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

Thanks for sharing your letter. It took me around 5 minutes to know all your results on athlinks. You are a solid mid 80's runner. Better than me, for sure. You are not too active. The surprising thing is that with so many motivated "runners" wanting Frank Meza exposed, (or exonerated) noone has bothered to go to one of his races, (he runs the same ones each year--LA, Long Beach & Santa Clarita) insert a 2:50 runner to simply trail behind him. In Phoneix (Feb '19 2:53:54) Frank has a photo crossing the 10k mat, next to a runner who ran a finish time close enough to his . Gene Dykes is now my role model. He is very unselfish in communicating his training, thoughts during races, promoting the joy we get from running and from racing. Gene just ran Boston, Big Sur and Big Push (24 hour run) In less than 1 month. Sub 3 Boston, 111.659 miles in 24 hours (WR) 100 mile WR too. His whole running life is an open book. He has a great Ed Whitlock story too. He was there when Ed ran his "greatest race ", the 2:54 at just shy of 74. It will take more than "talk" and complaining on LR to get the truth about Frank to be exposed...whatever the truth is. It will take action. Several people on this thread have said they will be at Long Beach in October. I will be. I am running the half. (7:30) The full marathon starts at 6:00am. I can watch the start, just like I did at the Orange County Marathon 2 weeks ago. Tough to find 1 person. I did see the Judge making the new movie "Skid Row Marathon". I will try to see Frank's start. Together we can get to the bottom of this. If a person is routinely denying fourth place runners a third place medal, at big races, well, that is just not right.

Let’s forget about all those creepy timing mats trying to catch cheaters (so effectively), and demand elaborate, expensive eye witnesses (who are more likely to lie than the mats!).

Gene Dykes has done what most on LR say is impossible. BUT, he explains exactly how he has done it. (a coach who's direction he follows to the letter)

Hmmm, still no one who knows him coming to his defence.

If I was a 70 year old who ran legit times like that and found out that my results were being questioned, I would make damn sure my bib was visible the next race.

In 2014, Frank Meza had one of the "greatest" senior marathon seasons of all time! The most impressive was running a 3:06 and 3:05 within a span of 14 days to begin the season! Fast forward to the CIM in December where he gets busted for missing multiple timing mats and improved improved by a margin of 16:15 within five weeks. Lance, NOP, Jama Aiden, and the many questionable track and field governing bodies need to find Frank's coach and be a full time consultant.

The internet never forgets.

EIGHT SUB 2:25 AGE GRADED PERFORMANCES!

http://www.marathonguide.com/results/search.cfm

Race Last Name, First Name

(Sex/Age) Time OverAll

Place Sex Place

/

Div Place DIV Net Time City, State, Country AG Time* BQ*

California International Marathon

12/7/14 Meza, Frank (M65) 2:52:33 244 187 / 1 M65-69 South Pasadena, CA, USA 2:13:47 BQ

Santa Clarita Marathon

11/2/14 Meza, Frank (M65) 3:08:48 15 15 / 1 M65-69 3:06:46 S Pasadena, CA, USA 2:24:49 BQ

Long Beach Marathon

10/12/14 MEZA, FRANK (M65) 30 27 / 1 M65-69 3:00:54 SOUTH PASADENA, CA, USA 2:20:16 BQ

The San Francisco Marathon

7/27/14 Meza, Frank (M65) 3:03:59 53 51 / 1 M65-69 2:59:40 South Pasadena, CA, USA 2:19:18 BQ

Rock 'n' Roll Marathon

6/1/14 Meza, Frank (M) 3:02:39 61 56 / 1 M65-69 South Pasadena, CA, USA BQ

City of Los Angeles Marathon (L.A. Marathon)

3/9/14 Meza, Frank (M65) 2:59:10 113 102 / 1 M65-69 South Pasadena, CA, USA 2:18:55 BQ

Surf City Marathon (prev. Pacific Shoreline Marathon)

2/2/14 Meza, Frank (M65) 3:05:08 41 36 / 1 M65-69 3:04:45 South Pasadena, CA, USA 2:23:15 BQ

Carlsbad Marathon

1/19/14 Meza, Frank (M65) 3:06:41 40 35 / 1 M65-69 3:06:41 South Pasadena, CA, USA 2:24:45 BQ

It’s clear: we should all “believe” & bow down!

Where are you all? wrote:

Hmmm, still no one who knows him coming to his defence.

1. No one who knows that he really cheated will come to his defense, and:

2. If they do know him, they are probably in shock and/or just not sure if he cheated and therefore don't want to come on a message board and say anything.

So has anyone reported him yet? or are we still speculating?

What's clear, is we should all find out the truth once and for all. In court, hearsay means nothing. Clear and irrefutable evidence is needed for a conviction, in theory. This kind of evidence, finding Frank innocent of cheating...would not end this thread. Some would still say "a runner looking like him can not run that fast". Or, then he is "doping". Or, the evidence gatherers are "in on it". What if Frank just stops racing, knowing we could then never really "prove" him guilty?

Good idea, people rarely cheat on training runs because those timing mats are expensive!

It was a 6+ minute improvement of his PR. It was only a much larger improvement if you compare it to his worst race of the year.

jesseriley wrote:

Let’s forget about all those creepy timing mats trying to catch cheaters (so effectively), and demand elaborate, expensive eye witnesses (who are more likely to lie than the mats!).

Timing mats don’t help because he’s not missing timing mats. LA 2019 is a good example. The photos don’t help much because he’s got photos in recent races just like other runners. What may help in addition to the photos and timing mats are longish videos from the sidelines of him running near other runners. Also, other runners in the race following him will hit the timing mats and pictures near him so that should help I think.

You managed to overlook he ran EIGHT ELITE performances in 2014. He gets caught at CIM, never goes back again. (I'll get back to this later.) He also doesn't run Mountains to Beach which can be a blazing fast marathon, probably because it's near impossible to cheat the timing mats because the course is rural. LAM 2014 was blazing hot yet Frank recovers like a spring chicken to run 3:05 two weeks later.

Timing mats show his impossibly uneven splits. More like a juvenile deer than an elderly distance runner.

Frank Meza Report wrote:

In 2014, Frank Meza had one of the "greatest" senior marathon seasons of all time!

I thought this in 2015 was quite impressive too:

koyaanisqatsi3 wrote:

I was very surprised to see Meza running a 2:52 as I was familiar with his normal results, or what I "assume"

are his results!

A few months later at Los Angeles Marathon 2015, on a blazing hot day when times were slow he did these 5km splits supposedly, leading to a 2:52:47 net time:

20:47 39:50 1:00:18 1:25:19 1:43:53 2:03:15 2:24:43 2:43:13 2:54:15 2:52:47

Note that he took at least a 5 or 6 minute "rest" between km15 and km20. Factor this "rest" out of his result

and take into account the blazing heat and slower times and we have him doing a mid to low 2:40's marathon.

Frank Meza Report wrote:

LAM 2014 was blazing hot yet Frank recovers like a spring chicken to run 3:05 two weeks later.

Even more impressive.

Frank Meza Report wrote:

Mark’s Thought’s2 wrote:

It was a 6+ minute improvement of his PR. It was only a much larger improvement if you compare it to his worst race of the year.

You managed to overlook he ran EIGHT ELITE performances in 2014. He gets caught at CIM, never goes back again. (I'll get back to this later.) He also doesn't run Mountains to Beach which can be a blazing fast marathon, probably because it's near impossible to cheat the timing mats because the course is rural. LAM 2014 was blazing hot yet Frank recovers like a spring chicken to run 3:05 two weeks later.

You highlighted a 16 minute improvement and I simply pointed out that it was really a 6+ minute improvement of his PR. While they are good performances, most of the were more than 20 minutes above the world age group best.

You point out that he never ran CIM again, but he does run some marathons and never goes back again (yet) like Oakland and San Diego and Carlsbad. You mention the Mountains 2 Beach marathon that he doesn’t run like many others. If you look at his running schedule, you’ll see he usually runs marathons in the Fall, Winter and early Spring for the most part.

jesseriley wrote:

Timing mats show his impossibly uneven splits. More like a juvenile deer than an elderly distance runner.

What did the timing mats from his 2:53 at LA 2019 show?