Sad News: Frank Meza Found Dead In LA River

Unfortunately “they” were 70 years that took their toll. Most people struggle with aging: loss of vigor; but loss of social status is even worse. Cheating is certainly not the answer.

In Frank's death, he has achieved, I believe, what he wanted to achieve. His wife, close family and friends still believe in him and always will.

That's what he wanted, and that's what he now has. Shame he had to lose his life to achieve this though.

Everydog wrote:

https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/He-Had-Enough--Family-of-Marathoner-Accused-of-Cheating-Found-Dead-512287632.html

Man, that story is all over the place. I'm not even going to go there in light of all that's already been said, but "inaccurate" wouldn't do it justice.

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Disagree Roderick. I think it was his way of avoiding the responsibility that comes with having to face consequences of ones own making. ................................................................We can debate this. I prefer to say that your opinion is possible. I'm going on a long run today along the SART. I will, as yesterday be envisioning Frank Meza "running" like this.

Sancreed wrote:

I personally know from contact with runners whom he bumped down the finishing list, that this caused great frustration and disillusionment. In your world it seems that Frank should have been allowed to continue cheating these people without the wider world ever having been made aware of it. I am sorry, but that is neither reasonable, fair nor practical.

This is a really important point. What Frank was doing wasn't harmless at all, even if you don't care about records and reputations. It had serious consequences for real-life victims.

What's great about running and racing is that it's totally fair. The fastest person on race day wins. If you work consistently, you get faster and do better in races. It's really amazing to experience at any age. I know a local guy who just discovered running in his 50s. He started showing up to races, liked it, and now he's one of the regulars and in contention for AG awards. It's given him a new circle of friends and a whole new aspect of his life. It means a lot to him - most definitely including the AG awards he's shooting for.

Can you imagine how corrosive it is, not just to the sport but to society as a whole, to discover that in this one fair area of life, that there's this one rich doctor who's allowed to cheat in every race, everyone knows it, and no one will do anything about it? It rubs your nose in the fact that no one cares what you're doing, not even the RDs who are happy to take your money but won't provide the fair competition they promised. I'm in awe of people with real talent of any age, and I'll cheer on people who keep grinding away at any speed. But I'm heartily sick of the people who are only allowed to win.

If you're a former Olympian, maybe you wonder why anyone bothers. But for us hobby joggers, the Hobby Jogger Olympics are our Olympics, dammit, and people who cheat to get a BQ are taking away a spot that someone else worked hard for. Or maybe the local Turkey Trot 5K is the best we can aim for, but that 3rd place AG gift certificate was our bronze medal. And if someone got it because he was on T or cut the course, it leaves a lot of people disgusted and disillusioned in a society that is drowning in disillusionment. If I have evidence, you bet I'm going to bring that evidence to the attention of the right person. I'm saddened that Frank made the choices he made, but I have no regrets over the truth coming out.

It's sad that at the end of the day there will still be those who think Frank legitimately ran all these countless marathons and will believe he was wrongly accused. That will mark this as even more tragic of an event than it already is.

Will they have a “Dr. Meza’s law” on letsrun of required registration?

The NBC interview is such garbage. Soft-shoeing it to keep the faux-legend alive. This reminds me of Jones-town, Stalin, Nixon ( "I am not a crook") --- for crying out loud, where is the balanced reporting? The evidence is overwhelming. The dude offed himself. If he was truly innocent would have he jumped? His daughter-in-law states -- "you just have to run with him to understand how fast he really is..." -- absolute rubbish. Races use timing devices. The family members seem like nice enough people, but come on -- stop drinking the koolaide. I just told my wife I am an astronaut. I am because I said I am. Oh and I am a billionaire. And a movie star. And I can break any WR in any race. Why? Well you just have to go out and train with me. By the way -- FM did his training on weekends with another doc who runs 4 hour 30 min times in marathons. How is that possible? A sub three our dude training with a guy who runs four plus??? I understand the family is grieving, but they are grandstanding, politicking , spinning emotions to destroy the facts and to push the blame elsewhere. This thread and MI outed him for profound cheating...and the family is redirecting the blame on the messengers.

All fair points, but just let them. They’ve lost a lot. Who cares at this point?

DQs have been issued for most of his races, no records are threatened, he won’t be making any claims of records going forward, and any reasonable person can reach an intelligent conclusion based on the vast amounts of information available on the internet.

It’s over.

Okay -- this has really been bugging me. How did FM do it? Multiple bikes? A few cohorts to drive him. He still needed to slice through crowds and navigate mats! My home course is HB Surf City marathon -- and that's easy...just run a half and register a full. But LA -- how in the heck did he do it? I really wish his fellow comrades would come forward. It reminds me of "The Big Sting" -- I really want to know. It's killing me. Anyone have to beta or ideas.

kmaclam wrote:

It's sad that at the end of the day there will still be those who think Frank legitimately ran all these countless marathons and will believe he was wrongly accused. That will mark this as even more tragic of an event than it already is.

Really? That is what makes this even more tragic? If this guy was cheating at golf to win the club 70+ over championship, would it really be worth all this? People cheat. They cheat on their taxes (illegal), they cheat on their wives (immoral) and they cheat at golf (unethical). None of these deserve doxxing. None of these deserve all this attention. None of these deserve public humiliation to the point where a seemingly good person (flawed like all of us) takes his own life as a result of the bullying. And here is the deal: it doesn't matter if you think he was bullied. It matters if Frank Meza felt as though he was bullied.

I couldn't care less if he cheated at marathons. I couldn't care less if his widow and his daughter believe him. They chose to believe in the man that gave them the life they enjoy. A lot more important people than Frank cheated on a lot more important things than a marathon.

Those whose honest work went unrewarded in those races were bullied.

CNN has this as its top story right now, though they obviously aren't investigating anything. Just reporting what others and the LA Times are saying.

Apparently the family doesn't believe he committed suicide either. Sigh....

Thank you. My thoughts and feelings, exactly.

I'm in no doubt that he cheated. But I do wonder whether we--"we"--made him pay not just for his own sins, but for precisely what you invoke: the sins of others. What he did, you wrote, "leaves a lot of people disgusted and disillusioned in a society that is drowning in disillusionment." True on all counts.

Maybe fairness in this small but global world, the world of competitive elder marathoning, matters so much to us because in so many other arenas, fakery isn't just possible but rewarded. We're at the tail end of the era when a picture is worth a thousand words.

I trust that we all realize this. Derek, you do realize this? At some point in the next decade, we won't be able to trust each marathon's cache of race photos. Deep fakes will be possible.

In any case, it's a good moment for reflection. I'm sure we're all doing that.

You misunderstood or misconstrued what I am saying. By "even more tragic" I mean that if the general public is led to believe Frank ran these 40 plus marathons legitimately and that this was all a big misunderstanding, then John Q Public will view this as an even more appalling or grievous death.

Who are all of these posters who say they are new to the forum, never followed it, and then begin to attack the forum?

The posters who say that running isn't important (on a forum about running!), and then say that it wasn't worth a man's life. Running was important enough that Frank Meza meticulously planned and executed cheating at marathons.

Posters who say bullying on this forum was what caused his death, and then proceed to bully the members on this forum.

Posters who deny the evidence, but who claim not to have read any of the posts.

Posters who attack Derek Murphy as being responsible for Frank's death but have no idea what he has been doing over the past few years, his methodology, or how he reluctantly stepped into examining Frank Meza's results. Oh, wait. You would have had to read the actual posts in the forum to know about this. They couldn't be bothered, but they go on the attack. More unscrupulous behaviour.

Posters who cite racism as a motivating factor for picking on Frank. Again, not knowing anything about Letsrun or Derek Murphy. Anyone who has spent time on the Marathon Investigation Site (Derek's site, for you newbie posters) or on Letsrun knows that at least in this respect, the examination of race cheaters is colour blind. Mike Rossi, Kip Litton, Julie Miller... I could go on and on!!!

Nothing any of you newbie posters attacking Letsrun or Derek Murphy have said has made an iota of difference, except exposed you for being the exact thing you accuse others of being. Cyberbullies. Ignorant.

Time to consider your future postings. You have not said anything new, and every time you post something exposing your ignorance or blowing off the evidence, all you do is incite the threads on Letsrun to keep multiplying and growing. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it was the ignorant posters in the original thread who jumped to defend Frank in the first place that led to more and more uncovering of evidence that finally led to the discovery of the image of Frank on a bicycle. One of the newbie posters who requested a smoking gun in the form of a photo of Frank on a bicycle. Well, you got it. More than anything, it was the piling up of the evidence and the certainty that he cheated based on the new evidence that led to this outcome.

Please take solace in your memories of the good he did and the person he was to you. There is no need to seek vengeance by posting here.

Kind of crazy that the medal displayed most prominently by his family for the world to see (and perhaps lead us to believe he didn't cheat) is the one from 2016 CIM. The exact race he was DQ'ed at (for a 2nd time) and the race that caused them to ban him for life. You can't make this stuff up. Truth is stranger than fiction. And whatever the family needs to keep telling themselves to get through this horrific loss is fine, but to go after Derek or LetsRun is not right. https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/06/us/marathon-controversy-frank-meza-death/index.html