Robert HP Young

Robert Young ("Marathon Man UK";^[1] born 18 October 1982) is a British participant in ultra distance running. He was accused of, and subsequently proven to have cheated on his trans-America record attempt in 2016.^[2] Outside Magazine has written an article about his deceit,^[3] as has The Guardian.^[4][5] His former sponsor, SKINS, launched an independent investigation into his cheating. This investigation 'found ‘no alternative plausible explanation’ than Young received unauthorised assistance, riding in his support vehicle for much of the early part of the 'run'.'.^[6] Following the report, Young was dropped by SKINS as a sponsor, and as an Ambassador for charity Dreams Come True. Many of his other claims, including to have been a triathlon champion, a professional cyclist and to have completed a host of self-styled ultra-running feats are unsubstantiated and have been called into question by independent observers.

Early years

Young has made many unsubstantiated claims that his father was abusive and as a young child Young allegedly witnessed the sexual assault of his sister, the torture of his mother and even the killing of the family dog^[7] Rob also purports he was tortured on a daily basis.^[8]

At eight years old Young claims he was put into an Orphanage before being fostered at 12. After leaving school and on completion of his A-levels aged 17, Young maintains he joined the British Army in Royal Corps of Signals where he served for five and a half years. During that time Young claims to have represented Great Britain at Junior level in Biathlon (run-swim-run), finishing in last place at the World Junior Championships.^[9] He also maintains that he was selected for the GB junior duathlon team having finished 4th at the national championship.^[10] However Robert does not appear in the national championship results^[11] and ranked only 18th of 22 for the year with a solitary ranking performance of 7th in a field of 8 at Cambridge.^[12]

He then focused on the triathlon and after a mediocre showing at Sater (June 2004)^[13] in July that year he claims to have represented Great Britain (on the non-elite 20-24M age group team), placing 3rd at the 2004 European Long Course Triathlon Championship in Immenstadt, Germany.,.^[14] There were only 6 entrants^[15] in his age group and his name does not appear in the results.^[16] Mr Young previously claimed to be a professional cyclist, insinuating he rode with the German based Team Milram, although there is no evidence that he was employed by that team, or any other, or has any amateur or professional cycling pedigree.

In 2014 Young quit his job and started running full-time. Young has visited many schools to give inspirational talks on the importance of honesty and effort.^[17] He repeatedly states that truth and integrity are at the core of any running record, saying in an interview to the UK podcast 'Marathon Talk' on Wednesday 15 October 2014 (episode 249)^[18] where he stated that "There's lots of different records, there's a lot of different rules and for me I want to be able to break the unofficial records and reset the rules. For me I think the rules are very lax at the moment and I think we need some really solid rules across the board all the way. Not only in this country but worldwide as well..." In May 2015 he was interviewed by the UK Newspaper Midlands News Express & Star^[19] regarding the controversy surrounding Mark Vaz and stated "It would have been close to beating the greatest runner ever Yiannis Kouros and that is not happening anytime soon. It just undermines the sport that we love."

In early 2015 Young become a brand ambassador for Dreams Come True, a charity helping children and young people with serious and life-limiting conditions aged between 2 and 21 years old. In January 2016 he was signed to the clothing brand Skins as an ambassador, again citing truthfulness as a value he admired: "plus the guy I met from skins was truthful and a pleasure to meet". SKINS and Dreams Come True both dropped Mr Young in October 2016 when the report SKINS commissioned into his Trans-America record attempt concluded that he had systematically cheated by riding in his support vehicle for much of the journey.^[20]

Trans-American Footrace

On June 2, 2015 Robert Young won the Trans-American Footrace in a time of 482 hours 10 minutes.^[21][22] There were only 7 participants who competed in all stages,^[23] and of these stages Rob finished first in 92 of the 122. Not all of these were at or above marathon distance however, with some races as short as 4.6 miles (Arizona).^[24] Mr Young habitually ran away from the field at the start of each day, running unobserved and often reaching checkpoints before the race organizers could arrive there.

The 3,100 mile event started in Huntington Beach, California and passed through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, finishing at the White House in Washington, D.C..

Fastest trans-American run attempt

From May to June, 2016, Young set out on an unsuccessful attempt to run across America and achieve the fastest ever time. Accusations of cheating and foul play were made by members of the online community after his support vehicle was spotted traveling at running pace without anyone running alongside it, however Young's associates flatly denied any wrong doing. Media outlets such as Sports Illustrated,^[25] Runner's World,^[26] Outside,^[3] Running Magazine.ca^[27] and Deadspin^[28] reported the story. Young's team did not upload raw GPX tracking data to substantiate his claimed distances, which included a 2.30 marathon distance at 8,000 feet, citing the difficulty of accessing the internet or cell phone coverage in the United States. This led the website Deadspin to report that Robert Young was "a massive fraudster who has been lying about the whole thing and secretly traveling in an RV at running pace".^[28] However on his website his support team stated "We are out in the open doing something without guile or manipulation, and to accuse us or Rob of doing anything else is a very low thing to do, and completely without basis. Anyone who doubts the legitimacy of what Rob is doing is free to find us and follow us and to see for themselves what Rob is achieving.".^[29] Mr Young's pace and mileage dropped sharply when he was independently observed by Gary Cantrell, creator of the Barkley Marathons, and on June 17, 2016 the attempt was stopped, allegedly due to injury.

Despite Mr Young's promises to publish GPS data, including the cadence and heart rate information that would help establish his innocence, the information was not released.^[30] Young claimed to be tracking that information during his run but in an interview about the cheating allegations, Young 'declined to answer' why he had not released cadence data as of July 8, 2016. . Mr Young restored his watches to their factory condition, wiping their data, before handing them to the investigators and refused them access to the laptop where the full data was supposedly held. However the investigators were able to use Tom Tom data he had previously uploaded, and which cannot be manipulated after the fact, to prove that Mr Young had ridden in his support vehicle for much of the time, particularly at night when his deception was less likely to be noticed. The independent report commissioned by his sponsors SKINS was published on October 2 and a media release by SKINS announced they had terminated their relationship with Mr Young as a result.

Following this incident, Young restricted his Facebook page to UK users only, despite the fact that over 75% of Young's Facebook page fans are apparently in Turkey (suggesting fake/paid for likes) and only 16% in his home country, the UK.^[4]

Running highlights

Young has allegedly completed a number of endurance feats. Most notable among his claimed achievements are:

• Claims to have run 373.75 miles (601.49 km) in 88 hours and 17 minutes without sleep in July 2015 breaking the previous set by Dean Karnazes of 350 miles (560 km).^[31][32] No strava or other data was released to detail the run and the first two hundred miles appears to be entirely unsubstantiated. Kevin O’Rourke^[33] and Andy Persson,^[34] two men who crewed the later stages of the supposed 373 mile run, now doubt the full distance was covered.
• Claims to have run 370 marathon and ultra marathon distances (not races) in 365 days ranging from the Marathon to 140 miles a day^[35] going on to do 420 marathon and ultra marathons in 420 days^[36] There are no witnesses, nor is there objectively recorded data, for many of these runs.
• His website lists his 10K personal best as 30:47 when the race was only 7K long.^[27]

Listed and awards

• Winner of the 2015 International Peace and Sports Awards - Champion of the year - in Monaco^[37] through an internet poll with no entry requirements.
• Listed as one the 6 Most Extreme Athletes You'll Ever Meet in a BBC World Service article^[38]
• Voted as one of The Independent on Sunday's 100 people who make Britain a happier place to live by a public poll.^[39]
• Voted one of the 50 most inspirational Londoners in an internet poll^[40]

See also

• Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race

References

External links

• Official website
• Inspirational Rob Young smashes world record - He backs The Sun’s Give Me Shelter campaign
• Run Ultra - Interview with Robert Young
• Rob Young runs 2250 miles around the UK in 25 days as part of the Champions Walk for Peace
• Robert Young: the man who runs a marathon every day
• ITV - London Marathon Rob Young has run more than a marathon a day for the last 12 months
• Mens Running - Running with Rob Young (‘Marathon Man UK’)
• The Times - Marathon man Robert Young’s story set to run and run
• NSPCC - Robert Young – aka Marathon Man UK – runs for every childhood every day of the year
• London record-breaking Marathon Man has been named as an ambassador for one of the children’s charity he’s raised thousands of pounds for.
• Spikes Robert young record-breaking 370 marathons in 365 days
• BFM TV - Rob Young, le « Marathon Man » made in UK
• Yahoo sports - Robert young heads to the States to take part in Race Across USA.