This thread was originally titled, "Incredible development in the $612,000 Transcon Goodge run, currently ongoing" but the new title is more descriptive. The description of the run is here.
This sums it up perfectly for me. We now know with 100% certainty that Goodge and his crew (and sponsors?) will tell a blatant lie about braking a record they didn't break, just to get more media publicity, and thus boost their careers as influencers. This isn't a small white lie. This is a big huge lie being told to the national UK media.
Why on Earth would anybody believe that he wouldn't have cheated the run, given this fact? He now deserves to be hounded so that this lie be exposed. And full credit given to Lees for his magnificant walk.
Thanks for providing the Lees info, all. Why has no-one contacted these UK newspapers to get them to change their copy?
Also, will be interesting to see if this guy gets on Rich Roll seeing as he seems to like everything he does. Will he address the cheating?
RB has been on the Rich Roll podcast as he marketed his Transcon as "running across America on plants". An ethos that appears to have gone out the window with this event. Conveniently plant-based for the publicity/connections?
I'll be hugely disappointed if Goodge ends up on the podcast after this.
I have letters into the Times, Guardian, Runnersworld, AW, Telegraph and Mail. And between us we laid siege on the Mirror's article.
Feel free to ping any of the above a line with your concerns that an unknown Instagram influencer is claiming a prestigious British record he didn't do.
I am in touch with numerous podcasts too, and will check out Rich Roll. One streaming giant has had me on camera for an hour or two and we have Martin at Outside magazine hopefully doing a piece.
Sarcasm? That is a super lame excuse and no one is buying it. You just misread, and are now trying to gaslight us AGAIN. The only one lacking in intelligence in this situation is... well... do I really need to say it?
If you're gonna peace out, then PLEASE peace out and don't come back! Your constant flood of BS is really not compatible with your message of faith in humanity.
You try to blast me like that and think I will walk away? I. Don’t. Think. So!
So now I’m stupid for believing what I believe?
You will not shame me, nor stop me from expressing my opinion.
I went back and re-read the message and it is correct. I did misread major as majority, but my comment was still meant as sarcasm because it was so ridiculous.
And, to your dismay, I will not go away. The “peace out” was meant for you and your attitude. Keep saying nasty things and I’ll keep commenting. Sorry, not sorry!
I think this puts the lie that Recruiter is a genuinely positive person to rest.
There wasn't a 'gotcha' moment here, but the weight of evidence against Goodge & team is pretty considerable.
This is by no means and exhaustive list:
1) The low 110 BPM heartrates correlating with relatively higher effort performances (as opposed to naturally lower heart-rates which match levels of exertion) 2) The consistency and regularity of when this phenomenon occurs (namely, when unsupervised in any capacity (hence you don't see it during official events)), across 4 years and multiple bits of hardware 3) Robbie Balenger having the same irregularities, presenting in the same way, across a number of years and events predating him teaming up with Will. 4) The contrast between their performances during these challenges vs the reams of data available during official runs (i.e. organised marathons etc), training runs, and for spells of these challengers which show a normal heart rate, demonstrating that the 110bpm readings are clearly data fails (as if anymore proof was needed) 5) The contrast of their HR data, data fails (frequency and nature of them), and speeds with other athletes (usually of a far high calibre outside of these challenges) 6) The contrast of their HR data, data fails, and speeds with other Strava users 7) The inconsistencies between the (limited) WHOOP data and strava data in terms of time running 8) The inconsistencies between the (limited) WHOOP data and strava data in terms of calories burnt 9) The inconsistencies between the (limited) WHOOP data and strava data in terms of distance run 10) The apparent lack of interest / effort of their team to explain any of the above 11) The refusal to wear a 30g tracker 12) The refusal to accommodate Will C (to put it politely) 13) The requirement to make formal requests in order to run with Will G 14) The difficulty in locating Will (due to the aforementioned tracker, but also because of how the van (with the tracker) was seemingly all over the place) 15) Some weird quirks to the run itself - late night running sessions on narrow roads 16) The suggestion that on at least 1 day Will started further up the road than he'd finished the night before 18) The notable differences in physical and mental difficulty between Will and other Transcon athletes 19) The notable difference in body composition, particularly at the start of the run, between Will G and other ultra-runners, in a way that would seemingly make it harder for Will G 20) The peculiarities of the route and planning in general (hundreds of extra miles tagged on) 21) As noted by Livory (post 2219): Allowing subsequent misinformation about 'breaking a record' to be publicised in the press, knowing full well they didn't break it, showing they clearly DGAF about stepping on other runner's accomplishments.
You can offer explanations of various strengths for many of these points (and I'm definitely missing a few), but it gets to a point where even the most deluded optimist needs to ask why, given the sheer scale of the operation, these things have been allowed to occur. At best, it's gross incompetence from Will's team.
And, even then, that optimist needs to answer points 1 through 6 (which, all through this thread, has been like wringing water from a stone).
My personal theory is that we have a few men who don't want to work a 9-5, don't have many easy avenues of making good money in a traditional sense, and have an opportunity with this running / social media sponsorship relationship to clearly live a certain sort of lifestyle. They're cheating, and justifying it to themselves with the money they're raising for charity and the fact that we live in an age of grifters, why not take your slice of the pie, too? Tellingly, as mentioned in point 21, they don't care about claiming a record from another runner that they haven't actually taken, so why would they care about the rest of it?
That said, I suspect that the bulk of Will's team aren't in on it (although I'd love to know what the rest of his team are doing all day - filming a documentary?). I think there's a core group of runners who've figured out the graft. I think the rest are none the wiser, and I suspect most of us would be too were it not for Will C.
Just as I was going to get out of this realm of negativity, here you go…
So let me understand your premise: I say there are a tiny portion of runners who have done bad things compared to the vast majority who have done great things. But your belief is that the majority is cheating in some fashion or at least very suspicious.
Let’s run a little math. If the NYC marathon has 50,000 runners, your belief a majority (min of 25,001 equals majority in case you need help with math) are cheating in some way?
You are so far from wrong. Good day sir!
Seldom have I encountered such an idiotic individual so convinced they have something useful to say.
I congratulate you, , on surrounding yourself only with those that are intelligent and see things your way. It must be wonderful to hang out with your friends and probably recite poetry or Shakespeare to each other. Such a life you must live
Hi all,here's an update on another thread about the British runner William Goodge doing Transcon at the moment and some worrying irregularities.Namely that he runs at 150-170bpm in the first two days of his multidayers, colla...
And by the way, you didn’t leave because you weren’t changing anyone’s mind… you stopped replying after getting called out as what you are - a shill. Otherwise, why come back? Does it look like anyone has come around after the fraud ‘finished’ his run? Did you think that letting the thread slide for 10 pages would make people forget what happened? The nice thing about a forum is that the record is kept or a while. Everyone will be able to go back and see the absolutely terrible job you did shilling for a fake transcon.
For anyone curious - pages 99-100 is where he stopped posting.
Oh ...are you having fun changing your name in an attempt to insult me?
Hi all,here's an update on another thread about the British runner William Goodge doing Transcon at the moment and some worrying irregularities.Namely that he runs at 150-170bpm in the first two days of his multidayers, colla...
Kudos to you on pulling out an obscure word. Shill...haven't heard/read that word in a very long time. If I was, in fact, a shill why would I come back? The journey is over. My crew has completed the run. My God-like-figure of Will Goodge has conquered the world and reset the record books. My job is done. Give me a break. I am not an accomplice. I am not part of the crew. I am not a decoy.
But, one definition of a shill does ring true to me: I am a salesperson and I did try to make a pitch to all of you. I tried to pitch all of you on believing in the good in people. I tried to pitch all of you on building people up instead of tearing them down. Yes, these are lines that I have used over and over again because I firmly believe in them.
I am very glad this forum exists, and as you say, keeps a record of the event. If you take off your cracked view of the world, you might see a little glimpse into the possibility of humanity from my writings. Did I make mistakes? Of course. What I always eloquent? Of course not. Did I contradict myself from time to time. Yes, after all I am human.
But, unlike you, I did it with complete openness. I shared who I am, both as a runner and as a person. I shared my strava feed to illustrate my point. I didn't do it under the shroud of secrecy with an ever-changing anonymous profile name. But, I do applaud the creativity.
If you would ever like to have a real conversation between two real human beings, let me know.
There wasn't a 'gotcha' moment here, but the weight of evidence against Goodge & team is pretty considerable.
This is by no means and exhaustive list:
1) The low 110 BPM heartrates correlating with relatively higher effort performances (as opposed to naturally lower heart-rates which match levels of exertion) 2) The consistency and regularity of when this phenomenon occurs (namely, when unsupervised in any capacity (hence you don't see it during official events)), across 4 years and multiple bits of hardware 3) Robbie Balenger having the same irregularities, presenting in the same way, across a number of years and events predating him teaming up with Will. 4) The contrast between their performances during these challenges vs the reams of data available during official runs (i.e. organised marathons etc), training runs, and for spells of these challengers which show a normal heart rate, demonstrating that the 110bpm readings are clearly data fails (as if anymore proof was needed) 5) The contrast of their HR data, data fails (frequency and nature of them), and speeds with other athletes (usually of a far high calibre outside of these challenges) 6) The contrast of their HR data, data fails, and speeds with other Strava users 7) The inconsistencies between the (limited) WHOOP data and strava data in terms of time running 8) The inconsistencies between the (limited) WHOOP data and strava data in terms of calories burnt 9) The inconsistencies between the (limited) WHOOP data and strava data in terms of distance run 10) The apparent lack of interest / effort of their team to explain any of the above 11) The refusal to wear a 30g tracker 12) The refusal to accommodate Will C (to put it politely) 13) The requirement to make formal requests in order to run with Will G 14) The difficulty in locating Will (due to the aforementioned tracker, but also because of how the van (with the tracker) was seemingly all over the place) 15) Some weird quirks to the run itself - late night running sessions on narrow roads 16) The suggestion that on at least 1 day Will started further up the road than he'd finished the night before 18) The notable differences in physical and mental difficulty between Will and other Transcon athletes 19) The notable difference in body composition, particularly at the start of the run, between Will G and other ultra-runners, in a way that would seemingly make it harder for Will G 20) The peculiarities of the route and planning in general (hundreds of extra miles tagged on) 21) As noted by Livory (post 2219): Allowing subsequent misinformation about 'breaking a record' to be publicised in the press, knowing full well they didn't break it, showing they clearly DGAF about stepping on other runner's accomplishments.
You can offer explanations of various strengths for many of these points (and I'm definitely missing a few), but it gets to a point where even the most deluded optimist needs to ask why, given the sheer scale of the operation, these things have been allowed to occur. At best, it's gross incompetence from Will's team.
And, even then, that optimist needs to answer points 1 through 6 (which, all through this thread, has been like wringing water from a stone).
My personal theory is that we have a few men who don't want to work a 9-5, don't have many easy avenues of making good money in a traditional sense, and have an opportunity with this running / social media sponsorship relationship to clearly live a certain sort of lifestyle. They're cheating, and justifying it to themselves with the money they're raising for charity and the fact that we live in an age of grifters, why not take your slice of the pie, too? Tellingly, as mentioned in point 21, they don't care about claiming a record from another runner that they haven't actually taken, so why would they care about the rest of it?
That said, I suspect that the bulk of Will's team aren't in on it (although I'd love to know what the rest of his team are doing all day - filming a documentary?). I think there's a core group of runners who've figured out the graft. I think the rest are none the wiser, and I suspect most of us would be too were it not for Will C.
Really great post! Your list is really on point.
But I'm 99 percent sure that every single person on Will's team is in on the grift and was from the very first day. This was clearly a two-man (or more) relay with Goodge doing the first leg each day. It would be nearly impossible for them not to witness the daily swapping between Goodge and Balenger. Birds of a feather flock together, and I think these amoral scumbags were all drawn together. This was a fun and profitable prank that appealed to their base nature. I haven't watched any of their videos (can't bring myself to see a bunch of pathological juveniles preening), but apparently they come across as first class pricks.
You try to blast me like that and think I will walk away? I. Don’t. Think. So!
So now I’m stupid for believing what I believe?
You will not shame me, nor stop me from expressing my opinion.
I went back and re-read the message and it is correct. I did misread major as majority, but my comment was still meant as sarcasm because it was so ridiculous.
And, to your dismay, I will not go away. The “peace out” was meant for you and your attitude. Keep saying nasty things and I’ll keep commenting. Sorry, not sorry!
I think this puts the lie that Recruiter is a genuinely positive person to rest.
Au contraire! If anything, this further validates that I am who I am. Standing up for what I believe in and not backing down are attributes I will always be about. Calling people out for their lack of positivity will be as well. But, I am human and will have dark moments where I will lash out. Just like a rubber band, if I stretch too far away from who I am, I'll quickly pull back in and be me.
I hope you have a fantabulous day, , who ever you are!
Hi all,here's an update on another thread about the British runner William Goodge doing Transcon at the moment and some worrying irregularities.Namely that he runs at 150-170bpm in the first two days of his multidayers, colla...
Kudos to you on pulling out an obscure word. Shill...haven't heard/read that word in a very long time. If I was, in fact, a shill why would I come back? The journey is over. My crew has completed the run. My God-like-figure of Will Goodge has conquered the world and reset the record books. My job is done. Give me a break. I am not an accomplice. I am not part of the crew. I am not a decoy.
But, one definition of a shill does ring true to me: I am a salesperson and I did try to make a pitch to all of you. I tried to pitch all of you on believing in the good in people. I tried to pitch all of you on building people up instead of tearing them down. Yes, these are lines that I have used over and over again because I firmly believe in them.
I am very glad this forum exists, and as you say, keeps a record of the event. If you take off your cracked view of the world, you might see a little glimpse into the possibility of humanity from my writings. Did I make mistakes? Of course. What I always eloquent? Of course not. Did I contradict myself from time to time. Yes, after all I am human.
But, unlike you, I did it with complete openness. I shared who I am, both as a runner and as a person. I shared my strava feed to illustrate my point. I didn't do it under the shroud of secrecy with an ever-changing anonymous profile name. But, I do applaud the creativity.
If you would ever like to have a real conversation between two real human beings, let me know.
Foreman: "The evidence is overwhelming, are we all in agreement of a 'guilty' verdict?"
I have letters into the Times, Guardian, Runnersworld, AW, Telegraph and Mail. And between us we laid siege on the Mirror's article.
Feel free to ping any of the above a line with your concerns that an unknown Instagram influencer is claiming a prestigious British record he didn't do.
I am in touch with numerous podcasts too, and will check out Rich Roll. One streaming giant has had me on camera for an hour or two and we have Martin at Outside magazine hopefully doing a piece.
Foreman: "The evidence is overwhelming, are we all in agreement of a 'guilty' verdict?"
Recruiter: "I believe in the good of people"
I would have been disappointed if you didn't comment on that post, , as I know how much you have loooooovvvvvvveeeeeeedddddd how much I've used those phrases 😁.
Hi all,here's an update on another thread about the British runner William Goodge doing Transcon at the moment and some worrying irregularities.Namely that he runs at 150-170bpm in the first two days of his multidayers, colla...
I congratulate you, , on surrounding yourself only with those that are intelligent and see things your way. It must be wonderful to hang out with your friends and probably recite poetry or Shakespeare to each other. Such a life you must live
No, I just steer clear of people who are full of BS
That said, I suspect that the bulk of Will's team aren't in on it (although I'd love to know what the rest of his team are doing all day - filming a documentary?). I think there's a core group of runners who've figured out the graft. I think the rest are none the wiser, and I suspect most of us would be too were it not for Will C.
What does a crew for an event of this nature do to occupy its downtime during an event like this? It has to be so unbelievably mind-numbingly boring.
Foreman: "The evidence is overwhelming, are we all in agreement of a 'guilty' verdict?"
Recruiter: "I believe in the good of people"
I would have been disappointed if you didn't comment on that post, , as I know how much you have loooooovvvvvvveeeeeeedddddd how much I've used those phrases 😁.
Many thanks for your outstanding piece. A good bit of work went into that and all important copy as we continue in our mission to keep this sort of thing out of running.
Some people will like to say we didn't get them. But there are many ways to "get" people like this. Rosie Ruiz and Mark Vaz were never "caught", but obviously what they were claiming was so outlandish they were out of running forever... do not pass Go... do not collect £200.
These two can live in denial as much as they like, but they now know that every single run, challenge or race they do from this moment on will be carefully scrutinised, and the media are becoming ever more aware about it all. These things take time. In future runs, when they return a perfect heart rate, we'll go, "oh, funny that..." when they go back to racing dreadfully, it'll also be duly noted. And as for multiday fundraisers - well the spotlight will be turned up high.
And yes, claiming a national record that they know to be false is an outrageous lie that they can't squirm out of, and will haunt them forever. Fancy trashing the legacy and achievement of a great run by a member of Team GB if it furthers your own agenda, pleases your sponsors and keeps the money flowing in.
Their sponsors clearly pay them very well indeed for them to live such luxurious lifestyles with pretty much the best of everything money can buy. And who gets through 12 pairs of shoes in 3k miles? I've been known to make a single pair last around 1,000 - albeit that's me being fairly tight.
Goodge has announced his next mission to run across Europe... but miss out Russia. Not sure how that's even possible and it splits Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Or he can really go the awkward scenic route and dip way down into Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, but then his still has to kick up to Kazakhstan somehow, but Russia's still in the way.
Anyway, will be quite the stunt - I'd assume he'd start on the Portuguese coast like Lisbon. Distance is up to around 3,550 miles, so maybe a 62 day crossing...
Ah, just looked it up. Guinness seem to want north to south rather than west to east! That deals with the Russia problem, but much gnarlier with all that interminable Norway, and more like 4,000m.
The lad is giving us some great geography lessons at least.
Keep up the good fight everyone and I'll post interesting developments as and when, as I trust you will.
I have letters into the Times, Guardian, Runnersworld, AW, Telegraph and Mail. And between us we laid siege on the Mirror's article.
Feel free to ping any of the above a line with your concerns that an unknown Instagram influencer is claiming a prestigious British record he didn't do.
I am in touch with numerous podcasts too, and will check out Rich Roll. One streaming giant has had me on camera for an hour or two and we have Martin at Outside magazine hopefully doing a piece.
The wear he showed on the shoes on Instagram was really odd. I've run in On Clouds for up to 800 miles per pair and never seen anything like it. Almost looked like someone had taken an angle grinder to the heel to make them look worn 🤔
Will C - ive just checked my diary and im not busy for his Europe run.....whenever it is. I suspect others may not be too busy during that time either?