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

Try reading it again.Slowly.

dude, really? wrote:

Mr. Typo wrote:

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

Maggie2 wrote:

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"

It appears that you do not understand the definition and proper use of the word, 'sanctimonious'.

Gonna Have to Agree wrote:

It appears that you do not understand the definition and proper use of the word, 'sanctimonious'.

Do you understand the phrase "Stop being a twat" ?

The liqueur joke is my favorite comment of the last 5 pages and it makes me sad that someone didn't get it

I got it. Meh, I would give it 5/10.

The twat remark is more like my style. Keep it classy letsrun, keep it classy.

Experienced Kip Watcher wrote:

Gonna Have to Agree wrote:

It appears that you do not understand the definition and proper use of the word, 'sanctimonious'.

Do you understand the phrase "Stop being a twat" ?

And the lynch mob makes its predictable reappearance...

I would second what Greg wrote based on my personal experience, although I didn't come from a "240lb couch potato" perspective. I ran my first marathon in Nov 1986 after really only starting run training summer 1985. Over those ~18 months I was only running 40-50 mpw Aug-Nov (both years) and outside that window I had lots of 15-20 mile weeks and a few random 50 mile weeks. I was doing a lot of training for Nordic skiing, cycling, roller skiing, hill bounding, weights, lots of good aerobic work but not a lot of running. My training logs show about 1800 miles over that period, three 200+ mile months, nine months under 100 miles. I ran 3:12. Fuel? A couple pop tarts before the race, Gatorade and water on the course. Oh and the night before I drank a few beers with a college buddy and slept on the floor of my cousin's dorm room at Northeastern...and they had a bunch of fire alarms. Young and dumb, that was me to a tee!

I didn't have the miles in or the long runs, and if you knew me you'd know I certainly don't have any talent, but what I did have was a high percentage of hard miles and the belief that I was going to run a fast race (fast for me). Plus I'm pretty good at suffering without giving in.

The difference between Rossi and me in terms of is a 3:11-3:12 plausible is that I was running sub 18 for 5k, sub 29 for 5 miles. Plus I was 21 years old. Plus I had done a bunch of 25k and 50k ski races with good times, Plus after my debut marathon I backed it up for the next 10 years.

Trackstar77 wrote:

somebloke wrote:

DQ, where art thou?

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

If they actually do something, it will take some time. I figure weeks.

All the facts are there and vetted. Patience. Nothing done is a possibility here.

haha wrote:

Mike Vick wrote:

Anyone know what happened at the Rock n Roll Philly Half? He didn't cross the 10 mile timing mat, yet ended up with 2:20???

http://running.competitor.com/cgiresults?eId=4&eiId=215&seId=709&pId=147903

I'm going to make an educated guess that he didn't cheat his way to a 2:20. Timing mats sometimes malfunction and you don't get a reading for the intermediate splits (It happened to me at the Marine Corps Marathon) - I'm guessing that's what happened here since I doubt he was trying to cheat to a 10 min/mile pace. I couldn't imagine that much motive here. He had more reason to cheat in LVM given that 1.) he needed a qualifier. 2.) that marathon was only a week or two before the BM qualifying period.

Maybe not cheating, but trying to put a quick end to a bad day? From his splits, it looks like he started out at 8:00 minute pace, then sometime after the 5k mark someone handed him an elephant. It took him about 50 minutes to get from 5k to the 10k mark. To finish with the time he did, my guess is he cut off part of the course. There is a bridge before the 8 mile mark that ends on the other side just after the 10 mile timing mat. Not sure you can cross there, but makes sense.

Let's not forget this was 13 days after his Miracle at Lehigh. Guess he hadn't "sufficiently" recovered yet.

That's remarkably similar to the thinking I had when the marathon I work for was going through the whole Kip Litton fiasco. We had chip splits for Litton at all our mats, and although they were a little more variable than I would expect to see, none were out of the realm of possibility given the course profiles for those sections, and none were out of line with some races Litton had run (of the few races we could verify that he did run). We had some pictures of Litton on the course, but we were missing him in pictures at a few key locations. But I also found other runners missing in pictures from those locations. When I talked to our photography company they said that while it would be unusual for them to miss runners, that they weren't going to certify that they had pictures of everyone at a given spot. I went through our lost & found pictures too, but the rolls weren't 100% in order so it was difficult to feel confident that I hadn't missed any groups of runners.

I've been in the situation too of not getting as many pictures as other runners. I always wear my bib clearly on the front of my shirt. Some races I'll get the link to pictures and it will only have a couple and I'll look up friends and they have more. I always wonder how they can miss me.

Nothing is more sanctimonious in my eyes than the people who copy-paste definitions in their internet comments, so I'll spare you that. :)But I don't get why you think outrage over the idea of cheating your way to a BQ time is sanctimonious! Race organizers are calling their integrity into question - what are they, Russian figure-skating judges - as this drags on. You know that point in a long run where you think, let's just get this finished? The evidence is overwhelming. His behavior reeks of guilt, his record says that a 3:11 was out of the question for him, sockpuppets from PA have lied on this site to vouch for him but no verifiable account has (and verification would be easy), and it's the natural explanation that he wasn't photographed on the course, when every other runner was, because he wasn't on the course. They should get it done and issue the DQ. I know this sounds silly, but that's why there's shorthand for disqualifying runners. We're looking at the dark side of human nature: to be tempted to cheat, and a responsibility of race officials: to ensure the believability of their results. Anyway, it's just a dumb sports event - no need to compare a footrace DQ to an actual lynching.

Gonna Have to Agree wrote:

Maggie2 wrote:

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

It appears that you do not understand the definition and proper use of the word, 'sanctimonious'.

Would you refuse to show the GPS data if asked for it? Did your finish time mysteriously not reflect times from your shorter races? Did you ever have 0 on course photos? (Other than start or finish)?

Also, did you tweet/Facebook about all your results and training runs along the last 2 years of running, only to barely mention your huge breakthrough performance?

I don't think you can answer yes to all those questions. MR can.

If this were a criminal trial, you might not prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" with this "evidence." I haven't seen that picture sequence which is basically a continuous picture, so that might get you to that standard. But, this is a marathon result issue, not a criminal trial. I submit they have enough reason to vacate his result.

Whatever happens because of that should follow that result (no Chicago qualifier based on this 3:11, no Boston 2016 on this 3:11, etc.). Whether or not his Boston 2015 stands or not, I don't know. He apparently did run that 4:01, but got in on deception.

Trackstar77 wrote:

somebloke wrote:

DQ, where art thou?

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

You're assuming they work on the weekends. Highly doubt it.

I'm bulldogging, but:

d2xccoach wrote:

We had chip splits for Litton at all our mats, and although they were a little more variable than I would expect to see, none were out of the realm of possibility given the course profiles for those sections, and none were out of line with some races Litton had run (of the few races we could verify that he did run).

I think not exactly apples to apples for MR... his disputed BQ finish time is out of line with all his other race results, and they're otherwise consistent with each other. If I recall correctly, anyway. :) I see nothing but giant red flags.

wow, what a nice little interview though i was really struck (and stuck) for a while on his accent - he learned his English with a british accent. very interesting.

otherwise, what a contrast to this thread, eh? thanks for sharing that.

No need for GPS data -- here is your smoking gun:

(1) Starts in green corral at Philly (fourth corral - has to be 3:30 or slower marathons.

(2) Races with headsets and iPhone

(3) Races with water belt... What 3:11 marathon does this?

(4) Does not race in singlet despite reasonable temps.... Most 3:11 marathoners do.

These facts pretty much tell you his marathon finish time.

I have to assume this is a joke since it definitely made me chuckle. I've seen plenty of sub-3 runners wear t-shirts in warm weather, headphones, flip-flops, iphones, costumes, etc., Although... I do always wonder why.

So I had the thought...

Maybe MR is telling the truth about wearing the watch but not using the GPS.

Hear (or read) me out. If, as others have stated, the Lehigh Valley Marathon did start 10 minutes late, perhaps MR forgot this during his car ride/stand around before he jumped back in. Between his car clock time, his watch, and pulling his cheat plan off, it would have been easy to forget what time the race started.

It would explain why he is so far under his 3:25 BQ. He would have been 3+plus minutes below, but because of the mis-calculation of time, he jumped in early before the finish.

MeHereYouWhere?! wrote:

So I had the thought...

Maybe MR is telling the truth about wearing the watch but not using the GPS.

Hear (or read) me out. If, as others have stated, the Lehigh Valley Marathon did start 10 minutes late, perhaps MR forgot this during his car ride/stand around before he jumped back in. Between his car clock time, his watch, and pulling his cheat plan off, it would have been easy to forget what time the race started.

It would explain why he is so far under his 3:25 BQ. He would have been 3+plus minutes below, but because of the mis-calculation of time, he jumped in early before the finish.

Basically he sucks so hard that even cheating he can't get it right.

Congratulations are in order, our mate Mike is dumb ^ 2.