First time poster here. UK based. No affiliation with any parties discussed here.
I’ve been following this thread for a while, and as much as you may like or dislike WG and what he’s doing there are some really basic points that are being lost by emotional responses/semantics/general ill feeling between believers and non-believers.
As much as WC has been accused of pseudo science or bad data management, kudos to him for staying on the thread to keep hammering home his point. And kudos to Recruiter57 for his unwavering support.
That said, if you were to do something this monumental, and make this much of a commitment to pre-event training, time, energy, money, recovery etc then wouldn’t you do everything in your power to have as close to 100% legitimacy as is possible? These are seasoned athletes, they know how it works.
With that in mind-
If you were fully aware that your equipment was prone to tech fails like they have been in the last 4 years (according to WC) why wouldn’t you take strident steps to make sure that you used all technology at your disposal to provide proof that you had accomplished what is likely to be one of WG’s longest ever runs. I can understand why, if someone accused you of cheating, you would double down on your methods (and in reality this echo chamber will have no bearing on money raised or post event career for WG, so why change anything half way through the event?) but there should have been systems in place before the first step. Especially if they are going for ‘records’.
Not wearing a tracker because of weight etc. is a moot point. We all know how light and inconspicuous they are. Minimal gains like this aren’t going to have much of a bearing on long mileage days.
Presumably WG has his phone with him when running (for safety reasons, or for social media purposes). If we are really to believe that a satellite tracker isn’t a viable option then why doesn’t he use the LiveTrack feature available on Garmin, or whatever the alternative is for Coros. I did a 7 day run last year and every morning sent a link to family which had route details and tracking. It’s less reliable than satellite tracking and relies on mobile phone signal and Bluetooth, but it certainly would come in and out of range enough to give a decent picture of route and location.
It really all boils down to tracker or lack thereof. Forget the NuCalm. Forget the sponsorship. Forget WG’s apparent lack of humility. This is all noise and mud-slinging. The burden of proof is on WG and his team. A lot of what WC has pointed to supports the theory that they are not legitimate in this pursuit. A lot of what WG and his team are NOT doing also supports the theory. You don’t just get to say that you’ve done something this big when so much money and reputation are at stake.
I think we can all agree that this will never be resolved and he will finish in NY in a couple of days, and to his sponsors and donors he will have achieved an incredible feat. I get why people like WC would be aggrieved by this.
For myself, and I presume lots of people on here, the bottom line is that WC has no irrefutable proof that he had ran the Trans Con.