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

The smoke surrounding the 3:11 comes from two primary sources: 1) The modest racing pedigree of the accused runner; and 2) The lack of mid-race photos.

If there is someone else from the race with only finish-line photos and they completed the race fairly, they will have a record of running that makes their finish time plausible.

crete wrote:

Precious Roy wrote:

He ran the Philly half two weeks after Lehigh Valley, He jogs it out for a 2:20. Rossi is not recorded by the mi 10 timing mat:

http://running.competitor.com/cgiresults?eId=4&eiId=215&seId=709&pId=147903

The course goes out and back on the banks of the Schuylkill. Before mile 7, there is a bridge that crosses the river and spits you out just after mile 10. He also ran a PR in the 5k on the same day. I assume that it is possible to do both races.

oh, this looks suspicious, too.

0-5k at 8:01/mi pace

5k-10k at 15:40/mi pace (AKA he is blowing up big time)

10k-Finish at 9:43/mi pace (some how un-blows up)

weird.

Nah, I don't think so. If he has run a 5k beforehand (?) there's nothing wrong in walking a little bit in the middle while you're pondering your new PR and then start jogging when you see you can pull off that post-race workout.

I'm curious on how prevalent cheating like this is. Do we think that there's only a handful of people that cheated to get their Boston qualifier? Or are there a few hundred? Or maybe even more?

rojo wrote:

It's funny that I got so into this as a) i've always thought peopel who are so obsessed about marathon cheaters were showing a bit of sign of mental illness themselves

One of us!

rojo wrote:

It's funny that I got so into this as a) i've always thought peopel who are so obsessed about marathon cheaters were showing a bit of sign of mental illness themselves

^this

When this thread started I thought why is a darn BQ so important to people. I couldn't even relate to the paces this guy run. But as the thread went on...

rojo wrote:

It's funny that I got so into this as a) i've always thought peopel who are so obsessed about marathon cheaters were showing a bit of sign of mental illness themselves and b) didn't like the writing of the New Yorker story.

But the arrogance of this guy got to me. I hate the "holier than thou" attitude.

Either that or I just didn't feel like writing the week that was.

I am on the same page, almost verbatim. I have read the Kip thread and the marathon cheaters thread and thought "WTH is happening?" But now I can't NOT follow this. The way he paraded himself was annoying...if it's coupled with something he didn't even do, it's overkill.

Either that or I also wanted to avoid work. *shrug*

There's no way he couldn't get in some mid-race photos. Look at the finishing times. It's not like runners were flooding the course. He could not hide behind a pack of runners the whole way. Somewhere there should be a photo, if he ran.

Also, can he tell us his splits? I'm sure he must have some idea where he went through 10, half, and 20.

crete wrote:

Precious Roy wrote:

He ran the Philly half two weeks after Lehigh Valley, He jogs it out for a 2:20. Rossi is not recorded by the mi 10 timing mat:

http://running.competitor.com/cgiresults?eId=4&eiId=215&seId=709&pId=147903

The course goes out and back on the banks of the Schuylkill. Before mile 7, there is a bridge that crosses the river and spits you out just after mile 10. He also ran a PR in the 5k on the same day. I assume that it is possible to do both races.

oh, this looks suspicious, too.

0-5k at 8:01/mi pace

5k-10k at 15:40/mi pace (AKA he is blowing up big time)

10k-Finish at 9:43/mi pace (some how un-blows up)

weird.

Yep, this one stinks. I believe the 5k was on Saturday and the 1/2 marathon was on Sunday.

Here's a reasonable speculation based on the evidence at hand:

He "runs" Lehigh Valley and is completely fresh and ready to try for a 5k PR at Rock and Roll Philly. He goes out on Saturday and runs a 21:52-- which is, to be fair, a great race for him: ~7:00/mile pace.

He is also registered for the half and figures that it will be badass to run both. He gets rolling thinking that 8:00/miles should be easy-- he's done training runs in that time, right? He quickly realizes that it's kind of hard to run a 1/2 marathon the day after you PR in the 5k, and at some point between 5k and 10k he starts walking. (Or maybe even stops altogether due to cramps, bathroom issues, etc.) When he sees the bridge at mile 7 he takes the shortcut and walks/shuffle jogs the rest of the way in.

He has 3 pictures for Philly-- one pre-race, one during the race, and one post-race with his medal. Anybody know how that compares to others in the Philly half?

I ran the half marathon and the last set of photos were taken at Riverview Park, at about mile 9.5 of the half, or 22.5 of the full.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/D+%26+L+Trail+-+Lehigh+Canal+

(South),+Easton,+PA+18045/@40.6637533,-75.2430083,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c46ca6b2329127:0x3dcec1b1e3037fee

FWIW, I PR-ed here, but only by about 1 minute, and it was in the half, so I was done before by like 8:30 am.

Technically you are correct that one could have "the race of your life" by doubling one's mileage. BUT given that he has consistently averaged a bit over 22:00 for a 5K (5 of 6 races between 21:52 and 22:39), we have a good idea what his running potential is EVEN IF he ran max mileage. 1:40 half and 3:40 full are the predicted outcomes given his training and Lehigh aside that's pretty much what he ran.

As for the earlier post about weather, that's yet another factor against a "breakthrough" race. On marathon day in Bethlehem, PA, the starting temp was indeed 62 degrees (with 75% humidity!), and rose to 70 degrees by 10am. Not ideal PR weather.

Finally, I am impressed by the crowdsourcing work today. The chatter in the forums sometimes isn't my cup of tea, but when it counts you guys do walk the walk.

Oh, I agree about the mid-race photos -- if he had run, he would be found somewhere in one of the photos (if not the main subject, then in the background).

Regarding the photos: We should consider that we are noting his absence in the background (or running aside) in photos of others, which is important. But even more important is the notion that he is not the MAIN FOCUS of any photos prior to the finish line.

As this race spreads out, what are the odds of not being the MAIN FOCUS of at least one photo? If you ran a marathon that gets this sparse in places and set a personal best by a massive margin, how would you feel when you review the photos later and realized you were not the MAIN FOCUS of at least a shot or two? You would think the photographers had a personal vendetta against you to not have captured you at least once. You would wonder how the heck they didn't get you on that bike path or along that lake where everyone is reduced to groups of one or two, or running alone.

I think he might want to sue the photographers who clearly missed his once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment. It's negligence, I tell ya!

ran it wrote:

I ran the half marathon and the last set of photos were taken at Riverview Park, at about mile 9.5 of the half, or 22.5 of the full.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/D+%26+L+Trail+-+Lehigh+Canal+

(South),+Easton,+PA+18045/@40.6637533,-75.2430083,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c46ca6b2329127:0x3dcec1b1e3037fee

FWIW, I PR-ed here, but only by about 1 minute, and it was in the half, so I was done before by like 8:30 am.

Yep I was speculating that he likely jumped in somewhere after this point. Less than 4 miles to the finish from there. Good work and nice PR.

Want to prove without a doubt that he didn't run the entire course? Let's contact the company that photographed the race for the photo's in the order they were shot. They will have plenty of photos that didn't make the final cut and with them all in order it will create a video of sorts. You will see the runners in front and behind of the person being photographed. With enough photo's put in order it will without a doubt prove he did not finish. They aren't going to be speak with a random person so it will have to be Rojo or Wejo contact them about a story they are investigating.

Alright boys, we are getting very close and here is our cigar. Just line up the photos and the evidence will be there.

Contact the Photographers wrote:

Want to prove without a doubt that he didn't run the entire course? Let's contact the company that photographed the race for the photo's in the order they were shot. They will have plenty of photos that didn't make the final cut and with them all in order it will create a video of sorts. You will see the runners in front and behind of the person being photographed. With enough photo's put in order it will without a doubt prove he did not finish. They aren't going to be speak with a random person so it will have to be Rojo or Wejo contact them about a story they are investigating.

Alright boys, we are getting very close and here is our cigar. Just line up the photos and the evidence will be there.

You're a clever boy!

You can already do that, in a sense. Photo companies generally upload all the photos. In this case, you can go roll by roll, and the rolls, for the most part, are in order. There's definitely a continuity as you go back and forth at the various locations. And he's nowhere in the photos that he should be in. Background or otherwise.

confessor wrote:

Although unknown to most liberal twats, Christians have a concept of repentance and forgiveness.[/quote]

Perfect! This asshat refers to liberals as twats then professes to be a Christian!! Talk about clueless.

ZIP wrote:

ran it wrote:

I ran the half marathon and the last set of photos were taken at Riverview Park, at about mile 9.5 of the half, or 22.5 of the full.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/D+%26+L+Trail+-+Lehigh+Canal+

(South),+Easton,+PA+18045/@40.6637533,-75.2430083,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c46ca6b2329127:0x3dcec1b1e3037fee

FWIW, I PR-ed here, but only by about 1 minute, and it was in the half, so I was done before by like 8:30 am.

Yep I was speculating that he likely jumped in somewhere after this point. Less than 4 miles to the finish from there. Good work and nice PR.

I looked at the girl who finished near him for another angle and it is definitely right before the final exchange at mile 22.5. It makes sense too, I don't think there is another spot where you can easily pick up the course later without being noticed (if a car drops you).

How will the photos lined up prove " he did not finish"? Is'nt the continuous video of the finish showing him crossing the finish line proof that he did finish?