Did Mike Rossi (viral marathon dad) cheat his way into Boston?

Also, by starting at the back with the walkers, people wouldn't think anything of him heading off-course after the start, since they aren't concerned with time anyway. They'd probably think he forgot something and went back to his car.

Organizers of small, low overhead events shouldn't have to do this but in the light of this I'd always advise to have a volunteer with a digital camera displaying timestamp videoing the start/finish lines and another one at the farthest end of the course.

Can someone post Mike Rossi's pre-race picture?

When you look at his picture, you can actually see the 19:39 girl's dad standing on the stoop of the corner building taking the picture that she used in her blog. I'm not saying these 2 shots were taken at the same time, but you can use the 2 pictures to determine the exact location of Rossi's picture.

You can also line up the same people in each photo to get an accurate angle. For example, the tall guy in the front of the girl's photo appears in the distance of Rossi's photo.

This still isn't evidence of his attire, but just his location during the taking of his picture.

Yes setting off the chip mats by walking alongside dressed as a spectator was a Kip M.O.

Along this line of thinking we should expect as someone already mentioned a "Pine Hills 5k/West Wyoming Marathon" sub 20 next.

SOKLR has this documented.

The thing I don't get is if you are going to cheat, why do you do 20:25. Why not just get the job done?

Is he bad at math or just enjoying making us sweat a little?

I think the hastily deleted tweet about "results soon" suggest "bad at sums" is the right answer. To be charitable it could have been bad luck and something or someone obstructed him casually walking past the finish area.

rojo wrote:

The thing I don't get is if you are going to cheat, why do you do 20:25. Why not just get the job done?

Is he bad at math or just enjoying making us sweat a little?

Only thing I can think of is:

1. If he actually sprained his ankle while running through the wooded area/back yards to cut the course and could not run full speed to finish

2. If he started his watch at the gun time and then had to do some on the fly math - which he has proven before that he is bad at math. People who are good at math don't DJ weddings

He already showed that he's pretty bad at calculating time by getting a 3:11 at LVM instead of something more believable, like a 3:23 or something. He probably didn't want to make the same mistake twice. But he screwed up by starting his stopwatch when the gun went off instead of when he crossed the mat. If he had done that and waited 40ish seconds less this time, he would have "won" the 5k challenge.

So in an attempt to correct his mistake from LVM, he over-corrected.

It was also suggested at 2014 VIA, the race started 10 minutes late (confirmed?) and Mike was actually shooting for something closer to 3:20 instead of 3:11.

Bad at math explanation seems legit.

This may be giving Rossi too much credit, but it's also possible that "running" just over 20 minutes was intentional. He knows that, if he cheats and runs sub-20, there will be 100X more scrutiny of his race and he wants his performance to fly under the radar as much as possible.

This way, he can tell all of his supporters that he was very close to running sub-20 and collecting on the challenge and would have done it had it not been for losing so much fitness due to his hip injury, earlier in the year.

Additionally, if he cheated and tried to collect the money, he would be opening himself up to charges of fraud and another possible media storm, especially if he decides to go to court, seeking the 10K, which he would have no excuse not to do if he didn't cheat.

Finally, if we hadn't called him out on his likely cheating at this race, he may have felt emboldened to cheat for sub-20 at another 5K before the end of the year and claim his 20:25 race as evidence of progression towards his result, if it were questioned.

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

I think the hastily deleted tweet about "results soon" suggest "bad at sums" is the right answer. To be charitable it could have been bad luck and something or someone obstructed him casually walking past the finish area.

Has anyone contacted the one or two runners who finished before him or more importantly the two runners that finished behind him to see if they could shed any light and say whether it was him who was running? Additionally, did anyone behind him see a roadrunner speed by passing nearly everyone?

Cheat Lie Repeat wrote:

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

I think the hastily deleted tweet about "results soon" suggest "bad at sums" is the right answer. To be charitable it could have been bad luck and something or someone obstructed him casually walking past the finish area.

Has anyone contacted the one or two runners who finished before him or more importantly the two runners that finished behind him to see if they could shed any light and say whether it was him who was running? Additionally, did anyone behind him see a roadrunner speed by passing nearly everyone?

Yes... some roadrunner resplendent in Boston Marathon finishers gear?

Fire Barb McKeever! wrote:

it's also possible that "running" just over 20 minutes was intentional. He knows that, if he cheats and runs sub-20, there will be 100X more scrutiny of his race and he wants his performance to fly under the radar as much as possible.

This way, he can tell all of his supporters that he was very close to running sub-20 and collecting on the challenge and would have done it had it not been for losing so much fitness due to his hip injury, earlier in the year.

Yes. I thought the very same thing: a simple case of Rossi attempting to fabricate evidence of a fitness progression... what a tool. As has been said many times over, 3:11 marathoners are able to run sub-20 5k with little effort. He posted no such times PRIOR to the LetsRun challenge. Our pathological liar is truly groping now. #phillytoboston

Yes, seems likely. He wanted to leave an "Athlinks Trail." Not having one was another mistake he made before LVM.

I think given that he tweeted "results soon..." or whatever before he knew what he ran, then deleted the tweet he he saw that he finished in 20:25 chip time indicates that he was hoping to run sub-20 and even thought that he did after "finishing".

If he was shooting for a close-but-not-quite sub 20, then I don't know why he would have deleted the initial tweet and you'd think he'd mention his time in some kind of braggy way.

To me, there are three possible reasons that he didn't get the sub 20:

1. Screwed up the math. Most likely possibility. Based on what I've seen out of Mike, he seems to have the intellect of a 5th grader. However, I guess his math skills are even worse than that.

2. He wasn't able to covertly sneak back into the race course in time to hit sub 20. He knew when he needed to cross the line, but it was too risky at that time and once the coast was clear the 20 minute threshold had come and gone.

3. He did the math right and jumped in at the right time but he overestimated the speed he would be able to cover the remaining route in to get under 20 minutes. So, if he jumped back in with a quarter mile to go and thought he would be able to do this in 90 seconds or so but it took him closer to 2 minutes. This is more plausible, the farther back he jumped in. I think he only ran the last quarter mile though, so I doubt this is the explanation.

My guess is that he walked across the line, dressed as a spectator with the back of the pack. If you ever volunteer at a race and you're around the starting line for the back of the pack, there are plenty of spectators standing/wandering around. They were there to cheer on a family or friend/take pictures and then they had off the road once most people have cleared out. No one would think twice about anyone who crossed the starting line in that situation and then ambled off course right away. He then just had to stand around for about 18-19 minutes until a chance presented itself to sneak back in as the course crossed back over the starting line at ~2.8 miles into the race. He could have removed jacket/warm-up pants/whatever during this time. Given that this would be about 21 minutes into the race per gun time there would be plenty of people already done and milling about. It probably wouldn't have been hard to get back onto the course. Problem is, Mike screwed up the math.

I know I'm in the minority here, but I think it's possible* that he ran the 20:25 legit. I've been running for years, but with a monetary incentive, I definitely could improve my 5k PR by 2+ minutes in 6 months. I'm a hobby jogger and have never trained that hard and don't have much racing experience.

For you who have run races since you were babies, your recent race times are pretty indicative of your ability at the time. For us slow folks, we haven't really pushed to the edge of our abilities either in training or racing.

His turkey trot results are only suspicious because he's a documented douchebag and cheater. Anyone else it would seem a bit odd to start late, but you wouldn't think much of it. It's not anywhere as conclusive as his LVM results.

It's not that hard to pass a bunch of folks in a local road 5k. This isn't the NYC marathon.

His reaction is suspicious for him: no selfies, no GPS, no splits. But I'd be hesitant to convict him on this one. If he was smart (he's not), he would have done this as a trap: let LR go off on cheating accusations, then produce GPS tracks and other evidence showing he did it and prove that LR falsely accuses him of cheating.

*I didn't say definite or even likely.

Just the gun/chip on its own is a red flag, I am sure if Rojo was being sued over the 5k article we would have heard about the AOL lawyer by now.

AOL lawyers aren't cheap.

Even if Mike is awful at math.

In one of the just prior 5k races, his time differential was 3 seconds. This just seems too odd. Moreover, while its not uncommon to pass other racers, we are talking about over 660 other runners, which takes effort at times getting around people and avoiding obstacles. Additionally, we are not talking about a guy who has a good or normal running gait either but instead someone who runs splayed legged, like Jerry Lewis-ish. I think it is so far removed and remote that this guy smashes his 5K PR and again, barely utters a word. No tweeny pics, no medal, no nothing. He is a fraud and he knows it.

He is pathetic - he can dish it out but can't take it. Ken's tweets are no worse than his, sure Ken ought not bring his kids into it, but Rossi did so with Cecily's. To call the police is so hypocritical.

Here you go Mikey, what a crybaby: