Another run across America underway - is it legit? Boots currently on the ground

It is inexplicable to me why you wouldn't want to go coast to coast. The cathartic dip in the ocean would surely be amazing, and the greatest, most joyous swim of one's life. I simply can't fathom why one would stop 3 or 4 miles short like that.

Lots still happening. Goodge and his supporters simply point blank refuse to release his Whoop. That is the key to the mystery. He always said all would be revealed when he released that. All we have so far is the one day - released in error in a brief commercial that we screenshotted - with 4 hours of running missing.

Please don't be shy people about asking for his Whoop.

And still no press releases about how much money went to which charity. The US account has had 70 bucks in 3 months. Absolutely no reason to hold onto the funds and not put them to work.

What do you think of his 3:08 at the Berlin marathon?

Very anodyne and defensive. He of course dresses it up as a tactical masterstroke because he ran even, but it's easy to run even at that pace. And then he told a barefaced lie on his Insta that he's a 2:50 marathoner. He's done many Big City marathons and they're between 3:03 to 3:40. His three half marathons are 88, 92 and 94. And yet he's claiming he did a solo time trial round a small London park, loaded with walkers, runners, kids, dogs, bikes, narrow gates, tight turns and a huge camber in 2:50 with a 3:42 first K. Total trash talk of the highest order.

I had three pals run at Berlin. A female friend in 2:43, an M55 in 2:40 and an M40 in 2:31. Gives some perspective. The run hoisted him to the lofty heights of 44,525 on the Run Britain Rankings. I am 18,250 with one knee, half a groin and turning 50.

It will be interesting to see what he does at the California 100 miler on the 13th; and of course if he cards a human pulse. Sounds like a tough race with a lot of climbing. How does he get round on 20 mile weeks?

It doesn't add up. Their approach to charity seems dodgy. Could be fixed with some transparency.

Hard to see how anything would happen that changes the current situation. Yes, the whoop data may show something but in the end if the money was raised for charity then it doesn't really matter.

The claiming of records is misleading in context of it raising money though. It would have contributed to the overall money raised.

How much money made it to charity?

Yes, out of the hundreds of posts by WG since the Transcon, all of them to do with splurging eye-watering amounts of cash in a jetset, playboy lifestyle that must have cost well over $100k, there has been just ONE thank you from Macmillan that was very generic, thanking him for the last four years. I have had to really dig deep with various press offices, and so far 45 out 95K has been handed over, and that got zero publicity.

Just so odd; why he doesn't post, "Our charity coffers have lightened by 45,000 today, the other 50 will be following soon..."

It matters an awful lot if the runs are being faked and there's sharp practice. Lance Armstrong and Jimmy Savile hid behind charity to mask dark goings on too. We can't wave through cheating because it's for "charidee". These influencers retire from the workplace, and become quasi pro runners of no ability, but then claim massive feats of derring do, National records, World records and about 50 companies saying, "look what our man did - and it's all thanks to our product! Buy it, and you too could be like him!"

It all completely destabilizes the paradigm of what's good, and possible, and impressive in ultra and multidaying. It p*sses all over that which is precious and honourable about the simply brutal sport of endurance running, which requires astonishing sacrifice in training, which WG refuses to make. He has averaged well under 20 mile weeks this past four years. He will say he's British Transcon record forever, when we all know he fell days short of John Lees, but that is an inconvenient truth, so he buries it.

The International who ran with for a few miles put it well: "they have all this infrastructure and money behind them, whereas I'm Team GB and I'm broke..."

And the UK edition of Transcon has been ruined for 20 years as a going record concern because of prototype Influencers putting up a daft time in 2002, which Guiness waved through because they had photos.

I think the larger narrative here is that there's a shocking amount of for profit charlatans roaming free. Social media allows them to find an audience. People smart enough to know it's a cashgrab typically steer clear. They develop a rabid fanbase and work hard to control the narrative: name calling, overly complicated jargon, deleting comments, etc.

I've observed a lot of this in the fitness world. Just think Liver King, that Carnivore MD guy who works with Liver King, or Joel Seedman. Just spewing nonstop nonsense. They promise results if and only if you pay for their forbidden knowledge or products. Maybe they offer an inspirational story that requires fact checking and a good bit of domain-specific knowledge to sniff out the BS, as is the case of WG and Co.

It doesn't stop with fitness though, I think there's an even bigger picture that I haven't quite pieced together in my head yet. I believe hustle culture plays a large part in all of this. Obviously internet literacy does as well.

Recently I was working a college career fair on behalf of my company — so many kids were trying to "hack" the fair. By "hack" I mean they were trying to say some magic words or repeatedly ask for my manager's manager's manager's email address after being told no multiple times. I know this isn't a new phenomenon at all, but I was shocked at how much of this I saw. Me and my coworkers agreed that a lot of these kids probably saw some influencer on social media that said stuff like, "Don't leave until you have a business card or get an email address."

Idk, end rant, tell me what you think, so it goes, thanks for reading, ...

Sure, he was a lot slower than John Lees. But Lees walked the Transcon. Everybody knows it is much easier to walk than run!

Many thanks. Yes, the name calling is ferocious and pretty unreal, often dealing in homophobia, sodomy, necrophilia and faeces. It is completely unlike what you get in normal business conflicts where people try to argue rationally, cordially and explain what has happened. Our last parlay was simply WG refusing to release his Whoop but asking did I once soil myself in a race. I said I didn't understand the reference and what about his Whoop, and he just replied, "something else you don't understand." He's technically supposed to be a runner, but dismisses the running community as "losers".

Yes, these products are incredibly expensive, and they need very aggressive marketing and frontmen. The Transcon stunt was a huge Hollywood blockbuster in terms of marketing and they absolutely KNEW they'd be fine; hence painting the side of the van about being the fastest Englishmen of all time [over and above a world class athlete, at the top of his game, having a fantastic performance].

The likes of NuCalm, Puresport & 247 will have been absolutely delighted with the coverage and his superhuman ability to recover, never get tired, run a 5 day negative split, run 9 miles in 87 minutes at the end of a tough day, deep into the challenge etc etc. all off a heartrate off 110. It's all great for them.

And this blurb by NuCalm is one of the stupidest paragraphs in the history of the English language, but as you say, the deluded fanboys lap it up:

Hold your bet! Robbie just accomplished another amazing feat in his journey to test human limits. The Tesla Model 3 battery charge lasted 242 miles. But Robbie’s battery did not run out. Following prescribed race rules – running 77 straight hours except for NuCalmÒ breaks totaling four hours and 47 minutes — he passed the Tesla’s end point, accomplishing this incredible feat of strength, endurance, perseverance –and perhaps a touch of insanity. He not only bested the 430 horsepower Tesla, but also beat the Texas heat, 80%+ humidity, over 13,900 cumulative elevation gain through the rolling hills, fluctuating weather, rattlesnakes and other wildlife.

It perfectly sums up the nonsense we're dealing with. His performance was pretty dreadful and also had huge data irregularities that are very hard to explain. But even without those, it's rum to only manage 242 in 77. That's 3.1mph...

So yes, all part of a wider societal problem, but running is the big loser here, and certainly the dedicated exponents who sacrifice so much.

Thanks a lot for writing.

I've enjoyed reading up on the Liver King, as the comparisons with this case are so similar, that of hocking your followers products so they can be just like you. The LK has of course now come clean that due to vanity, his buff physique is nothing to do with the products and instead due to taking a load of steroids. He is now being sued for £25m for false advertising.

The potential charges of false advertising against WG and RB are mounting up. In the Transcon for instance, every time someone would comment: "how do you recover so well?" NuCalm would then step in with a big hello, raised hands or a wave.

This all could come crumbling down quite swiftly if these guys don't watch it, and if Goodge continues to refuse to release his Whoop. Non runners feel that they too can perform at Galactic physical levels, like RB outracing a car, or WG pinging 48 marathons in 30 off a pulse often at just 100, or doing the 2nd half in Transcon in the 6th quickest of all time.

I notice in preparation for the 100 miler on Friday, he has done 10.2k yesterday in an eye-wateringly slow 1:33. He says if he can now repeat that 16 times in a row, carrying all the extra equipment you need, he will run a very good sub-25 hours, which has won this race before.

We can but wait and see.

Will, the grifting part of social media is a grey area in terms of product promotion. It's easy to get away with this even when lines are crossed.

The big issue is the charity part of all of this and in particular the proportion of "costs" assigned to the "project". I'd like to see that first. I do care about athletics / running and records but that is a separate issue.

Where exactly does the commercial money go? Is the money given by commercial entities going towards product promotion or was it intended to be given to the charity? Did it go to the right place in the end?

How much money was raised via actual charity contributions from Joe Public?

What if I did an event I billed as for charity but took promotional money too for product placement. I could easily apply all costs to the charity income and keep all the promotional income for myself. I could run two separate entities to do this and legitimise the whole thing.

Ethically though this would be very dodgy and entirely possible to pull off if I was managing the whole project myself.

I am not saying this is what they did. I am sure they did everything properly and ethically.

Well, they've made it very clear that all funds to go to charity and they would not be deducting costs. But the mystery was why Macmillan or American Cancer couldn't have been their portals instead of GoFundMe. All so much simpler and transparent. And why no full handover yet?

I think it's important to find out how much American Cancer have had from him, and how closely he's keeping in touch.

But all 5 of the staff were fully salaried on Transcon, they make no secret about that, and the costs of the mission must have been enormous, and certainly he couldn't afford to fail - but they were clearly never worried about that.

WG having a great run will have been vital, and the whole thing will have been a good cash cow for him as he was basically a walking commercial, selling an awful lot of stuff every day.

Studies report that the going rate on Insta is $3.50 per one thousand followers when you do a commercial. Thus 150k followers could earn $500 a post. That really does sound high, but even at $150 a post it's a wonderful business to be in.

All we know is that WG was "broke" and living off credit, when working as a model, but now lives as glamorous and expensive lifestyle as a movie star. It's 90% connected to being a pioneering ultrarunner of incredible ability, reliability and success, who never gets tired and who thrives off the products he sells. As Rich Roll purrs: "he does it in style, and he makes it look easy..."

But yesterday's post alone shows how clueless they are about the brutality of the Kodiak 100miler. Goodge is hoping to run even splits at around the pace of yesterday's run.

Here are the 10k splits of one the leaders last year, Earnshaw:

Out: 57 66 59 94 99 89 82 81

Back: 83 84 110 143 95 102 147 165; [& 52 mins for the last 4k.]

A pretty torrid affair. But WG doesn't understand about any of that as he's "negative splitted" all his off-the-books challenges. But the above is how running actually works.

They must just continue to masquerade that all will be fine and the race should be alright... off 20 mile training weeks. He said he all but baulked on the race, but I suppose he feels he has to do it now.

That is brisk walking pace - in old fashioned units a bit faster than 15 minute miling

A hike yesterday, was 11.4k in 2:18. HR was 108 for the outing, it included 2k where he lightly jogged downhill.

Yet another perfect marker as to what sort of thing his HR is for what sort of distance.

And yet some are saying the following are perfectly believable, and that we should just wave them through without batting at eye:

98K in 12:25 at 100

95k in 12:17 at 105

100k in 12:55 at 100

or Balenger in 2019:

74k in 9:57 at 106

72k in 9:45 at 108

74k in 9:42 at 100

And on and on it goes. Identical, physiologically impossible HRs for a challenge four years apart by two different runners on the same course.

Someone has sent me this interesting article about the marathon swimmer Diana Nyan. So many similarities of vastly inflated achievements and many lies clearly exposed, all for personal glorification of their name, instead of the spotlight falling on the far more deserving cases of others.

defector.com

Diana Nyad's Swimming Brought Her Glory, Fame, And An Adversary Dedicated To Exposing Her Lies | Defector

Daniel Slosberg wants me to watch a TV clip. It’s from an October 1998 episode of The Roseanne Show. Among the guests is Diana Nyad, who at the time was the most famous female swimmer this country ever produced. Slosberg, a f...

Link:defector.com/diana-nyads-swimming-brou...

Seems this thread made the Modern Wisdom podcast and there's a Rich Roll Podcast coming with Will G where this is discussed:

Yep Rich Roll is a full WG convert [see above words, this is a fuller quote]:

"I love Will Goodge. He's an absolute beast when it comes to ultra running. He does it with a smile, a certain flair, a passion for fashion... this guy looks good, and as hard as that was [Transcon], he was kind of making it look easy."

Regarding his Kodiak 100 miler this weekend, I email myself this prediction 5 days ago:

My Goodge prediction
Inbox

Will Cockerell <***>
Mon, Oct 9, 10:02 PM (5 days ago)
to Willvlc

1 Dnf at 60

2 Dnf at 80

3 34 hours

-------------------

His run has been uploaded to Strava. DNF at 97.01k, which is 60.29 miles. So my top guess came through. Wasn't hard - you simply can't get through an event like this on sub-20 mile weeks since 2019; the body will fail, period. Anyone who thinks otherwise is deluded, or has another agenda - like it all just being a marketing exercise. He advertised up to 20 products leading into the run.

Heart rate's perfect though at least! [As it always is in racing and training]

So at Transcon he's doing 105k in 12 hours at 7:17k pace at 107bpm

Here he's done 97k in 15 hours at 9:20k pace at 123bpm

You can perhaps see why his Transcon runs look a little... odd.

---------------

Day count of no complete handover of Transcon charity funds: 141. [It is believed 45 of the 95k are handed over, but we have no real idea, because no-one has ever said anything about transfers].

Day count of no release of promised Whoop Transcon data: 141.;

Will, did you know that Emily Sissons' stalker used to post on LRC before he got sent to jail? Maybe you should stop stalking Goodge

Dumb comparison. Goodge chooses to be a public influencer and craves widespread attention and big followings to support his moneymaking schemes. He can’t cry foul when this public attention turns critical and catches his BS.

And Sissons' heart rates are clean as a whistle.

Can you ask WG to release his Whoop Transcon, Sneakers? Would be doing us all a huge favour, and he did promise. Could clear all this brouhaha up. I've asked him numerous times but he just deflects.