So what happens next? Unfortunate that his races still stand, but he doesn't dare try it again, does he? Now that all eyes will be on him. I mean, I hope he's that stubborn and arrogant that he tries it again, but really I expect a very unceremonious "retirement". If he ever does run another marathon, he'll just call it a fun run, pretend like he took it easy, and the arguments will rage on.
So Frank (2:53) ran part of the course with Francisco (3:27) who in turn ran part of the course with Sara (4:15)?
Tis. wrote:
If you have a look at Francisco's photos #'s 14,15,27 you'll see he's running with Sara Tartof 2956 (some on here have speculated is his wife) and she ran 4:15:19. Not sure where those photos are on the course, but wherever they are it means he's going to have to put in some seriously fast running to finish in 3:27.
PS - Sara is part of the group of four doctors photo on Francisco's page.
gloopers wrote:
So what happens next? Unfortunate that his races still stand, but he doesn't dare try it again, does he? Now that all eyes will be on him. I mean, I hope he's that stubborn and arrogant that he tries it again, but really I expect a very unceremonious "retirement". If he ever does run another marathon, he'll just call it a fun run, pretend like he took it easy, and the arguments will rage on.
Yes, many have already said that. If he does another one it'll be 4 hours and claim it was easy. Do try to stay up and not repeat so much.
Roderick Powell wrote:
I wish to give credit to a user "somebloke" who suggested in a shortish cheater thread that happened to make note of Frank Meza's CIM DQ. "somebloke" made mention about gps chips being an answer to reduce eliminate cheating. That has also been mentioned on this thread. Also I have had thoughts this morning. It keeps going through my mind...as has been mentioned by some on this thread.....Frank's fellow runners, his running family members, (who appear to be solid runners) and the athletes he has coached for better than 25 years....almost without fail, they refuse to out this man. That is a lot of respect for Frank. The fact that Frank obviously technically cheats at the triathlons too, (one event third best swimmer/another event 44 out of 45 in swimming) and so casually jumps into these races to run with family and friends as they finish...tells me that he takes races as very casual affairs. Technically he is providing pacing for these family and friend participants. I strongly believe that Frank may have become addicted to the thrill of cheating. For it to be a thrill, it must become more and more spectacular. To the point of world record beating times. AND you nust get caught once in a while for the thrill to be justified. I too believe that Frank is very astute, astute enough to break the WR only on courses not WR eligible. Whether this started on a much smaller scale, that would and did go unnoticed, to benefit his various charitable causes...only Frank knows. Sometimes things get out of hand, and I believe this did. For the thrill seeker, sometimes the ultimate thrill is tragedy. As was destined all along., many times. Last thought...Why blame Frank Meza and be so mean.. What he was doing was sooo obvious all along. Why are we such "innocent" victims.
Roderick, a couple of points...
As far as not being outed by the athletes he has coached - I really doubt any of them knew what Meza was up to when he went and did road races. I mean, for one thing, he wasn't really their coach - he was some kind of assistant. For the most part, I doubt they gave much thought to him at all outside of practice. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them weren't even aware of his marathoning exploits. And even if they were, they might not have any reason for suspicion. They would probably just think, wow, I've only ever seen him jogging slowly, but there must be another side to his running.
And your statement "Why blame Frank Meza..."? Uhh, I'm pretty sure that one's pretty obvious. You ask "why are we such 'innocent' victims?" as if this is one of those stories where we're supposed to say, yeah, he's right now that I think about it - I guess we're all a little bit complicit in this. No way, Roderick. Nobody asked Frank Meza to cheat. He did that entirely of his own accord. There's no point saying we need to spread the guilt around a little bit.
Roderick sounds like more of a psycho than FM. It’s not about you two, stupid. It’s about the runners who are cheated by these crooks.
Roderick Powell wrote:
I wish to give credit to a user "somebloke" who suggested in a shortish cheater thread that happened to make note of Frank Meza's CIM DQ. "somebloke" made mention about gps chips being an answer to reduce eliminate cheating. That has also been mentioned on this thread. Also I have had thoughts this morning. It keeps going through my mind...as has been mentioned by some on this thread.....Frank's fellow runners, his running family members, (who appear to be solid runners) and the athletes he has coached for better than 25 years....almost without fail, they refuse to out this man. That is a lot of respect for Frank. The fact that Frank obviously technically cheats at the triathlons too, (one event third best swimmer/another event 44 out of 45 in swimming) and so casually jumps into these races to run with family and friends as they finish...tells me that he takes races as very casual affairs. Technically he is providing pacing for these family and friend participants. I strongly believe that Frank may have become addicted to the thrill of cheating. For it to be a thrill, it must become more and more spectacular. To the point of world record beating times. AND you nust get caught once in a while for the thrill to be justified. I too believe that Frank is very astute, astute enough to break the WR only on courses not WR eligible. Whether this started on a much smaller scale, that would and did go unnoticed, to benefit his various charitable causes...only Frank knows. Sometimes things get out of hand, and I believe this did. For the thrill seeker, sometimes the ultimate thrill is tragedy. As was destined all along., many times. Last thought...Why blame Frank Meza and be so mean.. What he was doing was sooo obvious all along. Why are we such "innocent" victims.
Stop it! Enough deflection! Trying to characterize this in some romantic/quirky way is nonsense: He cheated, is a cheater ("ALLEGEDLY" since one needs to say that, I suppose) and wasn't concerned that he was tarnishing the events, the sport and those that may have believed in him. You've written about how people shouldn't boycott the LA Marathon: Did Frank ever think about the many people who's livelihood is dependent on this race by not only cheating (again, allegedly) but doing so in such an unabashed and public way by claiming through his "performances" that he WAS one of the greatest masters runners in history? No., he did not.! And why would someone in his circle dare enter this ridiculous fray? Yes, there will be those to the end who will defend him publicly or privately as being reliable and decent to them (which he may be). However, let's not lose sight that the integrity of this sport is of paramount importance to most on here and I can give two sh-ts about his motivation or what his community thinks.
gloopers?>>>? wrote:
gloopers wrote:
So what happens next? Unfortunate that his races still stand, but he doesn't dare try it again, does he? Now that all eyes will be on him. I mean, I hope he's that stubborn and arrogant that he tries it again, but really I expect a very unceremonious "retirement". If he ever does run another marathon, he'll just call it a fun run, pretend like he took it easy, and the arguments will rage on.
Yes, many have already said that. If he does another one it'll be 4 hours and claim it was easy. Do try to stay up and not repeat so much.
Sorry that I didn't spend my entire morning reading an 80+ page thread. F***ing LR posters, the biggest collection of dbags in the running community.
This whole thing is strange. It’s looks like Frank Meza has completed other short distance races at about 6:45 per minute pace, which is a very fast pace for an older runner.
The results are easily found on the internet. So I’m not sure why Derek has intentionally omitted this information. Perhaps because it undermines his investigation? Makes you wonder if there is something behind the decision to only present a limited set of race results.
2018 ROCK 'N' ROLL LOS ANGELES, CA HALF MARATHON
October 28, 2018
Finish Time
01:28:41
Pace Time
6:45 mi
10K 2015 South Pasadena TIGER RUN
December 05, 2015
41:01.55
6:37/M
10K 2014 Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker Run
41:54
6:44.6 /mi
In addition to the rightful winner of a prize, FM/Roderick want to cheat all the volunteers out of effort/travel/time/expense that was supposed to be spent helping people! The list goes on. But to psychos, it’s somehow all about THEM.
gloopers wrote:
gloopers?>>>? wrote:
Yes, many have already said that. If he does another one it'll be 4 hours and claim it was easy. Do try to stay up and not repeat so much.
Sorry that I didn't spend my entire morning reading an 80+ page thread. F***ing LR posters, the biggest collection of dbags in the running community.
You have to understand that the crazies that obsess over these cheating threads think that it is perfectly normal and that everyone has read every post and poured through every picture like them.
The “motivation” is simple: me! Survival! I have to cheat them before they cheat me! Weirdos...
gloopers wrote:
gloopers?>>>? wrote:
Yes, many have already said that. If he does another one it'll be 4 hours and claim it was easy. Do try to stay up and not repeat so much.
Sorry that I didn't spend my entire morning reading an 80+ page thread. F***ing LR posters, the biggest collection of dbags in the running community.
Imagine members of the running community being committed to protecting the integrity of the sport! Oh the horrors. There's a reason why this thread has reached 80 pages. Most of us love the sport too much to allow cheaters like Frank Meza to rewrite the record books...and angry apologists like you to deter us from achieving that goal.
I'm sure the Let's Run community will be fine without your constructive input from here on out.
We've e-mailed the major news outlets (VICE, OutsideOnline, etc) this morning regarding this story with links to this thread and the MarathonInvestigation stories. Vice has already responded (their response below in italics) and looks interested.
From: Rupa Bhattacharya
To: Drew Schwartz
Sent: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: NEED VICE TO WRITE/PUBLISH IMPORTANT ARTICLE (DETAILS INSIDE)
hi! this story is wild. I've looped in drew schwartz, one of our staff writers, who will be in touch with you shortly to learn more!
Nice work
Stranger wrote:
This whole thing is strange. It’s looks like Frank Meza has completed other short distance races at about 6:45 per minute pace, which is a very fast pace for an older runner.
The results are easily found on the internet. So I’m not sure why Derek has intentionally omitted this information. Perhaps because it undermines his investigation? Makes you wonder if there is something behind the decision to only present a limited set of race results.
2018 ROCK 'N' ROLL LOS ANGELES, CA HALF MARATHON
October 28, 2018
Finish Time
01:28:41
Pace Time
6:45 mi
10K 2015 South Pasadena TIGER RUN
December 05, 2015
41:01.55
6:37/M
10K 2014 Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker Run
41:54
6:44.6 /mi
Don't those race times actually support the idea that he's not capable of running a sub-3 hour marathon?
A 2:53 marathon is about 6:36 per mile, roughly the same pace he's done in these shorter races that you cite.
If you're running 10Ks at around 6:40 per mile,
johnny99 wrote:
Stranger wrote:
This whole thing is strange. It’s looks like Frank Meza has completed other short distance races at about 6:45 per minute pace, which is a very fast pace for an older runner.
The results are easily found on the internet. So I’m not sure why Derek has intentionally omitted this information. Perhaps because it undermines his investigation? Makes you wonder if there is something behind the decision to only present a limited set of race results.
2018 ROCK 'N' ROLL LOS ANGELES, CA HALF MARATHON
October 28, 2018
Finish Time
01:28:41
Pace Time
6:45 mi
10K 2015 South Pasadena TIGER RUN
December 05, 2015
41:01.55
6:37/M
10K 2014 Los Angeles Chinatown Firecracker Run
41:54
6:44.6 /mi
Don't those race times actually support the idea that he's not capable of running a sub-3 hour marathon?
A 2:53 marathon is about 6:36 per mile, roughly the same pace he's done in these shorter races that you cite.
If you're running 10Ks at around 6:40 per mile,
... you're not going to run a marathon at around the same pace (and certainly not at a slightly faster pace). In that range, marathon pace is probably a minute per mile (at least) slower than 10K pace.
Agree wrote:
gloopers wrote:
Sorry that I didn't spend my entire morning reading an 80+ page thread. F***ing LR posters, the biggest collection of dbags in the running community.
You have to understand that the crazies that obsess over these cheating threads think that it is perfectly normal and that everyone has read every post and poured through every picture like them.
That plus the fact that there are usually only 3 or 4 indignant losers who keep posting and responding to each other to reiterate and continue to re-express their indignation that most race directors don’t give a sh!t about some geezer cheating in a sport where every single winning elite runner is doped to the gills.
Regardless, I’m enjoying my popcorn while reading the diatribes.
All right boys, back to your anger, theories, threats and tears.
Viral wrote:
We've e-mailed the major news outlets (VICE, OutsideOnline, etc) this morning regarding this story with links to this thread and the MarathonInvestigation stories. Vice has already responded (their response below in italics) and looks interested.
From: Rupa Bhattacharya
To: Drew Schwartz
Sent: Wednesday, June 5, 2019 11:46 AM
Subject: Re: NEED VICE TO WRITE/PUBLISH IMPORTANT ARTICLE (DETAILS INSIDE)
hi! this story is wild. I've looped in drew schwartz, one of our staff writers, who will be in touch with you shortly to learn more!
I did hear from Canadian Running. They had a question about the official record criteria. Not surprised that they are writing on it. They pick up most of my major articles.
The usual "people who care about cheating must be psychos" trolls have arrived, yawn - seen it all before every time a major cheat has been uncovered.
Agree wrote:
gloopers wrote:
Sorry that I didn't spend my entire morning reading an 80+ page thread. F***ing LR posters, the biggest collection of dbags in the running community.
You have to understand that the crazies that obsess over these cheating threads think that it is perfectly normal and that everyone has read every post and poured through every picture like them.
And yet, despite all that, here you guys are...