Sad News: Frank Meza Found Dead In LA River

Frank made a concious decision to lie and cheat, repeatedly, for many years. That is not a mistake, that is a choice. Nobody forced Frank to do the things he did, those were his choices. Lay blame where it belongs.

Derek should be ashamed of himself. It’s one thing to post an article and get the disqualification for likely cheating. it’s another to continue to post daily articles to tring further humiliate the guy for page views and paypal donations.

Derek started off just getting people who didn’t belong in the Boston Marathon removed. Now he just posts gotcha style articles aimed at publically shaming people and it was only a matter of time till something like this happened.

george oscar bluth wrote:

malmo wrote:

In a civilized world we dont stone someone for a parking ticket.

+1

I never posted in the original Frank Meza thread, and didn't even know what it was about until a couple weeks ago. I had assumed it was probably about a suspected testosterone-using master's runner bringing about calls of skepticism. Based on the previous threads on "marathon cheating" I guess I should have known what it was about.

Obviously, the penalty for course-cutting in a marathon shouldn't be death, by suicide or otherwise. But Meza clearly sought attention for his record-setting marathoning, and he got more attention than he bargained for. Personal and professional attacks on Meza were not warranted, but when someone so publicly celebrates his fraudulent marathoning record as a representation of his hard work and character, people will take offense.

It is a tragic end to the story, but I can't say I am surprised. Once someone's identity is threatened/revealed in a public way, they are at huge risk for suicide (or sudden heart attack, which I suppose could also be a possibility).

I'm reminded of a "boobs for grades" scandal in my hometown, where an aging male professor was outed as having pressured female students to expose themselves in exchange for A's. Long story short, the charges were made public, national outlets picked up on the story (even The Onion), and a week or two later he went to a wooded park in town and shot himself. I don't think this means that reporting that type of scandal (which admittedly included some minor criminal charges) or Meza's situation should be swept under the rug, but at the same time, we've got to know what can happen when someone's world comes crumbling down around them.

Derek does a great job, IMHO. He tries to stick to only the facts he can prove, he ALWAYS give the individual involved a heads-up or a chance to rebut, and he moderates the comments on his site.

LRC commenters are well known to be much more ruthless. But there really weren't that many personal attacks against FM in the thread. Yeah, it was painful to watch sometimes. Oh well, come clean and it all stops.

Not sure how his wife could possibly not realize he was cheating. Certainly his son knew.

I do feel especially bad for the high school runners that he coached over the years. But again, he started this whole thing and he needed to be separated from the team as soon as the truth became obvious.

If the facts show that Dr. Meza did indeed take his own life then he and he alone is the party responsible for his death.

I stopped counting the number of suicide deaths of people I've known personally when that number reached 30. That was about 25 years ago. None of those victims were bulled or harassed. They all had a mental illness.

Being caught in some sort of scandal or controversy sometimes is all it takes for them to resort to the final solution.

If someone catches another person cheating marathons they should be able to bring this to the attention of the running community. We cannot ever know the mental stability of the cheater. However if said cheater can't stand the bad publicity and decide to end their life, it is not the fault of the person exposing the cheater.

However, I think that Cheater threads should be locked for comments, with the exception of the OP for updating purposes.

I did not post on the thread about him, but when I read the news on Google this morning I felt kind of dirty and I'm not sure why?

Peace To All and Cherish Your Life (It's all you have and ever will have)

Happyjack

I think the real tragedy is that there was probably some very serious mental health issues that, if properly addressed in a timely fashion, could have possibly saved this guy from a lot of misery and maybe saved his life. I did not pay much attention to the story as the evidence against him was overwhelming. He had a prior DQ at CIM and was required by LAM to run with an observer after a suspicious result. In trying to take away Ed Whitlock's WR, he had two sub 6 min 5k splits at LAM that were close to the age group WR for a single 5k on the track. But Meza didn't even blink when confronted. Instead, he tried to make it sound like he was just a really nice guy who was the victim of unjust treatment. And the reality was that he really was a nice guy who was heavily involved in helping coach runners in his community and a physician who worked in under served communities. So, there was no evidence of him being a Kip Litton-esque con man who was trying to self promote for personal gain. He really appeared to be suffering from a very disturbing break with reality that may have been the sign of a very real and serious mental health issue. It is incredibly sad that no one in this guy's life was able to see this and get him some professional help.

This is a sad story.

It caused me to recall the phrase “The story I am telling myself”. While a simple sentence, it speaks to the minds ability (and desire) to let emotion, as opposed to critical thinking, drive behavior. I can only imagine the story Frank was telling himself over the years that ultimately led him to where it did. It had to be tortuous and I feel for him and his family.

More broadly, we all have “stories we tell ourselves” but we also have the capacity to change the story. I wish Frank would have changed his story. Maybe the silver lining of this is someone else can learn from Frank can change theirs - be it in running or the rest of life challenges?

FiC

HappyJack wrote:

If someone catches another person cheating marathons they should be able to bring this to the attention of the running community. We cannot ever know the mental stability of the cheater. However if said cheater can't stand the bad publicity and decide to end their life, it is not the fault of the person exposing the cheater.

However, I think that Cheater threads should be locked for comments, with the exception of the OP for updating purposes.

I did not post on the thread about him, but when I read the news on Google this morning I felt kind of dirty and I'm not sure why?

Peace To All and Cherish Your Life (It's all you have and ever will have)

Happyjack

You don’t think events can push people over the edge. You don’t think the publicity and Derek’s attempt to always get more press for his stories can’t help.

Derek’s and the people in that thread don’t care about the person. They are out for a gotcha moment. It’s the age we live in.

I thought the running community was different. I thought when someone fell we picked them up. Instead of laughing, ignoring and kicking them.

But we are vultures too.

No one appointed Derek as the spokesman for the running community (he barely runs) no one appointed him police.

I don’t claim, as a runner, the right to know anyone’s motivation for anything. Cheating has little impact on my putting one foot in front of other. If it does you aren’t running for the right reasons.

FoggyInChicago wrote:

This is a sad story.

It caused me to recall the phrase “The story I am telling myself”. While a simple sentence, it speaks to the minds ability (and desire) to let emotion, as opposed to critical thinking, drive behavior. I can only imagine the story Frank was telling himself over the years that ultimately led him to where it did. It had to be tortuous and I feel for him and his family.

More broadly, we all have “stories we tell ourselves” but we also have the capacity to change the story. I wish Frank would have changed his story. Maybe the silver lining of this is someone else can learn from Frank can change theirs - be it in running or the rest of life challenges?

FiC

Maybe Derek and the Letsrun vultures will change their actions and story.

Dr. Meza brought it upon himself. As the saying goes "If you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen". Meza willingly cheated and got caught. It then raises the question "how many other times did he cheat and not get caught?" Was the response to his cheating harsh? NO. I have been a runner since 81. I have put in time on the road and a lot of mileage varying weather conditions ( I live in LA and the only time I see more than one other person running on the same road as me is when they are preparing last minute for the LA marathon. always funny to see), lost toe nails, and a strained muscle here and there. Now, I take serious offense at someone cheating in any race based on the above mentioned. I put in the time on the road and I put in the mileage, plus eating clean. Then some goofball who doesn't have what it takes decides to cheat and spit on the work other people put in. That is offensive and when the cheater is caught it he/she deserves to be berated. Cheating is a dishonor and there is no excuse for it, especially when an adult does it. Plus what is all this talk about a "running community"? There has never been a "running community". Running is solitary, sure you can run with friends, but running is not a social event, it is full on solitary. This new generation of runners is for the birds. In the 80's I could pass another runner and we would acknowledge each other with a nod or a raise of the hand. Today, runners don't acknowledge each other. I've nodded or waved while passing another in the past year and I get the finger or completely ignored. And, there is now a thing where people run in packs and are rude. they push other people and runners off sidewalks and tracks. I've seen it and experienced it in Pasadena and around CSULA. Very rude stuff. So, with that, stop talking about a "running community" because there is no community.

Dr. Meza's death is terrible and he is solely responsible for that. He made the choice to cheat knowing full well the ramifications if he got caught. He destroyed his own integrity and credibility by cheating and subsequently denying it when caught. The guy sounds like he had other issues/problems, which are his own and he should have handled them. But, in the end no one other than himself is to blame for his death. I advocate shaming those who cheat in sport competitions, people need to know that cheating won't be tolerated.

tartarm wrote:

This is some next level bullcrap. I am outrage an online mob potentially forced a man to take his own life...over what. A little hobby???

You can't claim to support Frank at the same time you call running and racing "a little hobby." He absolutely did not think of it as trivial. He founded a track club. He coached kids in running. It was a major part of his engagement with his community. One thing Frank and posters at LRC have in common is that they cared very much about running. They agree that sub-3-hour marathons are worth fighting for.

Frank chose to engage in a decade-long campaign of cheating in an area that he cared tremendously about, and there was never going to be a happy ending to that unresolvable contradiction.

You do realize that you are one of the ‘Letsrun vultures’, and it was posts like yours attacking the investigators that kept fueling the thread to find out more about his running history? Frank, by all accounts outside of his marathons, was a great guy, that was brought out many more times in the thread then anyone acknowledges. We should have been celebrating an accomplished individual who continued to promote a healthy lifestyle into his 70s. It should not have ended this way, but Derek, Letsrun, and the news media are not the ones to blame.

Frank died not because of cyber-bullying, but because he couldn't live with the shame of his own actions.

swedishbasteve wrote:

george oscar bluth wrote:

+1

+1

I don't condone cheating, but this could have been handled differently. There was no actual crime, yet people on this forum became the judge, jury, and executioner. The original CIM Dqs were done professionally and discreetly. Yes, those Dqs didn't prevent further cheating, but that's not a race director's job. Did other marathons sit on their hands in regards to Meza? Maybe. One thing is for sure. There was a systematic character assassination of Frank Meza started and perpetuated here. Did he get what he deserved? I don't know. He got what he got.

I’m not sure posting on a single thread on a running forum equates to cyber bullying.

I never emailed Frank or anyone associated with him. Never posted on Facebook. Never texted him or sent a tweet.

josh2322 wrote:

Derek should be ashamed of himself. It’s one thing to post an article and get the disqualification for likely cheating. it’s another to continue to post daily articles to tring further humiliate the guy for page views and paypal donations.

Derek started off just getting people who didn’t belong in the Boston Marathon removed. Now he just posts gotcha style articles aimed at publically shaming people and it was only a matter of time till something like this happened.

False, untrue, and fiction.

kmaclam wrote:

josh2322 wrote:

Derek should be ashamed of himself. It’s one thing to post an article and get the disqualification for likely cheating. it’s another to continue to post daily articles to tring further humiliate the guy for page views and paypal donations.

Derek started off just getting people who didn’t belong in the Boston Marathon removed. Now he just posts gotcha style articles aimed at publically shaming people and it was only a matter of time till something like this happened.

False, untrue, and fiction.

Agreed. Derek did not bully anyone. If anything, Frank's "team" tried to bully him. Derek posts factual articles with supporting evidence. He does not post conspiracy ideas or memes or anything that could even be remotely considered bullying or harassment. People really need to stop trying to point blame at Derek. Its a shame that people are trying to resort to that.

-not Derek

whatever helps you sleep at night.. The non stop articles likely drove a man to kill himself if you can’t see a problem i can’t help you.

josh2322 wrote:

whatever helps you sleep at night.. The non stop articles likely drove a man to kill himself if you can’t see a problem i can’t help you.

Can you point to one statement (not taken out of context) made by Derek about this tragic affair that is not a simple statement backed by evidence?

Some people did overstep the bounds of what was appropriate to say but these tended to be the various trolls or people infuriated by the trolls. The key thing is though that others stepped in to close them down each time.

>Derek at marathon investigators deserve some heat here. Beyond the mob here. He brought the story to the news. He’s not blameless but will find a way to sat he’s not responsible.

Totally disagree.

Frank built a web of lies, deceived those who knew and respected him, and cheated his fellow competitors out of legitimate achievements in their races. He even stole a world record.

He chose to be a "public" figure within the running community. If he was a nobody and quietly "won" a few AG medals without becoming this big community figure with a presence, and admitted it once outed - then Inside Edition would never have shown up at his door.

He denied everything until the last. He was the source of his undoing and blaming his suicide on Derek is absolute bullshit.