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

shith wrote:

There are a number of interested non-runners from work who are following this thread. A longtime lurker co-worker of mine wrote a good summary for those new to the story...current as of Thursday night. It's missing all of the analysis of sweat patterns, but I'm not sure that adds much.

Quick summary:

Philly area guy, late 40s, local media personality (radio?) -- very active in blogging, tweeting, facebooking (i.e. bigtime attention whore). Gets into running about 2 years ago, turns out to be decent for a bigger guy (~7 min miles for 5k, ~8 min miles for longer races). Profusely blogs every training run and race, complete with GPS splits, selfies, etc. Buys Boston marathon gear many months in advance of 2015 race and wears it everywhere.

Takes his kids out of school for a couple of days so they can come cheer him on at the Boston marathon this year. REALLY hams it up on social media (including patriotism, etc.), Gets "scolded" somehow for taking the kids out of school, or maybe it was no more than having their absence being listed as "unauthorized" (whatever that might mean).

Decides to get ultra-sanctimonious, calls out the principal on social media for being so square, blogs about how his kids learned more about life -- hard work (qualifying for and then finishing the Boston marathon), patriotism, history (as a tourist), etc. -- than they would in a year of school. (all this in spite of the rules about authorized absence being clearly understood by all, and clearly broken here) And look -- even more attention for our man!

Another local runner decides to look up his Boston qualifying race (Lehigh Valley marathon, 2014 I think), sees a 3:11 (3:25 was required for age 45-49), realizes this is about 10 standard deviations faster than any other race he's ever run (i.e. a billion to one chance of being legit).

Letsrunners join in and go through every one of the ~18k pictures from the race, for the ~1050 runners. The only runner in the entire field (they checked the entire >1000 runners, by bib number and also in the lost and found photo section) who was not photographed anywhere on the course except the finish line was our guy. Among the 50 finishers immediately before and the 50 finishers immediately after our guy, there are an average of >12 photos per runner. But for our guy, just the finish line photo. The race was chip timed, but being a smaller event, only had mats at start and finish lines.

More sleuthing on social media history. Our guy brags incessantly about every race he's done (and lots of training runs too), EXCEPT this incredible breakthrough performance of a lifetime that got him his Boston qualifier. And bragged incessantly about how he was going to be running Boston, well before even posting a qualifying time (or anything remotely close to that level of performance in any race distance). Recall the Boston gear mentioned above...

The walls are closing in, he takes all his social media feeds to private status, and issues a few lame rebuttals. Claims to have GPS watch record of the LV marathon but won't release it. They trace a handful of sockpuppet posters on letsrun (defending the cheater) to have all come from the same IP address in Camp Hill, PA. Close to where our man lives...

Local Philly media outlets (who had previously broadcast the story on him calling out the school principal) are now picking up the story of how he cheated, and describing the damning photographic evidence (i.e. summarizing the letsrun thread).

The real Mike Rossi answers. wrote:

Questions for Mike wrote:

Mike,

It's me again. I've had some time to think about your predicament and I'd like to chat.

1. How do you respond to having two photo segments now that prove you weren't on the course at both the beginning and the end?

2. What has your home life been over these past few days? I know it must be all encompassing dealing with the constant questions and having to keep all your lies in order.

3. Have you thought about contacting Oprah to make your next public statement?

4. Did you ever think when you started running that you would some day be a household name one Letsrun? I personally put you up there with Kip Litton, Jason Rexing, Eddylee, No10kteg, Carmelita Cheater, etc etc

5. When you run your next Marathon have you considered wearing a GoPro or body cam?

I'm hoping Letsrun posts there article soon and I will have some additional follow up questions.

1. I respond by saying I have my timing chip recorded at the start and finish and a photo of me finishing, it's just the bit in between that's a little bit problematical.

2. All family, friends and fans still hero worship me because they know I'm innocent of this scurrilous attack on my integrity and running ability.

3. She contacted me, I rejected her offers, not prime time enough for all my adoring fans to catch it and not enough money for what I'm worth I.e. $500,000 minimum .

4. No, but I couldn't be happier.

5. No need, the worlds media will have dedicated coverage of me alone, well not quite alone, I'll be surrounded by my adoring fans.

The real Mike Rossi answers. wrote:

The real Mike Rossi answers. wrote:

3. She contacted me, I rejected her offers, not prime time enough for all my adoring fans to catch it and not enough money for what I'm worth I.e. $500,000 minimum .

Just in case some of you nasty LetsRun people think I'm up myself, I wish to make it totally clear and reiterate that OPRAH contacted ME, I DIDN'T contact her. After I rejected her overtures she told me she would just have to take Mayweather as a distant and poor second choice.

d2xccoach wrote:

feyd rautha wrote:

Honestly, this thread just makes me want to see if I could cheat and get away with it. I've never cheated in a race before but I'm tempted to go to one of d2xccoach's races and try to pull it off just to see if I can. It's like going to prison to try to see if you can escape, except I'm too much of a pu$sy for all that.

Sure come on up for any of our races! We produce a 5k on New Years Day, a half marathon in mid April, a marathon in late May, and a 10k in late September. I would never say that our races are cheat-proof, but we do try to put reasonable cross checks in place to do what we can to prevent cheating when it matters most. The marathon is the only one with prize money, in fact the other races we produce don't even have awards beyond 1st place, so of course we're going to put a lot more effort into trying to cheat-proof the marathon. The 5k, for example, we only have a finish line mat, so somebody could easily start somewhere out on the course, say be walking down the sidewalk as the runner start coming by, and ease themselves into the flow of the race. The half marathon is point-to-point, somebody could easily exit the course, drive somewhere close to the finish, get out somewhere between runners and jog to the finish.

Outside our marathon, for those other 3 races, it would be like cheating at a color run...what's the point? Somebody wants to pay us $25 to enter a 5k with no awards and cut the course, have at it.

Even in our marathon, there are definitely ways to cheat and get away with it. We have 3 of the 4 "furthest out" points covered with chip mats, the 4th is at the 1.7 mile mark so if somebody wanted to cut part of our course they could cut off some of the early miles. We do train all the Course Monitors to look for anybody coming onto the course from the areas it would be most easy to cut, but the CM's have other job duties so somebody looking to cheat could probably time it right to get by. One of the things we have going for us is that the way our city streets are laid out it's tough to drive from one part of the course to another during the denser parts of the race. In fact one year our RD drove to the 13.1 mile mark early on to check on something and tried to get out of there at the height of the race and it took her almost an hour to go 2 miles - and that's with a course pass on her car.

Depending on one's objectives, I could see a whole bunch of ways to cheat at our races, and if I had some motivation to do so at another race I'm sure I could figure out a way to do so with a pretty high likelihood of not getting caught. And the #1 thing I'd do to not get caught would be to try to not draw attention to myself like Rossi did by calling out his kid's principal.

Archie Valdemeer wrote:

I'm convinced! I'm convinced this is a farce and a lynching.

While Mike Rossi was putting in countless miles (for himself AND others) you were posting here under an assumed name.

While Mike Rossi was denying himself sweets, alcohol, and fast food, you were posting here under an assumed name.

While Mike Rossi was driving his family to Boston knowing that his injury would make his effort a difficult one, you were posting under an assumed name.

While Mike Rossi was raising the profile of the sport he LOVES...our sport, you were posting baloney here. Yes, under an assumed name.

Fact is, Mike put in the miles. Mike put the effort out there on the course, with photos to prove it. Mike took on the school system and hit a nerve with millions of citizens.

Mike Ross may not be YOUR definition of a hero. And frankly I don't agree with all his actions and past. That 80's haircut on his site is not cool (LOL). But to many of us, he is our definition of the everyman who conquers something bigger than all of us!

Archie Valdemeer wrote:

I'm convinced! I'm convinced this is a farce and a lynching.

While Mike Rossi was putting in countless miles (for himself AND others) you were posting here under an assumed name.

While Mike Rossi was denying himself sweets, alcohol, and fast food, you were posting here under an assumed name.

While Mike Rossi was driving his family to Boston knowing that his injury would make his effort a difficult one, you were posting under an assumed name.

While Mike Rossi was raising the profile of the sport he LOVES...our sport, you were posting baloney here. Yes, under an assumed name.

Fact is, Mike put in the miles. Mike put the effort out there on the course, with photos to prove it. Mike took on the school system and hit a nerve with millions of citizens.

Mike Ross may not be YOUR definition of a hero. And frankly I don't agree with all his actions and past. That 80's haircut on his site is not cool (LOL). But to many of us, he is our definition of the everyman who conquers something bigger than all of us!