For the ones who are to young, David Blaikie had the first internet based ultramarathon news site: Ultramarathon world
He fought hard against "Worldrunner" Robert Garside on his outragious claims of running solo with a backpack around the world.
David Blaikie "Declarations by friends and crew are not worth much unless supported by a strong cache of daily data collected along the way - as mentioned in an earlier post. GPS data may prove where a support vehicle was at any given time, and it is useful when coupled with persuasive supportive data, including signatures (with contact information) collected daily from independent witnesses along the way, but it will not prove a runner covered the whole distance on foot, or any of the distance for that matter. The accumulated evidence at the end of the run has to be compelling and believable to knowledgable and experienced ultrarunners who know the extreme challenges posed by covering such long and arduous distances day after day in the hostile environment of open highways. This also includes detailed daily logs of starting and stopping points, (recorded exactly, within 1/10th of a mile or kilometre, on a verified vehicle odometer), weather records, precise road and highway routes taken by the runner, (data which can be checked against local highway construction records, if necessary), plus detailed receipts with time stamps for purchases made along the way of food, beverages, gasoline and other items. Media coverage is also useful, but entirely inadequate on its own. It proves little. Al Howie kept meticulous records when he averaged 101km a day in his epic run across Canada in 1991. (See Wikipedia link below). Unfortunately, the history of journey running is fraught with frauds who dupe a few reporters and sponsors with their claims but cannot prove the actually ran the distances claimed. Their runs are at best undocumented and at worst exaggerated claims or simply fraudulent. The onus is 100% on journey runners to back up their claims. There is not and should not be any benefit of the doubt given. The testimony of friends, family and crew is helpful when combined with all of the above but of little value on its own because they are interested parties. The fact that the Guinness Book of Records accepts a claim is meaningless. Guinness is in the entertainment business and many of the 'records' it has accepted over the years are bogus."
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Howie