Last week, I first reported on Jason Easter (The Wish Runner) and his attempt to break the Guinness World Record for most Ironman 70.3 races completed in one year.
It would appear that his effort to break the record is over. Amid questions relating to the legitimacy of his race in Palm Springs and concerns over the transparency of his fundraising, he has removed his website. He has also taken down social media sites related to The Wish Runner project.
Fundraising Questions
After each of the two articles were published, Jason defiantly posted on the Marathoninvestigation.com Facebook page. Each time he eventually deleted his posts. I screen captured most of his comments before the deletions.
On March 3rd, he posted this:
“The part you are confused about is the 10%…There is also a link to donate to the project for travel, race entry, fees, etc…10% of THOSE donations go to Make A Wish and another 5% goes to CTF.”
In his email to me on the same day:
“The only thing that would ever be different than a direct contribution to them is a contribution to the project. 10% of those contributions go to Make A Wish and 5% goes to CTF.”
The issue with this is that NOWHERE on the site did he disclose the breakdown. The main point of the follow up article was to make clear the breakdown as Jason explained it. Jason replied after the 2nd article. Here was his .
He directly contradicts his email and prior Facebook posts about the breakdown. I would be curious to hear from anyone that feels I misinterpreted his explanation of the fundraising.
As much as I may personally have an issue with 85% of contributions to The Wish Runner Project going to fund his travel and race expenses, had he disclosed this breakdown, it wouldn’t be nearly as questionable.
In my opinion, it is very telling that he removed his website and social media accounts. Had he really felt that he was being truly transparent in his fundraising, he would have willingly disclosed the breakdown of contributions.
It would seem that with the hit to his fundraising, that it would be difficult for him to continue much longer with his quest to break the record.
Part 3: The Wish Runner’s Attempt Appears To Be Over
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Derek, There are much bigger scams out there in marathons, ultra marathon, and Iron man. This one is important, and will save some folk money and time. It may also help stop copy,cat attempts.
With social media, it can be easy to admit small failures, but it can also be impossibly difficult to admit anything. On this site, I have seen people quickly apologize, and fade into the background. Others hang on to their pride, despite overwhelming evidence, and they usually end up like this guy.
Please continue to give offenders an opportunity to come clean. Afterwards, nobody can argue they were not treated with compassion and fairness.
If I were him, I would be feverishly trying to return every cent collected. What he did could easily be construed as fraud… and probably should be delved into.
I wonder if Jason Easter is just tragically bad at communicating clearly in writing – both reading and writing. It seems that if he was deliberately trying to deceive people, he could have come up with a better scheme.
A more profitable scheme than taking 85% of a 600k target would likely be illegal. It seems that not disclosing that right away is deceptive greed and not poor communication skills.
I guess that costs for a year of running would be far less than 100k, leaving over 400k profit. Nice
I don’t care about the fundraising breakdown. That’s standard for these stunts. Everybody knows the runner is doing it to get someone to pay for their adventure. If you want to support Make A Wish, you give to Make A Wish. If you want to help the guy turn his hobby into a paying gig, you give to his foundation or charity or whatever. This is not news.
Had he been up-front about where the money was going – and made it clear on his website, I would tend to agree. If people knowingly give to support his racing, that’s on them.
Wrong. Many people have no idea these “charity” runs are a ruse.
This article caught my attention due to the fact that the Children’s Tumor Foundation was mentioned as one of Jason’s charities. I run for the Children’s Tumor Foundation and having been running for them for 10 years now. (I have Neurofibromatosis) Their NF Endurance program is great, you can join one of their events or if one is not listed you can ‘Do it yourself’ event. They have great tools for fundraising ideas from social media to brochures. Their staff is fantastic in answering any questions you might have and checking on how your training is going. Great insentives from shirts to jackets and more. Just hate to see CTF get a bad rap.
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