"To add to the response above, Roderick you have wobbled between 'great admiration', ' doubt', 'disbelief' , 'find more evidence', 'catch the cheat' and back several times.
Which one of you is the real Roderick Powell?"
"To answer your question from my interest and perspective as someone 9 yrs away from FM's age group and having done my first marathon over 40 yrs ago, I normally have few heroes, but Ed Whitlock was one of them. I amazed and motivated by his achievements, from his initial attempts at sub 3 after 70, to him breaking it and right through into his 80's I followed his every attempt at 5km, 10km , HM, Marathon WR's....he was an is a legend.
Because of people like Ed, and others including a few mates into their 60's still running well under 40 for 10km, I am motivated and inspired to keep running as fast as I can."
"So when someone else came around and not only 'beat' his achievements, but made it look easier and easier, and boasted about it, he was IMO, 'dancing over Ed's grave'.
You know as well as I that he had to be 'outed', and when he was, he did not admit, but threatened legal action to maintain his web of deceit, and disrespect Ed's achievements."
"How does FM choosing the selfish way out, so that family and friends can still live with his fake running achievements, and blame cyber bullying, make his cheating any different or better.
Just ridiculous."[/quote]
I am glad you wrote this. I am in my early 40s now and getting back into running. I love reading "Once a Runner" and other good running reads. To read about Ed, Gene Dykes, Joan Samuelson, Yoshihisa Hosaka, etc., they are real life Quenton Cassidy's. I get that Dr. Meza had may fine qualities and was a good person, but when it came to running he did despicable things. There is no other way to summarize it.
I agree with triathleteguru that something needs to change, but the thread could have been moderated perfectly and it would have still gotten 1000s of posts because Dr. Meza insisted he didn't cheat and
1) It had been done repeatedly
2) There was undeniable proof over and over again and no DQs or outright bans issued
3) He denied the allegations over and over again to RW, MI, LR, etc
4) All his countless sub 3 and 2:50 times making him close to WRs
This is why news outlets picked up on it as well. Since he lied to such a degree and doubled down, even in a perfect setting where everyone was simply analytical about what he did, it wasn't going away. I agree it wasn't bullying. It was simply being caught in such a big lie that he could no longer live in the pretend world he made up.
It is tragic and honestly selfish to those who loved him or those who could have benefited from his help. I tend to think his family and real friends would have still been there for him as they are sticking by his side now. I wish he would have simply had a moment of clarity that by being truthful, the burden of his lie would have been lifted. He wouldn't have to bring bikes to races any more. He could simply run and know people didn't care about his times. He had so many other things going for him, including the fact that he was still even running in his 70s.