Robert Young fakes run across America

Where was Rob during the Lebo, Kansas portion of the run? His 5K and 10K PB's of 15:56 and 30:47 are listed without documentation. Please present evidence of those results. I will advise you that Letsrun is very good at sniffing out cheaters and if there are any inconsistencies, they will be questioned and investigated.

Someone ought to update that wikipedia page to provide a (fair) summary of some of the inconsistencies and objections to his story.

Kev, how about addressing some of the issues raised here and providing some evidence of what he's supposed to have done, what's that old saying about if it sounds too good to be true...

You can go on about "It's too easy to write bad stuff" and "this rotten thread" but all that sort of stuff has been heard plenty of times before when it comes to suspected cheaters here on LetsRun, and guess what...the LetsRun sleuths are usually right.

I can only give details of what I know and obviously can't give details of races or times that I was not present at. This isn't getting out of things it's just the truth. I know rob runs inconsistent times in some of his runs as he like to chat with people and have fun along the way in some of his races. He ran through the UK last year with Adam Holland who is a serious marathon runner with many wins and fast times and I know he would vouch for Rob's turn of speed and ability.

I understand the need for proof and that timing is important when trying to determine ability. I also realise that Rob has seemingly come from nowhere and rocked the ultra world with his achievements and all this without a coach, sponsorship of any real note and on what would be considered by many experts as a bad diet. However this works for him and why is he wrong. Maybe a change of approach is needed and a little understanding.

I don't get how some people can run on bananas and others on fruit alone but if that's their thing then good luck to them.

I don't get how Killian Journet can smash the times and races he does but I love it and respect it.

I will ask to see if I can get some definate details for you to try to satisfy he doubters.

CoachKev wrote:

I can only give details of what I know and obviously can't give details of races or times that I was not present at. ...and I know he would vouch for Rob's turn of speed and ability.

That's the thing, just because someone can run fast and just because they ran some races totally legitimately and just because they seem like a nice, sincere person doesn't mean they didn't cheat on something else.

Maybe this guy is totally legit, but at least two concerns have been raised:

- There is no documentation of his claimed 10k PR and it's not consistent with his documented times.

- A guy wanting to run with him and not anticipating finding him cheating went out to the RV and it appeared Rob wasn't running.

Rob is trying to set a record. It's a big deal. He has to expect scrutiny. If you say "LOOK AT ME!", people are going to look at you.

Actually, if someone wore something like a Garmin run heart rate monitor + GPS watch, that would provide plenty of data that would be at least a little more difficult to fake. In addition to heart rate, we could see things like cadence, stride length, ground contact time/left-right balance, and vertical oscillation that would vary among individuals and make it harder to convincingly use a substitute runner.

Even just a good garmin without hrm will show a runner's stride rate which would obviously be 0 if it was sitting in a vehicle. Back it up with even a fitbit for f's sake.

validation of his 10km PB is needed, yes, but whilst the run is supposedly going on we need more evidence of it.

Any update in terms of more people that can run him? More videos are needed of the RV moving along and no runner.

There is a guy called Ben smith in the UK currently running 401 marathons in 401 days. Even on days where he isn't running a city marathon, he has tens of people running with him. Why isn't rob young doing this??

Kev -

1. do you have any more details about his previous history on a professional cycling team or as a triathlete?

2. You say he has a turn of speed. Why does he struggle to break 20 mins in most of the 5ks he runs?

Thanks

Can you explain the disparity between the times on his wiki page to the times on power of 10?

Power of 10 has missing times from before 2000 but not afterwards. Even for times 30 years ago if you send in the results they will update the results.

If you provide me with a link to the result for his 30:47 10km I have a contact who works on power of 10 who can update this. Or you can just email the site and they will do this

The same applies to his half marathon time of 1:08 and 2:41 marathon.

Finally I have loked for the results for this but failed to find it and cannot see a link on wiki:

3rd 2004 European long Distance triathlon (20-24 age group)

I prefer to deal in facts. Provide those and I for one will accept his or your word on his ultra challenge

Based on the evidence I have seen, he is guilty of cheating. However, based on the circumstances (money involved, fame & glory, difficulty of endeavor), it is very easy to succumb to the temptation to ride in the RV for a couple of minutes to keep the train moving, etc.

I think we can say for a certainty that he will not have covered every step across America on foot.

And I would like to predict that now with the intense scrutiny, he will attempt to run the rest of the way and will end up injured in 10 days time and have to cancel the attempt.

This all seems on the up and up.

- Mike Rossi

Not withstanding any specific questions on the current US crossing itself this is the key point - if there are any claims out there that seem dubious/can't be verified then anything else he does will have people questioning it. I could have a lot more confidence in his/his teams claims if there doesn't seem to be history of possibly exaggerating the truth.

The Bunny Girl did race across America with Rob last year and drove ove 700 miles to run with him. To come out with a statement like yours is either ill informed or plain dumb

I have been in contact with Rob and his team and they are sorting the relevant data for me. In the meantime I want to point out a few things.

The tracker is not on Rob, it's on the RV, It is there to show you where he is so you can join him on the run not to show how fast he is running. The RV will sped up and slow down according to traffic and conditions. It may even not be moving but Rob may well be running whilst it is stationary, getting petrol etc.

His crew are almost as tired as he is and they are all totally upset with this reaction to a genuine attempt to beat a fantastic record. Rob takes this all too personally and that is not a good thing. He is letting negativity affect him and I for one think it's a shameful thing to do.

Here is a link to his VLM marathon in 2015 which has some splits

http://results-2015.virginmoneylondonmarathon.com/2016/2015/?content=detail&fpid=search&pid=search&idp=9999990F5ECC83000016BBF2&lang=EN_CAP&event=MAS&search%5Bname%5D=young&search%5Bfirstname%5D=robert&search%5Bsex%5D=%25&search%5Bnation%5D=%25&search_sort=name&search_event=MAS

and a link to his NDW100 which he did after a double marathon the day before. The NDW is one of the toughest 100 milers in the UK and to do 23.52 hours here is a tall order.

http://www.centurionrunning.com/results/2014/eventbrite-ndw100-2014-race-report/results/

Rob's gift is the ability to run very long distances day in and day out. I can't see why there is so much focus on 10k times or 5k times. How on earth does this really matter when you can run crazy distances again and again. I realise that according to the books and calculators that if you can run a 10k in a certain time that this should correlate to a predicted marathon time. But how on earth does that have any relevance when you are running across a country and trying to beat an established record.

His 5k and 10k times were actually when he was younger and a competitive GB triathlete. he represented GB for the 20-24 age category in Olympic and long course for his age category.

All other times recorded are from races in the last two years. To say the times he did when he was young should still translate into current times is silly.

Rob has run in hundreds of events in the UK and with hundreds of people who all know he is the real deal. If you doubt him then as I mentioned earlier I suggest you run with him. There is space in his RV if you want to come along and witness this attempt and see who Rob is as a person and a runner.

He currently has GPS, independent witness with Skins, ESPN filming, CCTV America, witnesses and other runners who have run with him. all the documentation and more.

Rob has even offered Marcus Miller to come out and run with him but it appears there are multiple fake accounts which are causing issues and spreading doubt.

Rob and his team understand the record is great and that you want to keep it in the USA and he respects that. He is barely on pace for the record and really doesn't need this negativity.

If you don't want to believe he is capable of this then PLEASE, PLEASE run with him and back up your own disbelief. If you cannot take the time to do this then please ask a person of integrity to run with him who is in the local area that he is running in.

You all know local runners, ultra runners, celebrities, even the police could drive alongside him for a while just to see what is actually happening.

The first video just shows driving past an RV and that's it, the second shows nothing. How is this any sort of proof that Rob is not doing what he says he is doing.

As I get more data I will again post on here for you.

Wow some incredible comments and some really thought provoking questions into the integrity of sporting achievement. I hope everyone on this group is so enthusiastic with questioning other achievements, Bolts 100m - Did the chicken he eat before his run improve his improve his performance? Does Nadal have a bionic arm? Does Rory McIlroy have secret clubs?

Questioning his background...another wow. Are you really going that low to discredit what Rob's achieved?

You guys might be asking the right questions to prove whether his attempt to run across America in the fastest time is legitimate, but is asking each other the same old questions on a small corner of the internet really going to answer your questions? Maybe your time would be better spent actually training to run further than him.

jjjjj wrote:Out of curiosity, to set this record, do you actually have to run the entire way or can you walk part of the way?

You can walk, it's just the fastest crossing of USA on foot.

[/quote]And it's like this for almost every night of recorded data. All of these are steady-state splits like the ones I posted earlier, where it records 1.8 - 2.1mi distance covered every 12 minutes for up to 2 hours solid... which negates the argument that the van is driving up ahead of him or something to cause erratic looking times. In the entire period there is only 1 or 2 instances (other than where they drove to Laughlin after the sandpit) where the tracker in the van exceeds a speed of 12mph for a 12 minute period. So they're almost certainly not doing the drive-ahead stop-and-wait method. More like the drive-9-to-11mph-with-the-runner-in-the-van method.[/quote]

Wow thanks for the splits! One thing I don't understand is why the GPS tracker is on the RV? Why would you not put it on rob as he is running?

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

The good news is he has pacers lined up.

Pennsylvania: Jill Greathouse

New Jersey; Mike Rossi

West Virginia: Gregory Price

Illinois: Kip Litton

Indiana: Anne Gemkow

10/10 Sir/Madam wrote:

10/10 Sir/Madam

Just wading through this thread and came across this on Page 3.

Classic, be interesting to see if anyone can top it on the following pages.

Thank you for the 10/10. It's an honor to receive such a high score here on LetsRun. Truly an honor. I would like to thank all of my fellow message boarders over the years for helping get me here. I couldn't have done it without you.

To all of the message board posters. You the real MVP!

curiously interested wrote:

http://www.businessinsider.com/rob-young-marathon-man-interview-2016-4

According to this article (April 12, 2016) in Business Insider, until April 2014, Rob Young was a recreational runner who occasionally ran a 5K but nothing farther.

So this website

shows that rob ran 62 5k's during 2012-2013. 31 5k's per year? Is that "occasional"? That's a 5k every 1.6 weeks.