Hi Pete,
This is Scam_Watcheroo from the LRC thread on the suspicions around Mimi Anderson's transcon run and I wanted to continue a discussion with you to see if you are aware of the evidence we are gathering against Mimi Anderson and her team rather than basing it on friendships like with the posters from the Ultra Running Community Facebook group.
I have done many of these cheater discussions and the evidence is usually key, since personal testimonies have proven very unreliable. For example, several of the prominent members on URC vouched for Amy Hughes actually setting her treadmill world record based on nothing more than personal opinion whereas I found the actual video evidence showing Amy Hughes cheated and lied.
Are you aware that Mimi and her team have repeatedly lied about intentionally turning their Race Drone GPS trackers off and blaming it all on no cell connection when I have repeatedly shown their is widespread 3G connectivity through the AT&T network where they are and the Race Drone is able to connect to this as well as any other network? Have you seen how Mimi and her team have thrown Richard from Race Drone under the bus blaming everything on him and Race Drone even though Richard is supposedly a friend of Mimi's?
Here is what Richard from Race Drone just posted today in response to yet more lies from Mimi and her team:
Mimi Anderson - Endurance Athlete is at Target Store Garden-City.
9 mins · Garden City, KS, United States ·
UPDATE
Morning everyone!
We have had several issues with the trackers Mimi has been using.
Unfortunately they only work on 3G and 2G. This has meant no tracking availability when we have either 4G or no signal, which is fairly often as we rarely have 3G or 2G.
We know this has been frustrating for those who love following Mimi's progress and the team have been working hard to find a solution.
We have been able to get a Garmin InReach devices sent out to us (thankyou Luke & Hazel of EverydayExplorers!), now set up and it went live on the website tracker yesterday morning. The device works on GPS via Satellites and as a result we do not expect it to go down, unlike the previous tracker.
Fortunately runners have still been able to join Mimi using the contact form on the website to get through to us and track her from the latest point on the map at which these trackers worked. We appreciate it is much harder without a working live tracker, however we're now back on track (😆) and Mimi can't wait for you to join her on the road.
A new map on the website, a new tracker that actually works and a new State! An exciting day for us all as we're now in Kansas, yes it really is flat as a pancake...although Mimi is already complaining that she misses the hills!
We'd also like to thank Garmin for such fantastic assistance.
Thanks
Jenny
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=968653399955434&id=292383870915727I didn’t really want to have to release this statement, but I read the above statement blaming our trackers, and thus I am forced to issue my own statement which I believe is fact-based, fair and even-handed.
A team member contacted me on 26th September, stating the trackers kept going down, and asked me to put out a statement explaining why. Without checking, I initially assumed it could well be repeated loss of cell network signal, and had insisted their web developer add a standard caveat I had asked for (in August) that a 2g/3g signal was needed to transmit location. The team member kept stating they only had 4g. I’ll assume no knowledge of the way mobile networks function in this explanation, but fundamentally if they go into their phone settings and disable 4g, they will find their phone will connect to the network via 3g in the same area. It also made no sense that it could be the network because during the long outages the other trackers were live and still working in the same areas, while another was not. So, the explanation for why the trackers had apparently kept going down was not valid.
Nevertheless, I ensured a statement was added to Mimi’s event homepage that evening to cover just in case there were lengthy network blank spots along their route. I went on to have a heated disagreement with the team, about how I was unhappy that the tracker administration was not being managed with due care and attention from some live observations I had made in previous days. The trackers simply required charging every few days, and left turned on, nothing more complex than that. The disagreement escalated over a few hours and I ultimately shared our address, and told the team member to post the trackers back. I wished them good luck, and I left the tracking link live. Despite the disagreement, I did not consider ceasing the tracking that evening, as it might well have fatally impacted the record attempt’s credibility in the eyes of the rest of the community, as they would have surely cried foul. For the next two days, our trackers stayed on, were kept charged and functioned perfectly, exactly as they should always have done, and have done previously when used in cycle events right across the USA.
I decided to investigate our data myself. So, I downloaded the data for Mimi’s tracker from our database, for 8-26th September, and performed a detailed analysis of circa 8000 data points. It transpired, the availability of the 2g/3g mobile cell network and signal on their route had been very good overall, so neither that or the tracker hardware were at fault for the lengthy outages. The analysis shows the tracker had been allowed to run down to 0 battery and subsequently left off, and additionally had actually been physically powered off (likely in error / or lack of familiarity the device’s power cycle). There is well over 40 hours of missed tracking when it was powered down. Similar story with the other two trackers for the RV and Car; the battery expired or tracked powered off many times. In the light of ‘the Rob Young saga’, that kind of administrative carelessness will raise suspicion, even though the tracker’s data is not required for GWR evidence. That night, I emailed the team our data and my analysis of Mimi’s tracker, and highlighted the major issue was lack of administration; not the lack of cell network, and not the trackers. I wished them good luck in my email, and left the door open for a response and apology that would have paved the way for a reconciliation and continued use of our trackers. They didn’t reply to my evidence or email, and have yet to publicly take any responsibility for what is an evidencable admin failing. Today I read a statement squarely laying the blame on my product. This is untrue. If they admit those lapses, it would go some way to providing an explanation for the long outages, and improve their public image, instead of tarnishing our product. They opted not to notify me of their plans to source and implement a new tracker, but as soon as I saw the new single tracker go live (also only providing 2-minute updates as we were), I removed the event URL from our own site to avoid confusion.
So, in summary:
• 3g cell network signal is very good across the vast majority of States
• The tracker’s performance was good, when it remained powered
• The lengthy ‘outages’ that have raised suspicion were due to:
o Tracker battery was left to die, and left off (for 20+ hours)
o Tracker was physically powered off, and left off (20+ hours)
Finally, for the record and from the data I have seen, I believe this attempt is genuine. I have not seen evidence that this is a scam, has or is being spoofed. I was told by them they are getting 4 hours sleep a day. They sound overworked and under-resourced. I’d suggest lack of sleep and help, led to mismanagement of the trackers and their repeated loss of power, for which the community rightly raised issue, and has resulted in lost confidence in the attempt. This should have been positive publicity for us, but has not been. We can’t afford to have our product name sullied, regardless of how tired the team is. The attempt must be administered with care and shown to be spotless. I’m certain after this scrutiny they will stay on top of using the new tracker and hopefully restore community confidence in the validity of the attempt. I won’t be making any further statement on this matter, or responding to any questions. I continue to wish Mimi and her team every success.