Any masters remember the internet liar "Air Lyndon"?

I do not remember.

Anyone who knows what "Merv" means will know...

he tricked many of us...

improving by four seconds in a year? bull fvcking shit

This thread is awesome.

Geez, that's a blast from the past. Hadn't thought about that dude for years.

This has miffed me as well. Someone contacted me (since I live in Sacramento) and asked me to check on that time. He ran it at a meet at Sacramento State. The time is official. He's also been quoted as saying he ran a 4:18 indoor mile as a masters. Now, I take offense to that because that's my event, he's roughly my age, and I've never heard of him. I ran 4:00/1500, 4:21 mile at 41 and he's never been in any of the masters races I've ran in. Let's see if he'll show up for the masters nationals this summer in Sacramento and shut us all up.

I remember Lyndon from way back in the 90s on the original runner's world forums, giving hell to all the slow joggers. As I was in my mid 20s and out of college and just running for shits and giggles at that point, and since I had always been terribly bored during long runs (pre-ipod days) I was attracted to his posts about quality over quantity and even exchanged emails with him. I bought Coe's book on his recommendation. I even have some of the emails I printed out tucked into the pages of the book to this day, along with my training paces of that era (ah, to be in my mid 20s and that fast again...).

That is a flash from the past. Heck I remember him from Usenet days...

Only 4:18? His stories are getting slower with age, ha ha! (except the 11.26....)

sactomaster wrote:

This has miffed me as well. Someone contacted me (since I live in Sacramento) and asked me to check on that time. He ran it at a meet at Sacramento State. The time is official. He's also been quoted as saying he ran a 4:18 indoor mile as a masters. Now, I take offense to that because that's my event, he's roughly my age, and I've never heard of him. I ran 4:00/1500, 4:21 mile at 41 and he's never been in any of the masters races I've ran in. Let's see if he'll show up for the masters nationals this summer in Sacramento and shut us all up.

sactomaster wrote:

This has miffed me as well. Someone contacted me (since I live in Sacramento) and asked me to check on that time. He ran it at a meet at Sacramento State. The time is official. He's also been quoted as saying he ran a 4:18 indoor mile as a masters. Now, I take offense to that because that's my event, he's roughly my age, and I've never heard of him. I ran 4:00/1500, 4:21 mile at 41 and he's never been in any of the masters races I've ran in. Let's see if he'll show up for the masters nationals this summer in Sacramento and shut us all up.

The time is official, but has anyone verified via pictures or video that it was actually him?

No. The school hasn't been able to do that yet. Trying to locate a photo of the finish if it's still around. There's always the possibility of someone running under someone eles's name.

sactomaster wrote:

No. The school hasn't been able to do that yet. Trying to locate a photo of the finish if it's still around. There's always the possibility of someone running under someone eles's name.

I'd look VERY carefully.

His stories went to elaborate lengths. What finally outed him was his tale of a 5000m track race at Stanford, I think, in which he "finished" amongst some fairly well known runners yet when he didn't show up in the very verifiable results he claimed they just missed him at the finish line.

Who is merv?

That's quite a range, don't you think? Didn't Lyndon run 14:30s or 14:40s for 5000 about 10 or 12 years ago?

Leonard, if you can keep an eye on this guy, it might pay off in helping keep a semblance of respectability for us masters and our sport. Things like this undermine our credibility and cheapen the hard work of those who are dedicated to the sport.

sactomaster wrote:

No. The school hasn't been able to do that yet. Trying to locate a photo of the finish if it's still around. There's always the possibility of someone running under someone eles's name.

The meet website has him listed as running 11.26 into a .4 mps headwind. In addition it lists him as "unattached" yet as a SR. He managed to beat 5 college kids with a 3.2 mps wind behind the from another heat. He managed to show up in the results in the only heat of 3 with 6 guys in the race rather than 5 from the other 2.

We know Lyndon has shown up falsly in other events in the area.

My guess is at some point the results sheet passed through Mr. Herzberg's hands and he doctored them.

This doesn't surprise me one bit. Here we have another cheating California runner, getting an "official time" from a meet in Sacramento. We get what we reap -- add together poor meet management and California attitude where cheating is acceptable. Even the San Diego based editor of NMN says that using PEDs is OK. Where are the ethics?

D Tektive wrote:

My guess is at some point the results sheet passed through Mr. Herzberg's hands and he doctored them.

That's not too likely with automatic timing. More likely is he paid some college kid to run under his name.

I suppose it is also possible that some random college kid ran and Herzberg DNS'd, then Herzberg emailed the meet director and said, "no that was me, they got the name wrong."

That latter hypothesis is a good one, since LH is "king" of the DNS and which also might explain the residual "SR" designation.

polevaultpower wrote:

D Tektive wrote:

My guess is at some point the results sheet passed through Mr. Herzberg's hands and he doctored them.

That's not too likely with automatic timing. More likely is he paid some college kid to run under his name.

I suppose it is also possible that some random college kid ran and Herzberg DNS'd, then Herzberg emailed the meet director and said, "no that was me, they got the name wrong."