Frank Meza 2:53:10 at LA Marathon (70 years old) unoffical time (just finished)

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Took me a while v2 wrote:

I am just sick of all of this. It is so rotten and mean. Frank is a wonderful man, a fantastic fluid runner and a marvellous human being.

To be honest he has become my reason for living. Saving him and saving his reputation is arguably just as important as saving an endangered species. Yes, I said it. Men like Frank are in danger of dying out. Real men brought up in adversity, who are humble, help others and make something of themselves. He deserves to be left alone.

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Took me a while v2 wrote:
Yes, I know. In the short time I have spent becoming besotted with him on this thread, I have grown to love the man. He has truly magnificent legs - two of them , in fact. And they are wizened and wise like Aztec oak trees, with roots that stretch back to his ancestors.

The way he chooses to dress is also very attractive to me. An older man, with a nice hat, and flattering shorts is something I find very appealing. I honestly don't think he gets enough credit for that on this forum.

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Do you ever feel guilty about ruining someones reputation based on a blurry pic from 500 yards which could be a million people wearing a blue shirt including the woman wearing a blue shirt standing not more than 10 feet from another person wearing the same blue shirt? How do you even get to this point in your life?

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Scott Dominguez wrote:I find the consistent lack of photos one of the most damning pieces of evidence. Having only run one marathon myself, how likely is it that someone who doesn’t look like they would be running at the front end of the field but is would be intentionally ignored by the photographers?

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That explains everything wrote:

https://imgur.com/a/UCmOqOi

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I Am Sam wrote:
What is more damning is the actual visual observations, of points on course such as the 18.7km of LAM19, where he is for at least 45sec, then the time lost to the 20km marker (vs target pace), a clear indication that he didnt run particular splits at the recorded time, unless he had vehicular assistance.

The photos lead the trolls to say 'absence of evidence' is not 'evidence of absence'

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Took me a while v2 wrote:

I am just sick of all of this. It is so rotten and mean. Frank is a wonderful man, a fantastic fluid runner and a marvellous human being. To be honest he has become my reason for living. Saving him and saving his reputation is arguably just as important as saving an endangered species. Yes, I said it. Men like Frank are in danger of dying out. Real men brought up in adversity, who are humble, help others and make something of themselves. He deserves to be left alone.

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deadesq wrote:
Yes, he's all alone somewhere. Just not here.

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letsrunstacks wrote:

Deadesq -

This is amazing. Thanks so much for posting these. Awesome work.

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deadesq wrote:

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Took me a while v2 wrote:

I am just sick of all of this. It is so rotten and mean. Frank is a wonderful man, a fantastic fluid runner and a marvellous human being. To be honest he has become my reason for living. Saving him and saving his reputation is arguably just as important as saving an endangered species. Yes, I said it. Men like Frank are in danger of dying out. Real men brought up in adversity, who are humble, help others and make something of themselves. He deserves to be left alone.

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Granting your wish that he be left alone. He must have been all alone somewhere near the six mile mark in the race. Because he ain't in the pix....

I held this one back a while because these photos don’t typically show up in the collections you can search via bib number. The photos are lower res, and the bibs are hard to see. But the colors runners are wearing are easy to see. So, my methodology from the prior posts should help with this one.

https://imgur.com/a/65gJOp4

This fixed camera was on Glendale Boulevard, right near Echo Park. This would put the camera at just before the 6 mile mark. And also just before the 10K mat. Based on the aspect ratio of the photos and the distance runners get between frames, I’m thinking it’s a GoPro on a one-second time lapse. That’s especially helpful, because you can count one second between each of the photos and determine how far apart the runners were at this point.

End of the fourth row in the series is #1299. You can tell him by his red shirt and blue shorts. He crossed 10K at 7:35:58 a.m.

In the ninth row, you can see one of my favorite of our old friends, #22397 in the yellow top and red shorts. He waved at pretty much every camera he passed on the course, I think. He crossed 10K at 7:36:18.

The last in the series has our old friend #19087, the woman in the bandana and sunglasses. She crossed 10K at 7:36:29.

Frank crossed 10K at 7:36:07, or a mere 9 seconds after #1299, 8 seconds before #22397, and 22 seconds before #19087.

But in this series right before the 10K mat, Frank’s nowhere to be seen.

Yes, he's all alone somewhere. Just not here.

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