Another run across America underway - is it legit? Boots currently on the ground

Do you think it's a coincidence that for day 49, where 59km were accompanied by Elliot Clements-Hill, Will G did significantly more walking than normal?

Not really, ECH is clearly keeping him more on the straight and narrow. The most walking he ever did was with me. Two days of straight marching.

Said it was because it was raining, and he doesn't run in the rain. Akin to Newman, the postie in Seinfeld, who doesn't work in the rain.

Alrighty, you are finally taking a stance as to what you believe is occurring. Rather than just throwing daggers of doubt, you have put your premise out there.

Your belief if that their mastermind plan is the alter the HR data with something like paper or a flower to mess up the optical sensors of the watch? (Funny that you chose to use foul language, albeit with an *, when earlier you've chastised them for their language)

In your study of 100 random runs, will this be on people doing 30+ day multi runs? Or, are you going to use marathon distance or 20 JOGLEs. You have had several actual TC runners state that his HR is not that surprising in a long mutli day event. You quickly dismissed their premise because it didn't fit your narrative. But, when one person comes on and says it is suspect, you quickly jump on it and proclaim the debate is over. Hmm...

Written by someone who has written exactly 1 post as as registered user...Is this a WC disciple with a new account?

I find it particularly ironic (and amusing) that the use of a "red herring" (i.e, purposely posting messed up HR data to mask the identity of the watch carrier) is the line of thinking at this point. Particularly since the term "red herring" has been used on nearly every page on this thread and for many purposes.

For clarity red herring is defined as : a clue or piece of information that is, or is intended to be, misleading or distracting.

Yep! I thought I was clear about that in my first post to be honest. The wild nature of this message board has already seen me called a disciple of Will's and even accused of being in Will's camp. Which seems right on brand for the majority of posters' method of going 1-100 in a flash. Doesn't make sense so it MUST BE the least logical conclusion right? IT'S ALL A CONSPIRACY. I was following the run and did a Google search to find out more and this message board came up. Sorry I didn't realise there was an initiation to post.

Someone commented above that the comments on Will's looks are false. They were talking about his frame. Twaddle! Can't count the amount of times I've heard him downplayed as just a model, or an Instagrammer on here. The dog whistles are deafening. He doesn't fit what YOU all think a runner should look like so that's the easy win. Low blow.

Sorry OP, not all aimed at you this, just a round up of various replies.

I don't want to sound rude but I don't think you have as much experience with running as lots of others do here.

Nowadays it's easy to go to Instagram and see Nick Bare or Ryan Hall or Goggins and say "Wow so a distance runner doesn't have to be a stick! These guys are buff" The reality is those guys are juiced and not performing at anywhere near the level of Goodge. To Joe Schmoe a 5 minute mile is the same as a 4 minute mile. A 3 hour marathon is the same as a 2:10. Influencers make people think their slightly above average performances with a more muscular build are close to elite, but that's far from the case.

I've been running way longer than Goodge, I'm way faster, I have a typical middle distance build and I'm still a good bit smaller than him. I'd 100% need to slim down to ever have a chance at anything like this. I'm too heavy for a marathon, let alone two a day for days on end.

I can't say for 100% certain he's cheating, but if I could place a $100 bet on it, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

they've never said the HR is not surprising. Steve was speaking of other stuff, like pace and negative splits. And PK is all about tech fail.

You are the only one who clings to the life raft that the HR is physiologically possible... like, say 88bpm for a day.

Research on the 100 complete and incoming.

Not sure Ryan Hall should be fit in with goobers like Bare and Goggins given he had a legit career before retiring. Gooner has a fair point though and I've already commented on it, people are bashing Goodge's looks and sponsors the entire time. There is clearly some bias with the loudest voices here, and anyone from outside that might disagree or question it must be a shill or someone from the crew. It's really not that serious.

I am still at about 60% chance he is legit. I struggle with the how part of the strava data manipulation.

But I will step in to defend Willvic as well as recruiter. Because they gave it a try.. They tried to watch in person.

It is an extremely tall order to track a guy running 12 minute miles for 12 hours a day! Especially if you are not welcome. And you know they hate you. You can't follow in a car at that pace without getting arrested. A bike? All you can do is run a bit with him. Then drive a car elsewhere and try to do the same. Who is willing to take 14 hours a day to just watch a complete one day of work of this team?

I don't think I could tolerate more than 2-3 hours of that nonsense.

Right, Ryan Hall was obviously the real deal, but now he does the same type of shenanigans as the others mentioned.

I don't care about his "looks" or sponsors or the fact that he's an influencer when trying to determine the legitimacy of this. That's all an aside to me.

But if you've been around the running world, you can spot a dedicated, high level, distance runner by their build. Your body looks a certain way when you train a certain way. To a certain extent, we self-select based on immutable traits (proportions, bone size, tendon length, muscle composition, ...) that are beneficial to your sport.

Goodge doesn't walk or talk like a duck. That's a clear red flag, but not concrete evidence that he's cheating, just another box checked on the "is this legitimate?" questionnaire.

Exactly. That's the nature of brand partnership deals. You take a bit of money for the partnership in exchange for x amount of Insta posts, a live Zoom etc. Sorry if some of the posters here haven't marketed themselves in a way in order to capitalise on that benefit, but you can't knock someone who has. It's a smart move. And if you have to post one video a day about a deodorant, guess what? You say nice things about the deodorant. Yet people here have even thrown shade on that claiming Will believes it to be a magic elixir. Grow up. Didn't y'all learn anything from Jerry Maguire? It's all about the endorsement dollars. You use that money for food/lodging/supplies/flights and sponsorship money is left in tact and goes to the charity. But if you read half the posts here you'd believe Will's trashing the memory of his own Mum and stealing. Give me strength.

Hi all,

so I have taken 20 major ultra/endurance stars and 100 random runs of theirs [5 each], and checked their HR data. Every single one of the 100 runs, over some 4,000kms was clean as a whistle. Not a single anomaly in sight for a clean HR strike rate of 100%.

It lays to rest once and for all the absurd premise that monitors are faulty, unreliable or hopeless as some would like you believe. No data crashes, no prolonged weirdness... I could barely find a single K that looked out of place, let alone an unclean run.

To ensure randomness I just took the 12 birthdays of the last four presidents, UK PMs and The Beatles on rotation. Obviously the mission would have been far less valuable if on the day in question the athlete did an easy 5k, but two days earlier he won a 100 miler; so I've gone with the latter in a case like that, and used the birthdays as a steer. This also gives the monitor a far increased chance to fail. Rakonczay wasn't up to much on John Lennon's birthday for instance, but a few days out he did a 351k scamper in 45 hours! I plunked for that. Another runner was clearly just playing with his dog in the park on the day for 2k in 40 mins, but a few days earlier won a 100 miler. I let the doggie go, and went for the 100m.

The data mass is too large to produce here and Excel and this board really don't agree, but this is a snapshot of what I've done. The initials after the runner are the birthday in question, ie, BO is Obama:

[Name, birthday initial, distance, HR, Peak HR

Aleksandr Sorokin RSU 100k 152 166 [100k world record, 6:05]

Michael Wardian DT 82k 125 163

Tom Evans GH 174k 133 167

Adam Kimble PM 157k 127 164

Gabor Rakonczay JL 351k 130 163

Nick Coury DT 166k 155 180

Robbie Britton BO 177k 137 149

Annie Hughes RST 49k 142 160

Ollie Garrod TM 42k 172 177

Jim Walmsley LT 119k 146 166

Timmy Zhou RSU 163k 135 159

Arlen Glick PM 132k 148 157

Pete Kostelnick TM 65k 132 146 [Transcon]

Carla Molinaro JL 25k 159 171

I did 5 each for Balenger and Goodge - fine of course - they always are outside of these events. Goodge had a super high average HR of 150, right up there at the top almost. Most are around 135-140 [RB 139.4].

The list was absorbing to compile - so many juggernauts - all dedicated to their craft. Guess how many runs Ollie Garrod has done since 2013? 6,930. Do the math on that one!

So there it is, 20 random runners, 100 runs, 4,000 kms and no unclean HR data.

Meanwhile RB and WG's clean data since 2019 for their Multiday fundraisers and some 14,000kms comes in at just 10%, which includes the 48/30 marathons, Jogle and RBs Transcon.

One day, and this day may well come soon, they are going to have to answer for that. Meanwhile, Mr Goodge has his upcoming year planned: 12 different countries in 12 months, to enjoy the local festivals, customs and cuisines... oh, and learn to surf, sky dive, free dive and ride a moterbike.

When he was a model, he was broke and living off credit. He's not broke any more.

I’ll chime in here as a longtime registered member:

1 - Goodge and his crew were hostile to Will. They threw rocks at him. Staying there was a risk to his safety. He already went above and beyond to fly across the pond and spend 5 days observing. It shouldn’t fall on just one person to monitor an entire transcon. Will C has done much more than can be reasonably expected of any individual.

2 - A lot can happen in the course of a day. It’s not implausible to think there could be times when Goodge is running solo, other times when he’s running with a member of his crew, and other times when someone else is running for him while he rests in one of the three vans.

3 - Consider the broader context. That’s not the only issue with the run. That’s one issue among many. Consider all the issues together, and there’s plenty of reasons to doubt the legitimacy of this run.

4 - Others have already addressed this.

5 - What kind of pace was Eddie Izzard running? Was she challenging any records? Remember, the (reasonable) doubts here are not just about Goodge covering the distance. It’s about how fast he’s (purportedly) doing it.

6 - Finding people to help him get the glory makes sense if they’re getting paid. How many people helped Kipchoge with his sub-2 run? Goodge might also return the favor. It’s already been noted that Goodge and Balenger curiously never do any races or challenges together.

7 - Sadly, I think it’s too late for observation. Goodge could run this last week entirely legit, and there would still be reasonable doubt about what happened the previous month.

Goodge and his crew could have easily stopped this debate and second guessing a long time ago with better transparency and tracking that others have been calling for. With all the technology available today, there’s no reason for there to be any doubt about the legitimacy of these runs if the person doing it just uses the technology to prove his run is legit. Goodge’s decision to not provide better proof of his run suggests he has something to hide. If he has something to hide, then I have someone to doubt.

This is the key to me. If he cared about proving that it was legitimate, this could be solved by them spending $200–$300 on a new, non-busted watch. Pete wore 2 just in case, and we're supposed to be happy with the most well-funded attempt telling us that they can't explain anomalies?

Well I was not expecting Argumentum ad Izzardium. Does this count as a Chewbacca Defence?

+1

That is supposed to be the beauty of this site...you can voice your opinions without being slammed...oh wait...I must be on the wrong site :)

To be clear on one thing: I wasn't implying you are a disciple of Will. That was intended for Pradel. I agree with you on your various questions. Far too many have just jumped on the bandwagon of "this must be a fraud. After all, look at the HR. Shame!"

I, too, thought that runners come in all shapes and sizes...tall, short, skinny, built, overweight, and on and on. But, according the the "governors of this site", there is only one traditional build of a multi-day runner. And, there is only one acceptable way of showing your effort...you must show you are suffering and in pain. Otherwise, it must be fake.