This is by no means a defense of this guy - and I have tried to read through a good amount of this thread - but seeing these threads pop up always makes me nervous. Although you do seem to get it right in the end pretty much every time...
But I think about this and see myself as someone who might pop up on your radar eventually.
I ran in college and have pretty decent PRs, but I am now in my mid-thirties and very rarely race. I have absolutely no consistency to my times b/c I will sometimes train for something and other times just jump in with old running buddies and run slow times because we all meet somewhere and run together for a 5k or 10k.
Two years ago, for instance, I ran a marathon in the Fall and another in the following Spring, dropping my time by 38 minutes between the two races. Not because of some kind of crazy training, but because the first was something I did on a whim with friends while the other was something I actually "raced." That has to ring some alarm bells, right? Before all of that, I had not "raced" for almost three years. I ran a few 5ks and 10ks hungover in the middle of vacations or just for fun, but I literally ran them for exercise. I have not "raced" since the last full.
So there was a string of five years with about 6-8 mediocre races and one pretty fast time. Granted, I guess I have people who would vouch for me - and I am not the type to go spouting off about my race to the Today show - but you get the point.
I am currently trying to get under a specific time for a local Half. If I hit my goal it will likely win the Half (presuming somebody decent doesn't show up) and add another suspiciously "fast" time to my racing history. Training seems like it is going alright, so we'll see. Anyway, I sometimes wonder if the targets of these campaigns might just be guys who don't "race" much.
There have to be more people out there like me. I don't do it on purpose. I just have a lot going on and don't race very often, despite keeping a pretty tight training regimen out of habit/health. When I do decide to race, I try pretty hard to run a fast time, but those races are increasingly fewer and far between. I am more likely to meet a bunch of guys for an alumni weekend where we all run the pace of the slowest guy after a night of beer drinking and s--t talking at some chosen location. And based on the fitness levels of some of my former teammates, those times aren't going to be improving.