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

ilanarama wrote:

Never mind. Athlinks is being ornery and didn't give me all the results. She in fact ran a 3:20:47 that April at the NJ Marathon and a 1:29:49 half this March.

There's no need to name any other runners.

everyone, learn from this! wrote:

ilanarama wrote:

Never mind. Athlinks is being ornery and didn't give me all the results. She in fact ran a 3:20:47 that April at the NJ Marathon and a 1:29:49 half this March.

There's no need to name any other runners.

There are already 100 runners named on that SS that is being passed around.

What's Done is Done wrote:

everyone, learn from this! wrote:

There's no need to name any other runners.

There are already 100 runners named on that SS that is being passed around.

Sure, but it's not necessary to dig up details and discuss individual runners publicly.

local person wrote:

Can you link to a specific one? I'm from the area and know most of the course. If it is the one looking down at the runners from the left side, with water on the other side, that's maybe a mile from the finish. Probably 25.

Here is a link to the photo search. Enter the winner's bib #1199. There are plenty of pics of him. Maybe you can pinpoint where the last photographer was positioned, assuming he didn't move during the race.

ilanarama wrote:

I decided to take the challenge of looking for other results and started with Siobhan O'Connor, who finished just behind Rossi.

Interestingly (to me) her races also don't support a 3:12 finish time, though she doesn't have any 2014 races, so perhaps she just got really good really quickly. I see a 1:14:49 10M (7:28 pace) in November 2012, a 3:49:54 Philadelphia Marathon a week later, and a 3:54:46 finish at the Philadelphia Marathon in November 2013.

Were there photographs of her (bib 1997) on the course?

She finished Boston 2015 in 3:05, and her other races do support a 3:12. And the spreadsheet shows she was photographed in four places.

Invisible Man wrote:

Any Lehigh marathoner finishers here? Can someone pinpoint where these on course pictures were taken, especially the last photos before the finish? The last series of photos (before the finish line photos) appear to be on a running path. Anyone know approximately what mile that is?

Mike Rossi was never photographed, so it's reasonable to conclude he jumped onto the course somewhere between the last on-course photographer and the finish line.

There's one of me (I finished 11 behind him) on a bridge and I think it was at 16 or so. I remember a bridge where I knew I was done at 16 in 2013 and I'm almost certain that was it where that picture is. Also, the humidity was really high that day. Temps started low and got warmer. I can tell by looking at my pictures that I was really soaked.

I mentioned it in a different post, but I thought I was in shape to break 3:10 by a few minutes. My race results don't indicate a ton, because I left myself go and Via was where I kind of finally got close to being back. But I went 2:57 in 2011, 3:08 in 2012 and I've been below 3:10 probably 15-20 times, so I know when I'm in sub-3:10 shape. I had a couple of issues at Lehigh Valley, but it was not a PR day.

Went 3:25 at MDI (really hilly course) the next month and ran 3:19 in Philly, threw in the towel at 14 and had a bad positive split. 3:14:00 at Boston this year. If you stalk my NYC I ran that with a slower friend for fun.

What would you all be thinking if you were Mike right now?

I would hope the internet crashes.

Madnesses wrote:

What would you all be thinking if you were Mike right now?

runner felice wrote:

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/05/05/did-boston-marathon-dad-mike-rossi-cheat/

OMG he's gonna sue us!

Madnesses wrote:

What would you all be thinking if you were Mike right now?

How to make money/publicity out of this.

runner felice wrote:

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/05/05/did-boston-marathon-dad-mike-rossi-cheat/

I think some people on this thread would honestly believe that Mike might confess. Read the article, no such luck. Looks like we have a war on our hands.

Someone may want to forward him Kip's information as to how to go about laying low for awhile or something. Although Kip wasn't a celeb before the cheating so he probably can't help.

Madnesses wrote:

What would you all be thinking if you were Mike right now?

I would call Oprah.

circus dirkus wrote:

Do you remember seeing Rossi at all based on the pictures posted of him?

No, sure don't. I was pretty focused on battling myself through it, though. I don't get super chatty and make friends in races. I just do my thing and run my race. Just adding to the conspiracy theory, which seems like it might well have merit, I don't know how his back isn't sweaty in those sweaty pics. I've worn those race shorts for ~20-25 marathons and when they're as dark as they were in those pictures, it's a pretty humid day. I have a pretty solid memory of the humidity being up near 90% or so before the start of the race, but the temps were probably down below 60, which was amazing coming off the summer. It got up to about 70 by the time we were done and the sun was really beating down the last ~10 miles or so.

If you went out fast and crashed and he only beat you by 2 minutes then logic would say that he likely rolled you up at some point in the course, but I'm guessing you never saw him.

Sam's point is another that needs to be made, this was NOT PR WEATHER. I know a couple of people who ran it, both struggled late, and both are far better and more experienced runners than Magic Mike. I mentioned earlier my PR's, all ran within a year of my 3:10 effort, all well faster than the Magic man, I ran my 3:10 in perfect weather, 40's and overcast, moderate wind.

For fun, I wrote a script to go through the photo website and find any other participants who were only photographed at the finish line, or not at all. Here's a list of bib numbers.

1444

2161

1050

1226

1355

2488

1850

1612

1187

1755

1193

1754

2451

2184

1902

2390

1954

2401

2188

2203

2336

1132

1200

Rumors go around that Mike Rossi post at this forum using the handle Xfit-guy-the-real-one-1.