Video Highlights 2015 Boston Marathon
April 20, 2015
I will never, ever run The Lehigh Valley Health Network Via Marathon.
We need to put the heat on Bart Yasso. His name is connected to this race and he cares about his reputation.
How is this going down at the Runners World forum?
Also, I'd love to hear Hal Higden's opinion of the Lehigh Valley Health Network Via Marathon and what a crock it is.
So does everyone think this was a fair and reasonable resolution or not?
And he will prove the naysayers wrong when he qualifies for the Olympics next.
Fence Hopper wrote:
So does everyone think this was a fair and reasonable resolution or not?
The BAA should announce that Lehigh Valley will not in the future be a Boston qualifying race (because of the lack of integrity of the results)
Since his name has been cleared, I think we need Mike writing training plans for the top marathon runners. He knows something that the rest of the world doesn't. I am almost certain that under his guidance we could have our first sub 2:00 marathon.
On a more serious note-- Could Boston refuse qualifying times from the LVM? If Lehigh will not take a stand, I think Boston should.
poetic justice wrote:
The BAA should announce that Lehigh Valley will not in the future be a Boston qualifying race (because of the lack of integrity of the results)
^^^ This ^^^
Why on earth would one conclude that "conclusive evidence" is required? That's higher than the standard required in criminal cases. Even if there were three witnesses who saw someone who looked like just like Rossi sneaking onto the course with three miles to go, that still wouldn't be conclusive. All he would have to say would be that he suddenly had to heed the call of nature.
Ah well, that's that then, doesn't look like we'll make 5000 posts now and Mike's sitting back with a smug smile on his face and letting the world know he's ligit and really is the man. LVM should be ashamed of themselves.
Well you will want to follow him breaking 3:00 won't you? I doubt he'll ever sue anyone, I'd love to see some high profile running experts rip him a new one. But right now LVM deserves our collective ire.
twitterpete wrote:
Should we flood him with follow requests?
something.
I knew it! I emailed a different RD after another marathon where a 3:14 marathoner did a 18:30 split for 5km (flat course, no hills) and they said "within the scope of possibility, we won't DQ". This 18:30 (6:05 pace for a 7:15 pace marathoner? yeah right!?) split was on the out and back section. They also missed a mat at a key turnaround (obvious they cut).
The RD said "we won't DQ without further evidence". Basically, it doesn't matter what the splits say. RDs won't DQ anyone unless it is more than obvious.
This is a case in point. RD probably thought within the realm of possibility that he missed all the photogs.
Even if they had mats and you skipped every one, they'd probably do nothing!
The BQ standard is a joke. You need to beat it by 5% in order to beat the cheaters.
Now that's what I'm talking about.
rojo wrote:
And the Friday afternoon news dump comes out:
http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/05/the-lehigh-valley-marathon-is-not-going-to-disqualify-mike-rossi-the-viral-boston-marathon-dad-because-no-one-reported-wrongdoing-as-the-race-took-place/No DQ "unless additional conclusive information" comes out.
In our minds, the statement by the marathon organizers is logically flawed. Imagine if the police in this country weren't allow to charge people with burglary simply because it wasn't reported while it was happening - crime would be even more of a problem than it already is.
When one considers that it's physiologically improbable to say the least (some would say impossible) that Mr. Rossi was even capable of running 3:11:45, given his personal bests at other distances which all equate to a marathon over 3:30, with the fact that he wasn't seen in a single photo on the course, the burden of proof should have shifted to Mr. Rossi to provide some shred of evidence that he ran the race (GPS data, photos, statements from fellow competitors, spectators or family members, etc.) or was at least physically capable of something close to a 3:11:45 (training logs, GPS data, statements from training partners), particularly when one considers that his own contemporaneous statements contradicted his initial explanation that his other PRs were much slower simply because he was injured or not going all out in many of his shorter races.
The integrity of our beloved sport is at stake. We've spent much of the last few weeks researching and writing our own story on Mr. Rossi that lays out the evidence against Mr. Rossi. We were going to publish the story tonight which was going to ask for a DQ.
We were waiting to put it out as we wanted to give Lehigh Valley and Mr. Rossi a chance to comment. Our email to Mr. Rossi was met with a reply by a lawyer who has been "retained to investigate and prosecute any and all claims of defamation arising from false allegations of competition cheating made against my client." And then we got the statement from Lehigh Valley.
We still think our story is well researched and well written. We will publish the story early next week as we don't want it to get lost as a Friday afternoon news dump.. In our minds, the evidence is indeed conclusive that Mike Rossi - the viral Boston Marathon dad - is a marathon cheat and should have not been on starting line in Boston and we hope the organizers consider it as "additional conclusive information."
Dave McGillivray is the RD. I doubt he'd even consider it.
poetic justice wrote:
The BAA should announce that Lehigh Valley will not in the future be a Boston qualifying race (because of the lack of integrity of the results)
twitterpete wrote:
Should we flood him with follow requests?
Mike has a modest finish line photo on his Twitter. This is the new Mike, no more raised arms and sniffing out cameras. From now on it's Mr Modesty Mike, after all he doesn't have to prove anything now, he's a legitimate 3:11 man and a Boston finisher and can sit back and smile at all you idiots who doubted him.
An even better idea: register AS mike Rossi. Turn the LVM into the "mike Rossi 10k marathon"
NotABQer wrote:
What a joke. Way to go LVM.
I would love to see a flood of people show up at the marathon this year in "I am Mike Rossi" t-shirts, hop the fence at the start, drive to the finish line, and finish in ridiculous times.
The fact is that the proceeds from this race go to charity. I\'m sure the RD has to answer to them before anyone else. I would be the first one to say he cheated but also would not want one dime taken away from a worthy cause in defending against him. He likely knew this and pressed hard with his lawyers.
Most marathons are associated with a charity. I'm going to pick one of those. It's called - literally - voting with one's feet.
Charity wrote:
The fact is that the proceeds from this race go to charity. I'm sure the RD has to answer to them before anyone else. I would be the first one to say he cheated but also would not want one dime taken away from a worthy cause in defending against him. He likely knew this and pressed hard with his lawyers.
Maybe 45 minutes ago, there were multiple posts from people on the Via Marathon's Facebook page. Now I'm not seeing any "posts from others".
Looks like they don't like honest feedback and eliminated public comments?
That stinks worse than the non-DQ.
Cover up? wrote:
https://www.facebook.com/ViaMarathonMaybe 45 minutes ago, there were multiple posts from people on the Via Marathon's Facebook page. Now I'm not seeing any "posts from others".
Looks like they don't like honest feedback and eliminated public comments?
That stinks worse than the non-DQ.
Should be obvious by context, but I meant to say that the public comments were critical of Via's non-DQ decision. Nothing over the line either, just honest criticism of the non-decision.
I don't think anything stinks worse than the non-DQ.I will never run this race. Ever. Unbelievable.
Cover up? wrote:
https://www.facebook.com/ViaMarathonMaybe 45 minutes ago, there were multiple posts from people on the Via Marathon's Facebook page. Now I'm not seeing any "posts from others".
Looks like they don't like honest feedback and eliminated public comments?
That stinks worse than the non-DQ.
Not a lawyer, but I think that you would be covered because you were collecting information and reasonably believed he cheated.
Truth is always a defense to defamation.
But yeah, I'll throw down $5 if he sues.