Robert Young (runner)

Robert Young is an English runner.

Young grew up in Yorkshire, England. In interviews, he says he suffered abuse from his father, and that his attempts to cope with this gave him a resilient attitude.^[1] He went to an orphanage at the age of eight and then spent four years with foster parents.^[2]

In 2014, according to Young, on a 20p wager from his girlfriend, he ran two marathons around Richmond Park in 24 hours, though he had undergone no training for distance running. He went on to become a long-distance runner, while still working in a car parts store,^[1] and claims to have logged 370 marathons and ultras in a year, amounting to 11,000 miles, but there has been no verification of this claim.^[2]

In 2016 he attempted to break the record for the fastest run across the United States. A team of volunteers followed him to observe his pursuit of the record. The group disbanded, after noting that Young was not performing at the level necessary beat the record, according to one of its members, "because I do not want to be a party to putting Robert Young in the hospital". He started the attempt on May 14, and abandoned the project on June 20 in Indianapolis, suffering a fractured toe and cellulitis.^[3]

Young's sponsor, Skins, commissioned two independent experts from the University of Colorado, Boulder and University of the Free State to track telemetry data and determine if cheating had taken place.^[4] The experts reported: "The evidence that we reviewed for this investigation indicates that Rob Young received unauthorized assistance in his attempt to run across the United States. We have identified no alternative plausible explanation for the data-of-record other than assistance, most likely in the form of riding in or on a vehicle for large parts of the attempt." With stride lengths up to 200m in the cadence data it is clear Young did not run his route, and despite the overwhelming proof he continues to deny wrongdoing.^[5]

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