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

FTW.

Weasel MR wrote:

We will also need a small legal fund so we can threaten to sue a small defenseless charity. Just Because we say we ran doesn't mean we have to prove it!

NowFindJimmyHoffa wrote:

They disabled posting after they got hit by negative comments.

Posting on their page is working just fine.

5000, you can't prove that this isn't post #5000 after some posts got deleted throughout the threads history.

This is such garbage.

How much more conclusive does it need to be. A picture of him in the car holding up the readout from an atomic clock!?

If would be cool to get a high Google result to say the race welcomes cheaters if people look to sign up.

Correct. I won't lose the lawsuit. But we've been sued before and it costs a minimum of $10,000 to defend yourself. As a corporation, I'm not allowed to defend myself . We have to hire a lawyer.

His lawyer is trying to say I'm biased as I told him we'll see if Lehigh Valley has "the balls" to do a DQ and what I meant by that is it's just way easier to cop out and not DQ him. If you don't publish the article, or don't DQ, what happens. Nothing really. The hard-core runners are outraged but you save yourself potentially $10,000. Not that I think he'd really sue as it would cost him a lot to sue as well.

That makes no sense. Did you read their statement. It mentions nothing of additional evidence. Zero, zilch, nada. It says they didn't have any wrongdoing reported when the race took place. If they had it, i'm pretty sure they'd release it.

It just angers me. It shows how the sport we love is viewed as nothing but a charity raisinging, fun run by the general public. Lawyers get involved and say, "Don't DQ him." It makes no sense. You have to understand running to some degree to understand that this should have been a DQ within a few days.

Our article next week will explain it all.

In all of my marathons, I could easily prove that I was capable of something close to it. A) People ran next to me for miles B) Family saw me on the course C) My training logs.

A total joke. Very disappointing.

The Via Marathon statement basically says anything short of a video of him hopping out onto the course and he wouldn't be DQd. Even if people founds a still photo of Rossi running off or on to the course at Lehigh Valley, Rossi could always say he was simply leaving the course to go or come back from going to the bathroom. So you'd need a video. That's absurd.

John Kellogg told me the moment he heard Rossi Ruiz won the the Boston Marathon it wasn't real. He didn't even need any evidence. Here we have lots of evidence. The lack of photos is evidence, the lack of PBs anywhere close to the equivalent of 3:11, etc.

RIDICULOUS.

He may have fooled some of the people all of the time, but he is a cheat and has not fooled all of the runners at all.

Dkdjdjdjxjxjxjxn wrote:

This is such garbage.

How much more conclusive does it need to be. A picture of him in the car holding up the readout from an atomic clock!?

If would be cool to get a high Google result to say the race welcomes cheaters if people look to sign up.

Rojo,

If you get sued I'm pretty confident the lets run community has your back financially.

Rojo - In your article, please include Hal Higdon's facebook conclusion or some sort of quotes from him or his artcile. The more outside expers willing to opine vis-a-vis other DQs, the stronger the article will be and the argument/evidence that Mr. Rossi cheated.

In addition, one glaring omission from LHVM's statement is the direct evidence that Mr. Rossi is not in one single photo while on the course, except for the finish line, unlike every other runner who have at least one or more photos throughout the course. That is direct evidence and in fact, the PHOTOGRAPHIC record is a quasi eyewitness that he was not on the course. Please point that out. LHVM should be called out on the carpet for that, and pressure should be placed on the Boston Marathon not to accept any BQ from this race.

This is a long thread so this may have been discussed, but have we considered that Lehigh Valley not care about cheating, or worse, want it? Their whole selling point is how easy it is to qualify for Boston there, mentioning that they have the fouth highest qualifying percentage. It could very well be that they know people use the race to cheat their way into Boston, turning a blind eye allows them to use the high percentage as a marketing tool.

I don't think so, just serendipity. They are despicable for allowing this cheater to win.

MaybeTheWantCheaters wrote:

This is a long thread so this may have been discussed, but have we considered that Lehigh Valley not care about cheating, or worse, want it? Their whole selling point is how easy it is to qualify for Boston there, mentioning that they have the fouth highest qualifying percentage. It could very well be that they know people use the race to cheat their way into Boston, turning a blind eye allows them to use the high percentage as a marketing tool.

ethiopianrunning wrote:

Since his name has been cleared,........

This thread should be deleted.

MaybeTheWantCheaters wrote:

This is a long thread so this may have been discussed, but have we considered that Lehigh Valley not care about cheating, or worse, want it? Their whole selling point is how easy it is to qualify for Boston there, mentioning that they have the fouth highest qualifying percentage. It could very well be that they know people use the race to cheat their way into Boston, turning a blind eye allows them to use the high percentage as a marketing tool.

Another idea... Maybe we should all sign up and run as slow as fuc&. I'm talking 6 -7 hours. That'll bring down their qualifying percentage.

Either way, don't forget to dress in black and wear your fannie pack!!

Reg Fields wrote:

Rojo,

If you get sued I'm pretty confident the lets run community has your back financially.

Start a GoFundMe campaign. If this cheat is threatening small charities to further his own narcissism, let's help let's run make a stand. $10k to be used in the defense of letsrun. If Rossi caves to an actual fight, we donate the $ to a charity of a marathon that has the balls to DQ cheaters, lawyers or no. That f*ker's ego is writing checks his reality can't cash.

Everybody needs to just take a step back. The Lehigh marathon is not that big a race and is a point to point course, not easy to patrol. Are we really doing any good trying to wreck this race? You can't disqualify someone from a race because they shouldn't have run so fast because you checked athlinks? So like it or not, there is no proof he cheated. Hopefully this will cause the marathon, and other marathons to put in more safeguard to prevent this from happening.

Should be wrote:

ethiopianrunning wrote:

Since his name has been cleared,........

This thread should be deleted.

Nowhere in the decision did LHVM "clear" his name. We can take solace that Rossi can't delete the Internet, and his cheating will always be just a google away. Like kip litton.

Run along mike. Hahaha. Run. A. Long. Hahah. Tell us again about your 3:11 10k marathon.

Rojo:

Did his lawyers ask/insist you remove this thread?

There is proof. Zero pics on the course except his own selfie start and then finish pics. EVERY OTHER RUNNER IS PHOTOGRAPHED EXCEPT THE CHEATER MIKE ROSSI ON THE COURSE. Zero training AND race times to indicate a 3:11. And as a liar, his head is down at the finish, anyone who knows liars knows this is a tell.

muebele wrote:

Everybody needs to just take a step back. The Lehigh marathon is not that big a race and is a point to point course, not easy to patrol. Are we really doing any good trying to wreck this race? You can't disqualify someone from a race because they shouldn't have run so fast because you checked athlinks? So like it or not, there is no proof he cheated. Hopefully this will cause the marathon, and other marathons to put in more safeguard to prevent this from happening.

[quote]Calling BS wrote:

EVERY OTHER RUNNER IS PHOTOGRAPHED EXCEPT THE CHEATER MIKE ROSSI ON THE COURSE.

[quote]muebele wrote:

Are you SURE there weren't any other photos? Or maybe that he just wasn't in the ones you had access to?

I take it you haven't been able to keep up here.

Jimmy Hoffa Here wrote:

[quote]Calling BS wrote:

EVERY OTHER RUNNER IS PHOTOGRAPHED EXCEPT THE CHEATER MIKE ROSSI ON THE COURSE.

[quote]muebele wrote:

Are you SURE there weren't any other photos? Or maybe that he just wasn't in the ones you had access to?