70-year-old marathon runner accused of cheating found dead

[Conor Dary]

A sad story....but what an oddball....started running marathons at 60 and apparently started cutting courses right from the start or not long after.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sport...=.cac5ffa8b0eb

[TN1965]

Maybe I should post this one the "clueless" thread. But the previous WR was not 4:10 as the article claims. That's probably the second place time at the LA marathon.

https://sports.yahoo.com/man-accused...140436726.html

[26mi235]

Some 70-year olds have run 2:54 (at 74) and a bit faster recently at age 70.

[Master403]

About 35 years ago, we had a local age-group runner that was cheating by traveling to big city marathons and slipping into the races late to win his division with national class times.

Before the age of transponders we set up teams of monitors to catch him in the act, and, on about our third effort caught him redhanded.

We had prevously caught a different runner doing the same thing, and, in that case had publicly exposed him as a cheat.

In this second case, our association president interviewed him and told him that if he ever planned to do another marathon, he was to inform us ahead of time so we could confirm his result. We did not file a grievance, or hold a formal hearing, but got the desired result in that he never ran another race.

The decision by our local chairman, endorsed by the rest of our team, was based on an observation in the interview that the guy had so much of his ego invested in these fictional accomplishments, that exposure as a fraud to his family, friends, and coworkers, might make him suicidal.

I have felt ever since that we did the right thing, and have been troubled by the investigative teams that expose the frauds, with no consideration of the effects on the cheaters. Unfortunately, the latest case suggests that psychological issues should be considered.

Oh, and as far as our cheater we gently eased out of the sport: About two years after his racing retirement, we read a long article in the local paper about his climbing Mt Everest and got a good chuckle.

[Master Po]

Frank Meza's being 'outed' as a marathon cheater began with this (quickly huge) thread on LetsRun:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_r...thread=9307635


And ended, for the most part, with this post-death thread:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_r...thread=9476420

[El Toro]

Frank Meza's being 'outed' as a marathon cheater began with this (quickly huge) thread on LetsRun:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_r...thread=9307635


And ended, for the most part, with this post-death thread:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_r...thread=9476420

Never heard of they guy before but it seems he was a hard core, well planned, long term cheater who refused every opportunity to come clean or just to disappear and stop bullshitting everybody.

If he killed himself because of being exposed, well, that's only on him.

And, as for malmo faking the high moral ground and whining about cyber bullying, well, I piss myself laughing.....

[polevaultpower]

Had an interesting discussion about this on Twitter yesterday. I had no idea the pro-cheating crowd was so strong in road racing.

But to back up a bit, earlier this year, we had suicides in figure skating and equestrian by individuals whom the Center for SafeSport had taken action against regarding allegations of sexual misconduct.

In one case, multiple victims, who were underage at the time, had come forward, and the Center felt the evidence initially presented was strong enough to warrant an interim suspension while the entire process played out.

In the other case, an entire SafeSport investigation had played out, and the final verdict rendered (pending appeal) and after his ban was made public, more victims came forward.

In both cases, there has been a very vocal crowd who feels that SafeSport murdered these guys. Basically they feel that unless actions are able to be prosecuted criminally, then there should never be anything done. In both cases, statutes of limitations made criminal prosecution impossible.

Circling back to road race cheaters...

I absolutely do not support people who take these issues too far. I think it is fair game to discuss the actions of a person who intentionally cheats to gain something in life. I don't think it is fair game to take it outside the scope of those actions.

A lot of the criticism revolves around the marathoninvestigation website. I did not follow this case closely, but I have seen a few of their cases over the years.

One person on Twitter was upset that they published the name, age, city, and photos of people... but these are all things from the race website. They are not out stalking people, they are publishing public race photos that are relevant to the discussion of whether or not someone cheated.

And it seems like in a lot of these cases, people are serial offenders.

I think public discussion has value. Knowing how someone cheated helps race directors figure out what measures they need to take to make it harder to cheat.

Fear of having your actions exposed, and that being embarrassing, is a fairly strong deterrent for people. Having a sporting culture that turns a blind eye to cheating, is a bad thing, IMO.

IMO, how much attention a cheater is given should be influenced by the following...
- Was the cheating intentional?
- How did they react when asked about the cheating?
- Have they cheated in other races?
- Are they using the results to leverage other things in life?
- Did their results deprive others of medals/prize money/records?

[Conor Dary]

The classic serial cheater was Kip Litton....not only cutting courses but making up an entire race he won!

The debunkers zeroed in on the West Wyoming Marathon, the one race that Litton had supposedly won outright. One of them came across a Web cache of the race’s defunct home page, which included this caveat: “With a low entry fee, there will be no goodie bags, no shirts, no photographer and no finishers medals.”

On January 11, 2011, a poster called Liptodakip wrote, “Still curious about the west Wyoming marathon. 29 runners total. And he won it. Anyone know anything about it? Is it a real race? The main page is down and now the results are gone. (was up last week). did he make up an entire race? That would be bold!”

Yes, it would. And, yes, he did. LetsRun exploded: West Wyoming was Litton’s pièce de résistance, and even his most indignant accusers had to concede their perverse admiration. In this race, the key to winning was ingeniously uncomplicated: Make the whole thing up! For his fabricated marathon, Litton had assembled not only a Web site but also a list of finishers and their times (plus name, age, gender, and home town), and created a phantom race director, who responded to e-mail queries. It occurred to Kyle Strode that six months earlier, when he had raised questions about Litton to “Richard Rodriguez,” the reply (“Wow, that’s quite a scenario!”) had omitted a crucial detail. When Richard Rodriguez looked in the mirror, Litton looked back.

In concocting the fantasy, someone had gone so far as to create a post-race testimonial for the Web site Marathon Guide. “Small race, with only a couple dozen runners,” a post there said. “Bring your own gels; only water is available on course. Out-and-back route. No spectators to speak of. Sounds like a downer, but the view and the town are so worth it! Cross Wyoming off of your list and visit one of the most beautiful towns in the US at the same time.”

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...6/marathon-man

[Conor Dary]

Pretty delusional fellow....cuts the course dramatically to record incredible times starting back in 2014 and keeps doing it....

Why he was allowed to enter the LA Marathon this year is another question....

[El Toro]

Had an interesting discussion about this on Twitter yesterday. I had no idea the pro-cheating crowd was so strong in road racing. [SNIP][

Yep, and so many Letsrun "cayboard cowards" backing down as fast as their weak, malnourished, genetically inferior slow twitch fibres and pathetically feeble intellects allowed in order to avoid any responsibility in the matter.

More importantly, I have to say your post is probably the most elegantly written texts I've read on these boards in at least 10 years, maybe ever.

I swoon at your feet in admiration.

[Guest]

There's a pro-cheating crowd in road racing? How bizarre. This world gets weirder all the time. Kinda low end Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, .......Judge Judy....

Is this like a proliferation of peculiar pathologies? Only in America.

[TN1965]

Frank Meza's being 'outed' as a marathon cheater began with this (quickly huge) thread on LetsRun:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_r...thread=9307635


And ended, for the most part, with this post-death thread:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_r...thread=9476420

I don't think it ended with that second thread.

See this thread for example.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_r...thread=9476549

Or this one.

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_r...thread=9477976

[polevaultpower]

There's a pro-cheating crowd in road racing? How bizarre. This world gets weirder all the time. Kinda low end Dr. Phil, Jerry Springer, .......Judge Judy....

Is this like a proliferation of peculiar pathologies? Only in America.

They feel that these issues should be quietly reported to the race director, and that it is inappropriate to ever have a public discussion naming cheaters.

I mean yes, if the person cheating may have done it accidentally, or it is someone super random who finished mid pack in the race, that sounds appropriate.

But people who cheat in order to place high in a division, or break records, or qualify for bigger races, or are instagram influencers using their times to convince people of something, or otherwise using their ill-gotten results to leverage things in life... that is worthy of a public discussion.

The pro-cheating people told me it is a victimless crime and that reporting of facts is bullying.

Ironically, by their own standards, they could now be considered to be bullying Derek from marathoninestigation, but OK.

[Conor Dary]

The marathon is a pretty idiotic thing for most people to do....it's not terribly healthy compared to a much lower level of exercise....it's like being a tourist on Everest....

I'd still like to know why the LA Marathon even let this guy into the race....knowing his reputation...were they just setting him up?

[polevaultpower]

The marathon is a pretty idiotic thing for most people to do....it's not terribly healthy compared to a much lower level of exercise....it's like being a tourist on Everest....

I'd still like to know why the LA Marathon even let this guy into the race....knowing his reputation...were they just setting him up?

I think before this race he only had one DQ under his belt. He had some suspicious results, but not many had paid attention. It sounds like marathoninvestigation didn't feel the evidence was strong enough to write about him until his 2019 results.

Once dozens of people started poring through photos of all his old races, more suspicious things came to light.

He was remarkably good at hitting the timing mats at the right time in his recent races.