Last week I wrote about Frank Meza. Frank ran the fastest time ever recorded by a 70 year old at The 2019 L.A. Marathon.
Frank was shown entering The LA Marathon course from a sidewalk prior to the 20 kilometer timing mat. Despite Frank’s claim that he only exited the course once for a few seconds “to pee”, the evidence showed that Frank did not appear on the course prior to the location that he emerged.
Despite this evidence and suspicions dating back to at least 2015, LA has chosen not to disqualify Frank.
Derek: We’ve decided to take a different tact: Next time Frank runs one of our races there will be an official observer in place. This is a great opportunity for him to confirm his past performances and end the conversation.
Pending any additional information, this is the best solution for all. Appreciate your efforts. Best.
I was disappointed in this decision. I felt the evidence for a disqualification was there. Given Frank’s prior disqualifications and suspicions, I feel the burden of proof should be on Frank. L.A has known of Frank’s history for years to require that Frank run with an official pacer. Now that the evidence is mounting not only relating to L.A. but other races as well, it is not the time to give Frank the benefit of the doubt.
“This is the best solution for all”
Frank’s time at L.A. is the fastest ever run by a 70 year old. He won his age group. This decision is not the best solution for Gene Dykes who previosuly ran the fastest (unofficial) marathon by a 70 year old, or to Dan Adams who finished in 2nd place (Age 70-74) an hour and 17 minutes after Frank.
L.A. Marathon Rules on Course-Cutting
Course-Cutting: Participants must stay on the race course which is defined as the roadway between its edges and curbs or as defined by marks or cones. Participants who intentionally shorten the route of the race (“course-cutting”) will be disqualified. Any participant leaving the race course for any reason must re-enter the race course where he or she left it or be disqualified for course-cutting. Course-cutting may be determined by eye-witness reports, by surveillance equipment and video, or by the participant failing to register times at timing mats or appearing in race photography. Participants with missing or irregular mile split times at official timing checkpoints will be reviewed and may be disqualified.
While I felt it was clear that Frank did not re-enter the course where he exited, the L.A. Marathon either disagreed with the evidence or chose not to enforce their published rules in this case. To their credit they did reach out and offered to speak with me regarding their decision. We have not been able to connect as of this publication.
Additional Information
Feeling that there had to be additional evidence, I took another look at Frank’s photos. This photo caught my attention:
From the photo sequence, it was clear that this was another automatic camera – similar to the camera that I used to show Frank entering the course prior to the 20 kilometer timing mat. Noticing that the visual showed a long stretch of the course, I thought the photos may yield some additional evidence. The photos clearly showed Frank waiting on the corner. You can follow the sequence all the way to the checkpoint.
The above sequence is evidence that “The Shadowy Figure” referenced in the prior article was indeed Frank. The photographic evidence once again shows Frank entering the course from the sidewalk after no evidence showing that he ran the portion of the course preceding his location.
The rules regarding course cutting are clearly posted on The L.A. Marathon website.
There are now two instances where it is clear that Frank’s actions violated the L.A. Marathon rules regarding course cutting. The rules state clearly that the penalty for violation of the rule is disqualification.
These photos also provide valuable information of Frank’s running pace. Frank enters the course even with runner 40874. This runner crossed the 25k mat at 8:37:54 am. Frank crossed the mat at 8:38:03. Frank lost 9 seconds to this runner in approximately 32 seconds. For the entire marathon, Frank only finished 8 seconds behind the runner.
Summary
Frank isn’t just a random runner. In my opinion, he has been very meticulous in his strategy and with his pacing.
Based on the L.A. evidence and the previously published Mesa-PHX evidence, all of Frank’s marathon results (and every split) are suspect and subject to scrutiny and skepticism.
It is not a coincidence that his times were less than a minute better than Gene Dyke’s unofficial record set at The Toronto Marathon. I don’t believe this is the case of someone cutting a course and mis-calculating and setting a record time. I am of the belief that the record was the goal. To what end, I don’t know. Unless Frank opens up, I don’t think we will ever know.
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Great work again Derek, this is conclusive for everyone except our friend Eric I will wager.
Excellent work, Derek. My goodness: Frank Meza could be the most egregious cheater in endurance racing history (almost as bad as Rosie Ruiz). What an affront to the late great Ed Whitlock, current marathon masters superstar Gene Dykes, all the 60 plus/70 plus competitors who valiantly train and race honestly and as important, his local community. Disgusting. At the least, LA must DQ him after seeing this. If not, boycott the race and it’s sponsors.
its sponsors, that is.
actually, going to amend: This is WAY worse than Rosie Ruiz. This was a coordinated attempt to defraud multiple times (Ruiz was once in Boston –twice if you include her NYC Marathon cheating but no victory) assuming he was taking financial awards and getting sponsorship dollars. The absolute arrogance and mania of it all is astounding.
Not only does he cheat, but he’s such a garbage runner that he veers so far off his line that he forces the wheelchair athlete to have to swerve around him. He easily could have collided with this athlete and ruined his race. How do you get to 70 years of age and still be this horrible of a person.
Modesto Marathon is the same weekend and is a great Marathon, I will never do LA if this is the way they handle cheaters
That’s brilliant Derek, bang to rights I’d say. Totally uniquivical cheating.
However, at the beginning of the video, your red circle is around a pedestrian and then switches to Frank a few seconds later. I thought at first, that was meant to be Frank which confused me for a second.
I would say there is no way L.A can refuse to disqualify him now. Re-entering the course two times after several minutes for a “pee break” and God know what excuse Frank will have for the second hiatus and still “running” so fast. Ridiculous.
Well done.
I meant to edit out that first frame. I will adjust when I get the chance. Thanks
Derek is it worth maybe reaching out to the second place finisher as well as others that were displaced from their age group awards? Maybe just a message or email stating “It appears you were denied an age group award due to the winner violating marathon rules. If interested please contact race organizers with your inquiry”. Maybe the other runners care maybe they don’t. If they do at least it compels the marathon organizers to do right by the other runners and alleviates any reservations they have about offending Frank. Is there evidence that he received/claimed an age group award?
Another thing. In the video he was stood there for forty five seconds before he started running and I notice that the competitors passing him have to take a wide sweep around the junction keeping to the left of the yellow line in the road.
Frank enters and completly cuts this corner running diagonally and saving himself maybe twenty metres. Not only that there are five marshalls stood right there. Four behind where he enters the course and one just after whom he runs towards and then past. How in hell didn’t that raise a flag? He obviously entered the race right under their noses.
Even if he hadn’t clearly just jumped into the race and cheated, he cut the course by missing that corner which everyone else had to navigate. Crazy.
Correction, to the right of the yellow line in the road.
As a marshal captain for many years for the Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon, I can definitively tell you that marathon marshals are by and large one-time volunteers who aren’t trained or required to enforce race rules. They would have no way to stop anyone from jumping onto the course. Besides, what evidence would they have?
I don’t mean stop him, but at least report their suspicions to the R.D. If that had been done, then there would have been less “surprise” from L.A. Marathon at Derek’s allegations.
And as for evididence. They are eye witnesses. That usually counts for something.
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With his bib not visible, a volunteer marshal might not even be aware that he is a participant.
in which case the marshal should have directed him to leave the course as a suspected bandit.
Great job, Derek. Watching the video is no fun. FM just stands there and has all the time in the world and he enters the course again in a seemingly fitting moment. This is an impudence. No record is possible with such a behavior. LAM has to disqualify him. This is owed to all athletes. I do not understand the reasoning. A disqualification is for something that has happened. One does not wait for a repetition and rewards, so to speak, the deed done.
I wondered if he used the runner in the yellow top referenced above as a marker the whole race – as people have already mentioned, the runner in question may well have noticed.
Wow, two things I noticed–how quickly the other runners are pulling away from Frank, and how he checks his watch and stutter-steps as he crosses the mat.
I get why you would send this information to the race to bolster the argument and show cheating, but I’m unclear why you would post another “article” on this. Why wouldn’t you just send this to the folks at Conqur Endurance Group? It seems like you’re just out to shame this guy.
Please don’t jump all over me for asking, this is a serious question.
And what exactly is wrong with shaming this guy? (not that he have any shame left in him)
He’s a serial cheater and he should be exposed as such. The more attention this gets, the better.
The best way to prevent things like this in the future is the potential to have a public image ruined.
The whole point of this site is to expose and discourage cheating, hard to do this is the evidence is hidden, but then you knew this already.
The evidence is from publically available sources and fully disclosed.
You are free to do the same analysis or demonstrate where Marathon Investigation has erred.
Until then your comment is hollow.
Man you are a piece of work. “Shame the guy” He goddamn should be shamed and ashamed. He has literally stolen the status and recognition due to the honest participants who train year in, year out and lined up for this marathon expecting an honest race.
I genuinely do not know what is wrong with you. If you really are a defense attorney, then your moral compass is so skewed that you should disbar yourself for the greater good of your profession.
Personally, I think that someone who systematically and meticulously plans and executes a strategy to steal (and morally, if not legally, it is stealing) the recognition and rewards due to another, should face criminal charges. There are actual physical prizes that he has “claimed” for himself here too.
Being “shamed” in this instance is the bare minimum he should expect.
I don’t know this Peter R guy. But I think I like him!
I think it’s clear that Derek doesn’t think Conqur is going to act even in the face of this new evidence and that the only reasonable response is airing the evidence to the public for us to continue to judge and shame both Frank for his blatant cheating and Conqur, the LAM, and its sponsors for their continued support of Frank’s blatant cheating. I ran LAM for the first time this year and while in no way was slighted by Frank’s cheating, feel pretty disgusting I devoted my time, money, and training towards this sham of a marathon.
Tea asshat should be shamed!!!
Frank did this to himself!
Your question is answered by the NON-action of the LA Marathon officials. They have formally declined to do anything about this situation despite the overwhelming evidence of cheating. This person has no business ever competing in a race again and if the organizers won’t do anything about it , then the running community should do everything they can to see that he never shows his cheating face again.
One good reason for Derek to run a third (actually maybe fourth) story on this man is that LAM is not doing anything. That video is proof, not as circumstantial as the previous articles that: 1) he clearly violated LAM’s course-cutting rule, 2) he is waiting too long on the side of the road to run a record-setting race, 3) he is shuffling along slowly and losing ground to other runners, making record-setting pace impossible. He would have to run impossible 4-minute miles in other parts of the race to waste as much time as he does on camera! This article proves his time is impossible, even though we already believed that before. Video proof is better. Thank you, Derek.
….and 4) that LAM didn’t use Derek’s original information and then do their own review of all their photos and cameras. There is probably a lot more data available to LAM that Derek hasn’t seen or had a chance to review.
Plus, you gotta wonder whether LAM contacted Frank for his side of the story before deciding they weren’t going to do anything. Perhaps Frank threatened them with legal action too.
Thank you for your good work and your persistence. I really appreciate it, and I am sure most of the larger running community appreciates it.
LA Marathon’s response, quite FRANK-ly, is disgusting. It speaks of a “we don’t care because we don’t want to deal with it” mentality. Remind me not to do any races put on by the race management company.
Why even say “This is a great opportunity for him to confirm his past performances and end the conversation.”? So next year, with an official pacer, he goes out and runs 4 hours Then are you going to disqualify him for 2019? No. You (as the race management co) and him are going to chalk it up to him having a bad day.
He’s been proven, from 2 different races on this site, to not having run the whole race. What more evidence do you need? It’s almost as if they want to be known as a race where records are set rather than a race with integrity.
The problem is, we all know he cannot run this fast. So he will never be able to “confirm” any of these times and they show no signs of ever disqualifying him. The fake records will be mentioned in the same breath with real, hard-fought races by Ed, Gene and others.
They got his race entry fees, the deal is done.
As a competitive runner(~2:30) this type of response from LA marathon took me by complete surprise. You have a mountain of evidence, that proves without a doubt that this guy is a cheater, yet the do nothing. This especially hits me hard as I planned to run the LA marathon next year and now I am seriously considering not going. If they are so nonchalant about hard evidence on a high profile age group world record setting entrant, how can I be absolutely sure the integrity in my age group will stand?
I train 90+ miles a week put thousand of hours a year into my training, and to have doubts about one of the biggest marathons in the US just hit me like a ton of bricks.
I am a bigger runner,(180lbs) former power lifter that found his love of endurance sports. I am not sure I could hold back my anger at someone cheating like this and beating me in an age group win. He is lucky he is not in my age range as I feel I would seriously injure someone like this and find myself in jail. This irks me beyond belief.
Just donated btw. This is the best “gotcha” I’ve ever seen as caught-red-handed race cheating and I’m happy to chip in towards the cost of the photos needed to do it.
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Thank You!
Do you think the guy in the black shirt asked FM why he passed him for the third time?
So he was kicking from a – b, taking a break, kicking from b – c, taking a break …. No. His fatigue is visible.
He’s hitting the buttons on his watch in the vid, as well.
LAM should disqualify this runner if he refuses to provide the data he clearly collected.
I won’t be running the LA Marathon any time soon if this is how they approach ethical issues. We work way too hard to have cheaters get a pass. HE HAS CHEATED ALL OF US. Thank you Derek.
Donating $50. This is not just some age group runner trying to impress his friends. He is trying to take a world record from a great man who is no longer with us. I had the privilege of running alongside Ed Whitlock when he ran his 2:54:48 (until he dropped me) and many other races. He was so humble and hard working. This cannot stand!
Thank You!
Not lost to me in this video is the fact that Frank swings to his left as he approaches the timing mat, forcing the wheelchair runner blowing past him to swerve out of the way. The running crowd might be sparse on this part of the course, but that’s still dangerous and reckless to do.
I noticed that, too, but I don’t think the video demonstrates that he did so intentionally.
Should the LA Marathon’s USATF certification or its status as a Boston qualifying race be at risk here?
Talk about a smoking gun. Great job!
That “best for all” reply is mind-numbingly stupid. Thanks for pointing out a couple of people who might disagree with that.
How they can be so cavalier towards this is astounding. This guy is claiming to have run the marathon faster than any other 70 year old or older person in history. I would never run LAM and will encourage others who want fair sport to do as well.
I am not surprised by LA Marathon’s response. The race is a money grab with no integrity in the results because the who runs the race. The LAM is ran by the Conquer Endurance Group, which is owned by Frank McCourt, the former owner of the LA Dodgers who almost bankrupt the team.
The race organizers want to avoid any sort of conflict to ensure that participants return year after year, so they are the mentality of Rock n Roll races. LA Marathon bibs are sold frequently on websites because everyone knows the race organizers do not enforce any rules.
They would rather remove someone from AG standing but still give them a finishing time rather than DQ them. In the Pasadena Half 2019 (part of the Conquer LA Challenge: Santa Monica 5/10K, Pasadena Half, LA Marathon), finish line photo evidence showed a guy placing in a female AG, but rather than DQing the female entrant, they removed her result from the AG standing but gave her a finishing time, so that she could earn her Conquer LA Challenge when she completed LA.
Given that he is likely coming out around the same sets of runners each time, I wonder if any of them would comment on what they saw.
Great work, but what you fail to take into account is Frank’s relationship with those interests that enforce the rules. Frank has his hands in several high profile medical seminars and most likely knows exactly who he’s dealing with. The fact that the LA Marathon has decided to take no action will be Frank’s ticket to silence the nay sayers. He will always be able to say, if there was anything to it, I would’ve been disqualified. Instead, it’s just some people jealous of my success. It happens in all walks of life….. and then everyone moves on because not everyone is a runner.
boom goes the dynamite
it’s really impressive that he set a “World Record” if he stopped during the race to pee!!!
And stand on a street corner checking his watch. And stand and stretch before the 10k mat off to the side.
The comment about him using the yellow top as a marker caught my attention. He was clearly waiting on something to cue him to re-enter the course. And he apparently finished not far behind the yellow top… If he came out behind the same guy every time he re-entered the course, you have to wonder if something had been pre-arranged. It takes some precision cheating to break a record by one minute. Just musing, without much information, but i would be very interested in seeing how often he hit a timing mat right behind the same guy.
In the video that I pieced together, he obviously was waiting for the runner before jumping in. I figured he wanted to come in right behind to try not to be as conspicuous. They were very close with some splits, spread out a bit before the end of the race.
I glanced at other races. Didn’t see a common history that would indicate any previous partnership or arrangement.
But how did he know that guy would not slow down in the late miles of the race? It would be a pretty big gamble to time that off someone you didn’t know.
He has his two watch system as well but I guess he thought it would look more plausible in photos if he was seen on yellow’s shoulder the whole time – obviously if yellow drops behind Frank’s splits on his watch he “overtakes” but if yellow comes into sight when his re-entry is due, he steps in behind him.
But you failed to consider: NO DOUBLE LETTERS!!¡!
Completely innocent.
His real name is Mezza
I think I can safely guarantee that Frank will retire before he runs another Marathon under 4 hours. He will be watched wherever he goes.
If LA Marathon wants to have an official observer, maybe a bunch of us could put up the money to cover his registration and tell him it’s his free chance to prove he can run these times. Then when he says “no” it’ll be even clearer that he’s a cheater (or maybe he’ll take us up on it and we can watch him crash and burn).
Who keeps the books on who owns the world record? Can they be swayed not to accept this result from the LA Marathon?
I think it is ARRS
LA is a point-to-point course, and therefore not USATF Record Eligible.
No need to petition them. The LA Marathon (and Phoenix Marathon) are point to point courses that are not record eligible.
You da man!
FWIW, I went through some of Frank’s older photos, and it looks like in a couple of races, he was carrying the D-ring timing chip on a lanyard, either in his hands, or around his neck or ankle. The instructions on those said to secure them to the shoe, if I recall right. There’s even a photo from a San Diego race with Frank dangling the lanyard and what looks to be the D-ring over the final timing mat. I can’t post photos here, but I posted them on the Facebook page. Maybe someone can explain why a runner would legitimately carry the D-ring timing chip on a lanyard like that. A friend of mine suggested a mid-race change of shoes as happens in ultras, but in a road marathon, I’d be skeptical of that idea. Any other thoughts?
I’m trying to keep an open mind here. I have no real skin in this particular game.
I agree that the video is highly suspicious. I am not sure that it is conclusive. What I see is Frank entering the course from a bus stop. There is nothing in the video to suggest that he arrived from elsewhere. Suspicious? Yes, highly. Conclusive? I don’t think so. I think the LAM made the call that they had to make, all things considered, and I don’t envy them their having to make a call at all.
Out of curiosity, is there any evidence of Frank exiting the course? For me, that would be a major smoking gun.
A couple points. Frank himself said that he left the course one time “for a few seconds”. He was hell bent at not wasting a few minutes so he said he peed on a building. The two videos both show that he was off course for much longer. In the first video he was not seen prior to the location where he entered – I went back over 6 minutes. If he was off course more than a couple minutes, then his paces become impossible.
So, you think its possible he stood on a street corner for almost a minute and still managed to break 3 hours? Plus a break or two to relieve himself? Boy, imagine how fast he would have run otherwise!
/s
Hmm, every cheat thread on Letsrun seems to have some people who always want that bit more evidence to be convinced or failing that want a detailed itinerary of how the person travelled between the mats. I suspect that there is no level of evidence that would satisfy these people and they are pretending to “have no skin in the game”. Ask yourself how a man who displays no real running ability manages 18:30 5K splits in a marathon and miraculously appears on the course with no evidence that they got to this point legitimately.
Don’t be naive.
“RPLong June 3, 2019 at 4:09 pm
Out of curiosity, is there any evidence of Frank exiting the course? For me, that would be a major smoking gun.”.
He entered the course twice at two different locations. How would evidence of him leaving the course show anything? If he entered the course twice in addition to starting the race then he obviously left it twice beforehand.
And he has twice entered the course from locations from which he did not leave it. That in itself is a clear violation of L.A.M’s rules, which they say WILL result in a disqualification. Even if he did not cut the course, which he clearly did, he would still be disqualified according to rules which he broke on two seperate occasions.
Also, even though the course isn’t record eligible, it is still a course record for his age group and something the poor mugs who come after him will have to falsely contend with.
Again, this D Bag (Meza) is a KNOWN CHEAT in the SoCal area for years. He’s been caught cheating at so many local triathlons, it’s insane.
It seems to me it would be difficult to pull this kind of cheating off at a triathlon. How do you skip ahead in the swim? Shortcuts on the bike may not be so hard I guess, but probably harder to go unnoticed I’d think. This marathon cheating is probably a cinch for him after pulling triathlon cheats.
I think you need to pose this one at a Triathlon forum such as Slowtwitch and they will probably explain a dozen ways of cheating at the swim – one of the mistakes people make time and again is to say “I don’t see how X is possible therefore Y didn’t cheat”.
I have only done one Triathlon and it was obvious to me that nobody monitored whether the correct course was swum.
Often the swim course will consist of multiple loops. One way to cheat is to swim one loop less than the required number of loops.
I’m sure it’s doable, but to do it in a calculated way so that your splits are consistent the way he did for the marathon would take a lot of planning. This guy has used his planning and time management skills in amazing ways!
Just left a donation, keep up the good work. I was almost robbed of a 1st place in a local Oly Triathlon by a cheater and I also saw a woman cut half the run in a 140.6 tri and get 1st in her AG. In both cases the RD’s attitude was basically “oh well, you can’t prove anything.” Frustrating. Keep up the good fight!
Derek, you may want to check with the USATF
Interesting: The USATF doesn’t recognize any of Frank’s “achievements” (The IAAF doesn’t keep masters records). http://www.usatf.org/statistics/records/byEvent.asp?division=american&location=road&age=masters&distance=42.195&distanceUnits=km&distanceType=run.
USATF
70-74 2:55:22 Gene Dykes
(70) Toronto, CAN 2018-Oct-21
70-74 2:54:23 (pending) Gene Dykes
(70) Jacksonville, FL 2018-Dec-16
The gentleman who updated ARRS recently passed away.
Frank would have ran the fastest marathon ever by a 70 year old but it would not have been verified as an official national record by USATF. LAM is not a record eligible course just like Boston because of its point to point nature in addition to its significant elevation drop.
thanks. I actually think there’s more to the USATF not acknowledging Frank’s race (races). Was the 2016 Olympic Trials raced on the current LA Marathon course? If it was, Meb’s 2:12 was an acknowledged USATF record for 40-44 year olds.
The other issue more telling is that the USATF keeps track of the top “Age Graded” times (All Time and Per Year) on ANY course including Boston, LA or any point to point course: Frank isn’t listed anywhere.
There’s something to USATF not recognizing Frank. Maybe it’s an open secret now publicly exposed by Derek that Frank Meza is an habitual cheater.
just checked: The 2016 Olympic marathon trials course wasn’t the same as the current LA marathon course. Nevertheless, not listing his AG times is telling.
@Brookly123 Good info, a case in point, Gene is prominently there http://www.usatf.org/statistics/records/view.asp?division=american&location=road&age=masters&ageGroup=70-74&sport=LDR
this will make you sick:
https://www.runnersworld.com/advanced/a20848209/2014-masters-long-distance-runners-of-the-year/
A perfect chance to contact Runner’s World with a correction
agreed. I clicked on the authors and that was the last year they ran that feature (and wrote anything for Runner’s World).
LA Marathon organizers don’t care what happens in a race. It’s been obvious for many years. Many elite runners do not run this race because in the past some of the first-third place finishers we’re never paid by Frank McCourt. The word got out to the other elites and now LA Marathon is known as the sham marathon by the elites. Just look at the elite runners from the past and see the no names of runners who are unknown. LA will never be classified as a true world class marathon like Boston, or NY, or London. They are the joke of the running elite. Until they change their ways it will be just another big city marathon that the average Joe runner participates in. LA will get exactly what they deserve, a bad reputation and fewer and fewer real elite runners.
Unreal. I didn’t know that. Frankly, I never seriously considered running LA for various reasons (I’m a competitive marathoner) but the allure of LA was its weather and a seemingly easy course. This all but confirms I will never do it (unless of course they redeem themselves with appropriate action on Meza). Also, one may want to take a look at BQ qualifiers, as well since it Seems like this is a remarkably easy course to cut and cheat in/on. In addition, looking at the course videos it seems like the city doesn’t care either for the race by the looks of the sparse crowds.
LAM is not an easy course. Most of the drop is in the 0.5 mile then you get rolling hills through mile 7. The course showcases all the touristy areas of LA. The crowd support is not as great as Chicago, NY, or Boston, but it is the best available on the West Coast. Most major city marathons on the west coast have a full and half, so the race gets most of its entries for the half. Because of the participation, the half course gets a lot of crowd support but where the full breaks from the half, it is pretty sparse. LAM crowd is more spread out because there is no half, but the support is mostly the running community and not the city itself. Unlike the 3 other big cities, the non-runners don’t care and want their streets opened up ASAP. The race is such a low priority in the city that it has to change its dates based on the city’s calendar. 2018-2020 dates: 3/18/18, 3/24/19 (no way city is shutting streets down on St. Patty’s Day because they made the mistake of shutting down the streets on 2/14/16 when the move LAM up to February for the Olympic trials), 3/8/20 (Daylight savings, lose an hour of sleep).
thanks for the clarification: my apologies re: characterizing the LA course as “easy”. That’s disrespectful to anybody that has run it and to the LA running clubs/community that support the race. Though, I hope the organizers rethink their initial response. For that reason alone, I can’t ever imagine running it.
Good job Derek, you earned my second donation to your site.
Thanks!
I agree that LA is not an easy course. The second half is much more difficult than the first half. Over the course of the last 18 years I’ve run LA about 12-13 times. It’s local for me and the course has changed about 4 times during that time period. I still think it’s overrated. You have to run through crappy areas downtown where literally there are numerous homeless people sleeping in tents or cardboard boxes along portions of the first 4-5 miles. It’s better now than it was before when they ran you through Nickerson Gardens (projects) and east LA (gangland). It will be very interesting to see if Frank signs up for LA 2020 but before that race is Long Beach on 10-13-19 and Santa Clarita in early November. I will be running both of those as well but I will not be able to keep an eye on Mr Cheater as I cannot run nearly as fast as he reports to have done many times. Maybe I will check the registered runners for these races and if he is signed up I could notify the race organizers of his past. Maybe they will assign a pacer to him or a bicyclist. It’s worth a shot.
The key is definitely the runner in yellow 40874, Andy Molnar, and not because Frank lost 9 seconds to him over 32 seconds. It is the fact that at the 20k split Andy was 31 seconds IN FRONT of Frank. Watching the video evidence you have supplied, Frank has not only made up that time, past Andy and has waited at least another 30 seconds for Andy to run past again. No doubt, he knew who he was behind at the 20k split, waited, and then jumped out behind him so that it would not look too obvious. By the way, Andy was running about 4 minute k’s.
also, you have to read a lot of the posts on Letsrun.com. In addition to Derek, people are doing their own sleuthing. It’s extraordinary. It’s not just that he’s been caught pee in hand/dead to rights in LA but it may come out that Frank has never run a legitimate road (or Triathlon) race.
https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=9307635&page=86
And donation just made to this site:
From the letsrun thread–another part of the course where FM appears to be stretching, shortly before he appears on camera running.
https://imgur.com/BKstkhd
The guy 8 seconds ahead in a short sleeve top and short shorts, frank is bundled up in a hat, long sleeve shirt and shirt on top and managed to cross the finish line in a light blue shirt with not one area of sweat. But I’m sure he will claim to suffer frim anhydrosis……. Nice job here
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