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

more pictures, mostly 1/2 runners at finish

http://photos.lehighvalleylive.com/4424/gallery/lehigh_valley_health_network_v_5/index.html?galleryPart=2#/68

Yes, that's a fair question. When you qualify by 14 seconds, it's a "once in a lifetime event," and you may never run that well again. When you qualify by 14 minutes, it's a "many times in a lifetime event," and you know you can do it again whenever you want to.

MarathonMind wrote:

Especially for someone who is 47 and has only been running for 3-4 years,

He'd actually only been running for 27 months as of his Boston performance, so even less plausible.

I was a little down today for some reason... generally lacking motivation and not able to focus. However, after reading this thread I'm just happy I'm not in this guy's shoes. I always tell a friend of mine who loves to self promote to be careful not to cross that line and expose yourself. Karma goes to work very quickly when you put yourself out there. I'm sure this guy only thought he could use the internet as a "positive" social capital tool. My god, what disastrous karma!

My advice is to come clean to yourself first... put the ego aside and admit you were dishonest. Next explain to your family and ask for forgiveness since you brought them into it. And if you really have big balls come clean to the public. Last but not least, try not to mess with karma too much.

Best advice you'll get today

If you look at this picture after the race (from his blog), he is covered in sweat.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4E-_J9rBMJ4/VC2MHn1LNWI/AAAAAAAAB1k/FqXVW2WdWEg/s1600/10645233_10203463727808515_5208063563261582270_n.jpg

You can also see the sweat lines in some of the official pictures.

He obviously exerted himself.

I went from ~3:45 to ~3:10 in a little over a year and peaked for my marathon at about 55 miles. I'm also similar age to him. But in between I ran in the 19's for 5k and a 1:30 half (amongst other progressively faster performances). And in just that time probably ran 2,000 miles, not 1,000 over 18 mos. And when I crushed that BQ as a mid 40's runner who never thought I could do it, I was going bat shit crazy down the stretch with excitement.

Greg, your friend is lying to you.

goodpointthere wrote:

Yes, that's a fair question. When you qualify by 14 seconds, it's a "once in a lifetime event," and you may never run that well again. When you qualify by 14 minutes, it's a "many times in a lifetime event," and you know you can do it again whenever you want to.

That was a very telling Freudian slip on Mr. Rossi's part. He knew he was not likely to qualify legitimately, so his cheating was a "once in a lifetime event".

but you are hanging him before you even have any legit evidence that he did cheat.

he has no obligation to visit some running website to clarify things with white privileged 16- 30 year olds who have nothing better to do with their lives than to stir up trouble

i wish everyone on the internet had to register with their real names, so slanderers could face liability and not f with people's lives anonymously.

412874678124 wrote:

If you look at this picture after the race (from his blog), he is covered in sweat.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4E-_J9rBMJ4/VC2MHn1LNWI/AAAAAAAAB1k/FqXVW2WdWEg/s1600/10645233_10203463727808515_5208063563261582270_n.jpg

You can also see the sweat lines in some of the official pictures.

He obviously exerted himself.

A guy that size would sweat walking from the finish line to the beer tent. Even if I had never read this thread, I'd know from the picture that this guy's never run a 3:10 marathon.

I broke down his 5K splits.

Boston 5K splits

1st 5K Split 24:06 7:45 per mile

2nd 5K Split 26:01 8:22 per mile

3rd 5K Split 27:20 8:47 per mile

4th 5K Split 28:53 9:18 per mile

5th 5K Split 27:25 8:49 per mile

6th 5K Split 32:13 10:22 per mile

7th 5K Split 31:45 10:13 per mile

8th 5K Split 31:12 10:03 per mile

Overall pace for marathon 9:14 per mile

For someone who qualified for Boston with a 7:19 per mile pace he started out very conservatively. You would expect he would keep that pace or even negative split the race. An 8:00 per mile pace should be cakewalk for him. He couldn't even hold that pace past the first 5K. Its not like he went out hard and blew up.

Anyone have the equipment to blow that up, enhance it, and see what his watch is showing?

412874678124 wrote:

If you look at this picture after the race (from his blog), he is covered in sweat.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4E-_J9rBMJ4/VC2MHn1LNWI/AAAAAAAAB1k/FqXVW2WdWEg/s1600/10645233_10203463727808515_5208063563261582270_n.jpg

You can also see the sweat lines in some of the official pictures.

He obviously exerted himself.

Yes. Non runners don't get how we 'know' what happened. I was dating a girl in my 20s. A non runner. She entered some sort of nike women's 10k with prize money. She said, "Do you think if I trained really hard I could win it?" I was like, "You could train your entire life and would never finish 50."

I had jogged with her a few times and knew her talent level.

1) Sir, we have a spreadsheet showing you the 100 nearest finsihers to Mr. Rossi. It's still being completed and it doesn't look like anyone else is missing from the list. EVERYONE WAS PHOTOGRAPHED AT LEAST ON TWO OTHER OCCASSIONS ON THE COURSE BESIDES THE FINISH.

412874678124 wrote:

If you look at this picture after the race (from his blog), he is covered in sweat.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4E-_J9rBMJ4/VC2MHn1LNWI/AAAAAAAAB1k/FqXVW2WdWEg/s1600/10645233_10203463727808515_5208063563261582270_n.jpg

You can also see the sweat lines in some of the official pictures.

He obviously exerted himself.

I agree - Looks like he did sweat quite a bit. Just probably not for 26.2 miles.

The person who lost their spot does not get their due. They were clearly cheated out of their spot. I have no desire to defend the action, only to stem the thirst for blood. No, teamdoc is not my real name. My criticism, if you return to my post, was of the use of anonymity to mob-attack someone who is already down on the ground. Read what I wrote.

pathfinder wrote:

teamdoc wrote:

Wrong. I don't think Mike is a scholar of adult learning theory. You neither. Don't worry, they'll cover it in 11th grade.

You didn't answer my questions: When does the person from whom he stole the spot get their due? And is teamdoc your real name?

And let me add to this... if you really believe your BQ was legit I would post all evidence or supporting materials online to clear up the suspicions. Inevitably many will still doubt your performance but if you really ran that time you should be getting pretty excited right now to prove all wrong. I'll take it further, if you want there to be no question at all as to your ability to run fast, I will go to that BQ course with you, whenever you're race ready again and we'll run the course together and I'll even pace you to anything at or below a 3:20.

If I were you, I'd take this offer to shut the crowd up at once. That will remove all doubts and you'll really be hailed a hero online for eternity. I will also eat * hit if you can pull it off.

I have helped with at least 10 of those entries on the spreadsheet. Happy as larry.

shout out to all LRs who helped as well.

Raysism wrote:

...

A guy that size would sweat walking from the finish line to the beer tent. Even if I had never read this thread, I'd know from the picture that this guy's never run a 3:10 marathon.

Devil's Advocate:

How a person looks is not an accurate predictor (within reason). The only thing I would venture to say is that he is not capable of running sub 2:30 from that picture. 3:11 would not surprise me. In the grand scheme of things 3:11 is not that great and as most of us agree, does not indicate any particular talents. He appears to be in reasonable shape (not obese).

I'm amazed every time I go to the race at how fast some seemingly "out of shape / too heavy" people can run. If you saw pictures of me you would think I would be lucky to break 30 for 5k, yet I've run multiple half marathons under 1:30.

I do think this fellow is not legit however.

sfdsfds wrote:

but you are hanging him before you even have any legit evidence that he did cheat.

he has no obligation to visit some running website to clarify things with white privileged 16- 30 year olds who have nothing better to do with their lives than to stir up trouble

i wish everyone on the internet had to register with their real names, so slanderers could face liability and not f with people's lives anonymously.

I am not hanging him, but I have found enough evidence to find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Your ad hominem attacks are just pathetic.

StolenBoston wrote:

4. No visible sweat in finish line photo (especially considered in combination with #1, with someone running the hardest race of their life)

Another one of your "facts" up in smoke.