Hi all, so we're done, and yes for those that wonder, this is just a US crossing not a Transcon, which is ocean to ocean. I personally don't get why you wouldn't want to do the last 6 to 8 miles and leap into the water - surely the happiest, most satisfying swim of one's life? I have not seen a single image of note from Central Park, all such a damp squib finish.
RB's TESLA challenge:
Much more will come out anon, but of late I have run across RBs "Tesla Challenge" from last year. He pits himself against a Tesla and sees if he can beat it. Have you ever heard of anything so deluded, narcissistic and crass? And it's all made into a 34 minute video which focusses on RB creeping down the Texan highways, on ski poles, battling vomiting, diarrhoea, rattlesnakes and mental and physical collapse.
There is a lengthy segment dedicated to a key handler, W Goodge, kissing his naked feet for a while, which makes him feel much better.
The long and short of the story? Both the video and an article state that he did indeed beat the Tesla. RB is better than a top of the range motor vehicle.
You wonder how? This is how they've spun it: The Tesla's battery is charged and it then drives off until the battery goes flat. It gets 242 miles. RB must now travel further than that, and then he's beaten the car. Yes, you read that right.
This is the huge headline on Hypebeast.com: "Ultra-endurance Athlete Robbie Balenger Raced a Tesla Model 3 ... And Won."
The proviso was NOT that Robbie has to run the 242 miles in what the Tesla did [maybe 4 hours?]. The figure to go after, who knows who selected this, was 72 hours. A pitifully low bar. As a comparison, Camille Herron has run 270 miles in 48 hours.
Anyway, even this generous target proved beyond RB, and he fell well short, only cobbling together 222 miles in the 3 days. He then spends another 5 hours getting to 242.
But all this is dressed up as a resounding victory. The subheading reads: "Balenger traversed a staggering 242 miles in only 72 hours." This is not only a bare-faced lie, but also somewhat over-egged to say the least, when one considers Sorokin runs 198 miles in 24.
This is how they dress the whole thing up as a win at the end of the film:
Balenger: "It doesn't matter, this arbitrary goal of 72 hours - who cares? I feel for the first time accomplished... my resume is pretty f*cking badass."
On a radio show it was said: "Well not to spoil it, Robbie did not die... he did technically outlast the Tesla, although he didn't meet his time goal."
And that's where the win comes from. RB travelled 242 miles and because he didn't die but the car battery did, it's chalked up as a win. This is what we're being asked to applaud.
His heart rate for the 40 mile sections is now deeply predictable: 142 118 107 106 109 109. Barely a deviation in the last 180-odd miles whether it be a 5 minute k or 15. The film ends with RB sticking his middle finger up at all and sundry for 4 seconds before fading to black, when the letters come up: "I outlasted the Tesla."
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As a comparison, the next Youtube video after Balenger's is Oz Pearlman's FKT for Montauk to Manhattan, 206k in 21 hours. A differential simply light years removed from RB. Does he record a perfect HR? Of course, not a blemish, not a K out of place, no crashing, no locking onto 109s. A little HR drift sure, but that's because he goes from 8 minute miles to 10 minute miles.
All is becoming so clear now with these faux challenges that WG and RB take it in turn to produce: contrived, invented, made to sound amazing, but in reality anything but and almost always no human pulse.
They are the front men, with their ripped bods and matinee looks, hired to deliver brands and attract clientele for their many sponsors. Their pitiful running skills are swept under the carpet. WG avoids real ultras like the plague and when he does them he is either nondescript or absymal. RB races more and his lack of ability thus all the more profound. But to you and I, remember this, "my resume is badass."
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Who knows what vainglorious, melodramatic media WG will come out with in the coming weeks, but none of this will go away: the real runners of the world now have these two pegged, and the laundry list of inconsistencies is simply depraved now:
No human pulse for 14,000k's worth of challenges; no tracking; Whoop throwing up inexplicable, impossible numbers whenever we're given a glimpse of it; absurdly fast splits completely out of nowhere that are untouched even by the greatest [yes like 4 miles of sub 9:20s after the 50 mile point in a Transcon day, including an 8:52]; never getting tired or fatiguing at Transcon or Jogle with massive negative splits [like 30/25], and using charity as a facade to make very serious money from the sport.
The runners are uniting fast on this, and it's turning into a war between the Social media/Insta fanboys and those who wish to keep our precious and noble sport clean. Our message to RB and WG is simple: your card is marked and we feel your methods are undesirable, shady and disreputable to say the least. And all this sponsorship and millionaire lifestyle you're grabbing for yourselves means that there's far less to go round for the real, proper runners, who are close to TWICE as good as you.