Progression of Cheating wrote:
I always thought it was likely he had an accomplice (or two) simply because of the parking situation. If you've spent decades in L.A., you know how difficult it is to find parking in a lot of areas. An accomplice would be able to keep the car running in no-parking zones, or drive slowly in circles while waiting for Dr. Meza.
I love puzzles so this story fascinates me. How could it have been done?
It could have been done with a driver or it could have been done solo with multiple bicycles prepositioned on the course. It could not have been done with one bicycle. Here's one example why.
Frank appears to enter the LA Marathon course at 18.7km and runs to the 20km mat. (The split time to 25km mat starts then.) Frank's split time from 20 to 25k mats is 20:02.
Assuming he doubles back to the bike immediately after crossing the 20k mat, it would take 6 1/2 minutes at 8min/mile to get back to the bike. He is next seen entering the course at the intersection of Doheny and SM Blvd. That's about 3.9mi from the 18.7km entry point by what appears to be the fastest bike route.
At 16mph (pretty fast for an M70, especially considering stop signs, traffic lights, and traffic), biking that distance would take about 14 1/2 minutes. That's a cumulative time of 21 minutes... not counting unlocking the bike, locking it at the other end, and walking to the entry point. Yet Frank can be seen waiting at the intersection of Doheny and SM Blvd before running the last 30 seconds or so to the 25k mat. Factoring in the wait time and the run to the mat, he would have had to be at the intersection of SM Blvd and Doheny at roughly the 19-minute mark of this split in order to make the split at 20:02. It's not possible without something I'm missing.
So how could it have been done? It would require either a driver or multiple bikes prepositioned on the course. It wouldn't require 8 bikes. Some of the splits could have been done by doubling back to the same bike, but this one could not be. It might have required only one bike prepositioned near the 20k mat. It could have been done at every split that did not require such a long run (from 18.7 to 20k) to the mat.
Could he have just parked the bike near the 20k mat and jogged back to his entry point at 18.7k, giving him a shorter run back to the bike? Not really. It would have solved the problem for the 20-25k split, but it would have created a similar problem for the 10-15k split.
Thus, it's a minimum of two bikes. Or an accomplice to drive the car. I favor the solo bike approach.