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

It's not that hard, Mike.

rojo wrote:

One last question. ARe you guys sure he is claiming to be a BQ qualifier? How do we know he wasn't simply a charity runner?

There was more than one Mike Rossi in the race. Does Boston list qualifiers and charity runners?

He has a bib in the 8000s in Boston. Charity runners aren't in the second wave, first corral. They all start in the fourth wave.

One last question. ARe you guys sure he is claiming to be a BQ qualifier? How do we know he wasn't simply a charity runner?

There was more than one Mike Rossi in the race. Does Boston list qualifiers and charity runners?

Here's his twitter before after Lehigh:

dkggpeters wrote:

Rojo, if he was a charity runner then he would not have had a bib in the 8000's unless he submitted a time that corresponds with this. An 8000's bib number is consistent with a 3:11 marathon for the 2015 Boston Marathon.

Don't charity runners typically run in a singlet with the charity's name on it?

Besides, if he ran to benefit a charity, blowhard that he is, I doubt he would fail to mention it as part of his "Boston Experience" in his letter to the principal.

dkggpeters wrote:

Rojo, if he was a charity runner then he would not have had a bib in the 8000's unless he submitted a time that corresponds with this. An 8000's bib number is consistent with a 3:11 marathon for the 2015 Boston Marathon.

THIS ^^^

Even if he entered through charity (probably didn't), he used the 3:11 as a seed time.

Invisible Man wrote:

dkggpeters wrote:

Rojo, if he was a charity runner then he would not have had a bib in the 8000's unless he submitted a time that corresponds with this. An 8000's bib number is consistent with a 3:11 marathon for the 2015 Boston Marathon.

Don't charity runners typically run in a singlet with the charity's name on it?

Besides, if he ran to benefit a charity, blowhard that he is, I doubt he would fail to mention it as part of his "Boston Experience" in his letter to the principal.

Good point!!!!

Rap sheet said Warrington, which is where the Boston Marathon result listed him as being from. Also the rap sheet is consistent with age in Boston results, 52 years old, Rydal results have that guy in his late 40's, if it is the same guy, this guy is really a liar, using different ages in results.

citizen kane wrote:

Rap sheet said Warrington, which is where the Boston Marathon result listed him as being from. Also the rap sheet is consistent with age in Boston results, 52 years old, Rydal results have that guy in his late 40's, if it is the same guy, this guy is really a liar, using different ages in results.

It's not the same guy from the rap sheet, and there were two Rossis in Boston (one of which being Rydal guy in question running 4:01, the other being rap sheet Warrington). The man in question is the 47 year from Rydal that ran Lehigh and had the principal letter and so on and so forth, not the rap sheet/52 year old.

COME ON

Thank you for doing this post.

His 3:11 time allowed him to be in the second group to register for Boston Marathon which insured that he did bump legit qualifiers.

Am I correct in that he was an on-air personality at a Philly Country radio station? if so then they scrubbed their site of most mentions of his name.

Twitter @925xtu

http://925xtu.cbslocal.com/

"Citizen Kane"- is that you Mike? Trying to spread some confusion...?

Leave Michael J Rossi from Warrington out of this and try to keep up. There were two Michael Rossis who finished Boston, this is all about the Rydal guy.

Yes that is correct. Yesterday before he took down his Twitter page he had listed his affiliation with the station

You're thinking way too much.

Generating a fake 3:11 GPS file is extremely easy. You just download a file from Garmin Connect from somebody who has run the same course. Then you alter it to match your desired time with:

Your welcome.

We've already established two people from PA named Michael Rossi ran Boston this year: Michael Rossi, 52, Warrington, PA, 3:31.53Michael Rossi, 47, Rydal, PA, 4:01.42The Michael Rossi from Rydal, PA, is the topic of this thread and the man who wrote the letter to the principal of his children's school. Stop dragging the Michael Rossi from Warrington, PA, into this discussion. He has nothing to do with this.

citizen kane wrote:

Rap sheet said Warrington, which is where the Boston Marathon result listed him as being from. Also the rap sheet is consistent with age in Boston results, 52 years old, Rydal results have that guy in his late 40's, if it is the same guy, this guy is really a liar, using different ages in results.

Photographer Dude wrote:

Kids, by the simple fact that they are not of legal age, have zero rights to their photos and their likeness. Their parents can sign away all their rights all day, every day and they often do. That is the simple fact.

Behaving in a way that doesn't violate somebody's legal rights just makes you not a criminal.

Being a decent human being has a somewhat higher standard.

HTH.

I know that you will do your own examination of the photos but I just want to say that since yesterday (when I had looked at 45 total runners), I have expanded the review to include 40 runners who finished ahead of him, 30 who finished behind him, 8 relay teams that finished around him (they did have the same start time of 7:10 am) and there is still no sight of him except the finish line photos.

Also, a lot of the runners posed with their finisher's medals at a step-and-repeat. He did not.

Finally, after looking at this many bibs, I find almost none that have fewer than about 8 photos. Many have a dozen. If I did it again I would record an average-photos-per-runner number (wish I had done that from the start!). I am very satisfied saying that getting through this marathon without being photographed prior to the finish is highly unlikely. In many places you can see hundreds of yards behind the runner with the identified bib and he just isn't there.

Just gotta say- great thread. Best bet would be if Lehigh disqualifies his result, (then BAA might follow? Although I guess his 4:01 is "legit"). An official disqualification from the race at which he BQ'd would be taken seriously by the reporters who wrote the principal stories about him. Actually they'd probably like this story

HeCheated wrote:

If I did it again I would record an average-photos-per-runner number (wish I had done that from the start!). .

I'll do it

In regards to the photos...I tried to look at a few runners around him because I'm curious how he could avoid all shots, and there's a guy fairly near his finish time (runner No. 1444) who also only has finishing photos. If you search more though you can find him in another shot, but his number is all messed up so it wasn't ID'd.

But here's another guy near him that only had a finishing shot so I guess it's somehow possible. Seems unlikely though, but playing a little devil's advocate.

http://www.racephotonetwork.com/QPPlus/Proofs.aspx