over the mysteriously long and even space between the dots on the map during the night and the inconsistent dots during the day. I am grateful for people like Asher, Laz, Bill, Mike, and yes, even you Markus. ;)
The ultrarunning community has some pretty big frauds that unfortunately steal the attention from the real ultrarunners and make others look bad. Some of the worst people in the world are cheaters and tall tale tellers.
I have checked in on Mimi and Sandra's progress each day, and I understand the questions raised of Mimi after RY. However, I am convinced beyond a doubt that Mimi is legit and playing it fair. And, if not, the tracker she now has that is the Gold Standard, along with uploading to Strava each day will tell quick enough.
The biggest objective differences between RY and Mimi is that RY never even uploaded to Strava and did the majority of his miles in the dark. That should certainly be acknowledged.
Another big difference is Mimi has a credible running resume, with verified results in reputable races. RY did not. To cheat now after all that Mimi has done (I'm not even including her non-race "doubles", etc) would destroy her reputation and anything she's done until now. To reach your 50's (yes, many people in their 50's win ultramarathons) and throw away the years of your life spent running seems suicidal.
Robert Young was also often shown running at near full speed down a highway. So far, Mimi has certainly not. That isn't to say you can't fake running a multi-day pace, but to cheat in such a sophisticated manner (fake Strava data, knowing exactly what ultrarunners look like 1,000 miles into a run, swelling your face, etc) seems that they would be better served working for Google and making more money than anything that can come of a run across America (even a book).
I applaud the objective monitoring of Mimi, but I honestly think it's a waste of time to go back and try to find holes in her data to date. I say monitor her going forward, just like Sandra, now that she has the inReach. I don't know about the RD product, but I do know that uploading Strava each day was a challenge for me at times. I don't think I even had reliable service until Dinosaur, Colorado with Sprint (don't ask), and was only able to upload to Strava through service that Cinder had (and thankfully Sandra has with Cinder now!). Coming from the UK, I imagine they may have chosen an unreliable carrier, but I imagine asking them to upload sooner if possible would be a great step.
Being from the US, it was probably easier for me to get people to run with me with word of mouth. I imagine most people following Mimi are in the UK.
I know many people on here find humor in the topic and probably don't even think Mimi is a fraud, but just wanted to throw this out there and mainly point at the differences between Mimi and RY to those that don't know the whole story. Having two women running like this is a lot of fun to watch... I won't write on here anymore so you know anyone else posting as "Pete Kostelnick" isn't me. Feel free to shoot me a message on my personal facebook and I'll confirm this is me.
Again, thanks everyone for catching all the running cheats! I just don't think Mimi fits that mold at all, though.
Pete