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

In my early 40's time constraints from work and kids cut into my training and I only managed 25-40 miles a week. I only survived the marathons I did because of many years at 80 miles a week.

How could this guy even consider 15 miles a week training his ass off? My junior high daughter runs more than that (she is faster than mike at 5k as well).

progman wrote:

And I'm not feeling a whole lot of sympathy for the LVM right now either until they DQ him. I've ran 23 marathons and I can't remember any of those that DIDN'T have intermediate mats on the course - wtf?

+1

Furthermore, hard to imagine that a course without mats can be BQ eligible.

proud dad wrote:

In my early 40's time constraints from work and kids cut into my training and I only managed 25-40 miles a week. I only survived the marathons I did because of many years at 80 miles a week.

How could this guy even consider 15 miles a week training his ass off? My junior high daughter runs more than that (she is faster than mike at 5k as well).

+1

If this guy was 1/100th of the inspirational hero he paints himself as he could have run Boston for a charity. With his social media footprint he could have exceeded well in excess of the required amount and actually have done some good for someone.

But that would have raised awareness of something other than himself so he cheated and screwed over a principle instead.

This guy either needs to fess up or be ground into virtual Internet smithereens by social media. The story making its way back to The Today Show would be even better.

Either way LVM has to get on the stick and him him the DQ.

DQ, where art thou?

gatorade&vodka wrote:

Experienced Kip Watcher wrote:

All anyone sane wants is a DQ and the true story to come out so that in future someone else thinks twice about cheating. That's it, end of story.

This, but also for RDs to make their races less laughably easy to cheat - both by adding mats and/or video and by looking through the results after the fact. It's Rossi's fault he cheated, but there's room to blame Lehigh too. If they had done their jobs and disqualified Rossi quietly they could have spared him the embarrassment, spared Internet posters from doing their work for them, and spared us all from having to hear about this whole "news" saga.

What is the race organizer's incentive for doing the right thing? There isn't one. Nobody in the org wants a cheater at their event, but that's different than time+money integrity checking results.

I agree that some kind of integrity checking would be great, especially for a BQ. But, good luck getting the race organization to do this voluntarily.

pop_pop! wrote:

gatorade&vodka wrote:

This, but also for RDs to make their races less laughably easy to cheat - both by adding mats and/or video and by looking through the results after the fact. It's Rossi's fault he cheated, but there's room to blame Lehigh too. If they had done their jobs and disqualified Rossi quietly they could have spared him the embarrassment, spared Internet posters from doing their work for them, and spared us all from having to hear about this whole "news" saga.

What is the race organizer's incentive for doing the right thing? There isn't one. Nobody in the org wants a cheater at their event, but that's different than time+money integrity checking results.

I agree that some kind of integrity checking would be great, especially for a BQ. But, good luck getting the race organization to do this voluntarily.

Well when you add mats you can give runners splits and have an athlete tracker for their friends and spectators. It costs money but adds value to the race, especially as runners come to expect these things from other races. And for checking results, hopefully there is some negative publicity associated with being "that race where the guy cheated by taking a car ride".

Though the more I think about it, Lehigh may be in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation, because of all those people who didn't read the whole story and are commenting that one time they didn't get photos, or they improved their marathon drastically, and why on earth would a marathon ever DQ a guy for that...

exthrower wrote:

Bad Wigins wrote:

what this thread represents is far worse.

You all need to admit to yourselves that this torch-and-pitchfork mob is about you, not the guy you're after. It doesn't matter how guilty he is. If not for him, you'd find some other bad person to go after. Witch hunting is a top internet pastime and a serious cultural sickness.

No...A cultural sickness is 400 animals looting a liqueur store....Like in Baltimore.

You're too stupid to realize you're one in the same as "400 animals looting a liqueur store" as you so eloquently put it.

We've decided to give Mr. Rossi the benefit of the doubt as to having completed the BQ here. Thank you for helping to bring attention to ways that we can improve as a marathon.

somebloke wrote:

DQ, where art thou?

The evidence is there. The RD and the team of investigators should have reached a conclusion by now.

seriously... wrote:

exthrower wrote:

No...A cultural sickness is 400 animals looting a liqueur store....Like in Baltimore.

You're too stupid to realize you're one in the same as "400 animals looting a liqueur store" as you so eloquently put it.

Who would rob a liqueur store?

How many bottles of Bailey's and peach schnapps do you really need?

In discussions somewhere back their, and I forget if it was a quote or the RD directly, the Lehigh RD discussed using matts next year. Given the organization behind this marathon, I bet Mikey won't qualify here next year!

Signed

Yet another Mike Rossi not yet mentioned in this post

Mats aren't a necessity at most marathons w

Mr. Typo wrote:

seriously... wrote:

You're too stupid to realize you're one in the same as "400 animals looting a liqueur store" as you so eloquently put it.

Who would rob a liqueur store?

How many bottles of Bailey's and peach schnapps do you really need?

I think that was meant to be a metaphor Mr literal

seriously... wrote:

exthrower wrote:

No...A cultural sickness is 400 animals looting a liqueur store....Like in Baltimore.

You're too stupid to realize you're one in the same as "400 animals looting a liqueur store" as you so eloquently put it.

Way to over generalize. Extending your logic, a child that steps on an ant hill and Joseph Stalin are "one in the same." Btw, you're too stupid to realize that the phrase "one in the same" is wrong. It's "one and the same."

Bad Wigins wrote:

Deadman Running wrote:

This guy represents a lot of what is wrong with this country, society and culture we live in today. .

what this thread represents is far worse.

You all need to admit to yourselves that this torch-and-pitchfork mob is about you, not the guy you're after. It doesn't matter how guilty he is. If not for him, you'd find some other bad person to go after. Witch hunting is a top internet pastime and a serious cultural sickness.

I don't often agree with BW but I have to agree here.

This really is standard mob mentality and, as with all mobs, it is justified in sanctimonious terms:

"Protecting the honor of the sport"

"Teaching a lesson"

"Making sure that others learn not to cheat"

Lynch mobs are all the same. And this is one of them.

lvm guy wrote:

We've decided to give Mr. Rossi the benefit of the doubt as to having completed the BQ here. Thank you for helping to bring attention to ways that we can improve as a marathon.

0/10

Gonna Have to Agree wrote:

Lynch mobs are all the same. And this is one of them.

huh? where's the logic in saying that?

some lynch mobs actually harm people physically

this lynch mob has established the truth

totally different

Ok, that's sick. These are honorable goals, not sanctimonious ones.

Gonna Have to Agree wrote:

as with all mobs, it is justified in sanctimonious terms:

"Protecting the honor of the sport"

"Teaching a lesson"

"Making sure that others learn not to cheat"