47 year old Colorado man almost breaks 50 mile world record!

No, he wouldn't of.

Normally I don't care about ultra but breaking 5 hours for fifty miles gets my attention.

Great time but this race doesn't seem to have a certified and measured course.

My guess is, it might be a little short. Also this athlete only does this race no other ultras.

But it's a great performance even if the course might be a little short. ( Not that I know)

ultrasignup.com

Ivaylo Benov's Results

Link:ultrasignup.com/results_participant.as...

The Bethel Hill Moonlight Boogie is a very hilly race, with the biggest hill during the 4 mile out and back section, and is usually run in hot humid conditions. Benov's splits show he averaged 5:30 pace for the final 10 miles and 5:21 pace for the final 4 mile section with the big hill. This suggests Walmsley's world best is certainly within his reach on a faster course in better weather.

I ran the marathon at this race many years ago. It's very hilly, and starts at 6 or 7 p.m. and is always super hot. The out and back section would be really easy to just turn around early on in the dark, as it wasn't manned (at least not back then) I'm only skeptical because the course record for the marathon used to be held by 2:17 marathoner who ran 3:07 or something at the Boogie. The race is not a record breaking kind of course.

Tunnel marathon is a pure downhill course,about 2000ft I think so is no way reflective of a proper marathon time so no way he replicates that in a 50.

Benov’s manually entered the 50 on Strava without gps so no way to be certain. He used gps two days earlier for a 4 mile run on the out and back section though which shows the amount of elevation on it (313ft).

of what would he not have?

So you are on strava but you don't post your best performance?

Interesting.

His strava says:

Berlin 2022 100K World Championships (August 27th)
Bulgaria National Record (6-hours) and North Carolina (50-Miles)
Record Holder. Brand Ambassador for VibramUSA, Coppersager, Revant
Optics, and Aletha Health. Working towards breaking 5 in the 50-Miles
(current PR 5:14.21).

If he runs the 100k WC, that will clear things up.

This is the same bloke who purportedly ran a 4:19 road mile at a virtual race on strava
two years ago. It is no longer on strava and the race removed him from its final results but it is still on the race's instagram. The comments are ,,,,, illuminating.

Doesn’t really add up with his verifiable results. Has he posted any workouts to Strava that would indicate he can run that fast for 50 miles? Course is probably short.

After this controversy in 2020, I decided to do some digging into his races. I found a lot of suspicious stuff that shows he was probably cutting courses (not just this 50 miler) starting in 2017. I made a document summarizing my notes and thoughts. He has since deleted all of the Strava posts I reference (which is suspicious) but a lot of my points still stand.

Here is a summary:

-He consistently doesn't upload Strava races for his "incredible" results. In those posts he owuld say that his watch broke that day even though he would upload runs the day before and the day after. This happened at EVERY race

-His pacing for the Bethel Boogie 50 milers are all over the pace (up and down), which you wouldn't expect in record runs. You could chalk this up to pit stops or some segments being harder, but I think it is suspicious. Especially if you look pack at the results from 2016. In 2016, he gradually and consistently slows down like you would expect in a normal ultra

-In one of his marathons, I found that his photo was missing from the race photos during a section that could be cut

-Back when he was in Raleigh he would post daily runs from 10-30 miles all at 5:40-6:15/mi. I even remember him posting a solo run that would have broken the Masters 50k WR. This seems to indicate data manipulation.

LRC note. A visitor reporter this post as being factually incorrect. We don't know if it's true or not but will share their message, "That's absurd. I don't know about any of the other races, but the Boogie had course marshals both on the ground and on bikes and as somebody in the lead he would have been under the microscope"

When I refer to the 2016 race, what I mean is the result that year wasn't crazy fast (8+min/mi) and his pacing is a lot more normal. This seems like a normal ultra result and it happens before all of his suspicious races start popping up in 2017

Hm, so you are saying that at the Boogie where they had course marshals and bike marshals (I know for sure since I was there supporting Dan Lenz) and at all those other races where they probably had course and/or bike marshals neither the organizers, nor the marshals, nor the other runners noticed anything??? We are not talking about somebody who can get lost in the middle of the pack, but a leader/front-runner/top finisher here. Usually the top guys are under the microscope in every race?

Plus, he recently did a 9:05 2-miles (while training, not even racing with Army WCAP), under the supervision of Army guys and with other runners he was lapping. The post is on Facebook:

As well as the video which can also be found here:

So, tell me again how does he chat??? Wait, do you happen to be a female, Mal Arkey? One that is offended because he called you fat, or by just not giving you the time of day. He seemed nice at the race, but many of those top runners can be quite arrogant and don't care about offending people...

The link to the video of his 2-mi run in 9:05 is here:

Also, several runners at the Boogie, including Dan Lenz said he lapped them multiple times...

So, Mal Arkey why are you so obsessed with him? Should I let him know that you stalk him (I assume that you do)? Haha!

Thinking you might have gotten lapped several times and someone cheating is not inherently incompatible.