Last week, I posted an article on Lean.Strong.Fast Founder Marlon Bascombe. It was the most commented on article I’ve written to date. Emotions got high, and it became impossible for anyone to rationally debate the actual facts.
As a result, I am going to summarize the data presented in the initial article. I will remove any comments not directly addressing the facts below, whether you support Marlon or not.
New Jersey Marathon Splits
- How to explain the missing splits? Marlon is the only one that I could find that missed 2 consecutive splits.
- How to explain the uneven splits. 6:23 min/mi for 18.6 miles? This is faster than any of Marlon’s runs for any recorded distance that can be verified.
Data that Marlon Provided as Evidence That He is Capable of 6:23/Mile
- The data appears to have been manually manipulated. It indicates that the last 1.1 mile was run in 3:29.
New Jersey marathon Photos
- http://www.marathonfoto.com/Proofs?PIN=85T030&lastName=BASCOMBE
- The only locations that Marlon appears in are near the end of the race.
NYCRUNS 2015 BRRR-OOKLYN 1/2 Marathon
- I am not going to re-post in detail. You can refer to the original article. The key point is explaining the 5:50 min/mi pace for the final 3.6 miles (in slushy conditions)
Marlon’s Age Progression
| Joe Kleinerman 10K | December 7, 2008 | Bascombe, Marlon | M28 | Brooklyn, NY |
| Front Runners New York Lesbian and Ga… | June 27, 2009 | Bascombe, Marlon | M35 | Brooklyn, NY |
| Poland Spring Marathon Kick-Off | October 27, 2013 | Bascombe, Marlon | M39 | Brooklyn, NY |
| Fred Lebow Manhattan Half | January 26, 2014 | Bascombe, Marlon | M33 | Brooklyn, NY |
- If his age of his Boston entries are correct, then the age for his most current races are accurate.
- This is a weird anomaly to explain. I don’t show that Marlon ever was in the running for age group awards. I would welcome an explanation. Also, I did match photos and confirmed where available that these runners were the same person with the different birth dates.
One Last Note…
Marlon has issued no further comment and calls the evidence “speculative and circumstantial”. Obviously Marlon is under no obligation to respond to my posts – but I will once again offer to publish any statement he wishes to make regarding the data presented above.
There is no way to explain it. If he released the Nike + info then why can't he release the marathon gps data or the data when he ran the solo marathon run. I bet he will never release any more info and this case is at a dead end unless RDs do something about it.
Why should he release anything? BAA or NJ are not accusing or charging him with any violation. The only person making accusations is a website which gets a hit everytime someone looks at their page. I'm not knocking the writer's "hustle" but he is not related to either organization so if it was me I would do just as Mr. Bascombe has done and ignore it.
I hope that in the end the truth is revealed and if Marlon cheated, rightfully so get disqualified and if he didn't cheat an apogoly given.
Actually 10:31 PM, ALOT of people in the run community are asking questions about his times and giving him the side-eye. A coach with ONE BQ race who otherwise runs 2+ hour half marathons??? Come on, don't be some damn delusional. The data is very clear, not only this website but on every single race that he has run, which is public information. The data are facts, not accusations. And it matters because he makes money off of this from his clients and from sponsors. Marlon is the real hustler here, making money off of suckers who actually think he is some kind of speed god.
Have you guys seen this, I was poking through pictures and found this: http://www.marathonfoto.com/Catalog/List/211883319?PIN=85T030&LastName=BASCOMBE, you can clearly see runner with bib 1870 in the picture, and check out his results: https://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-8363?lc=en
That guy's bib # is 2870.
And that guy didn't miss a mat and had a normal pace progression (actually regression).
http://2vfwbn34a4jc1a2u0w3r0sr9.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2014/11/2016-New-Jersey-Marathon-Course-Map-V2.png
Just look at the course. It's fairly easy to completely cut the out and back section. You'd think RDs would be a little more wary about missing mats on out and back and multi-loop courses.
There was even a 3:05 pacer. Marlon hit the 40k mark 1:21 behind the pacer despite having a start time 2:18 after him. The pacer hit his splits dead on at 7:02 pace and finished in 3:04:16. If someone wanted to cheat his way to a 3:05 he wouldn't even have to time it. He would just wait at the start to the out and back (this is slightly before the 40k mark on the return) for the pacer to go by. Then given the differential in their start times he could jump in a minute behind and go unnoticed. It would be hard to jump into a pace group and not draw suspicion (although at that point it looks like the pacer had dropped everyone in his group).
Yep, Marlon can have his own opinions but not his own facts.
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