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

oh wow man how did you know that?

Oh FFS wrote:

Premeditated wrote:

I wonder if Rossi knew he would get the letter (it's been described as a form letter) and pre-planned the whole response. Maybe he even took the kids out for three days to ensure he got the letter so that he could have his little response and let the whole world know that he ran the Boston Marathon. Missing one day of school might not be enough to trigger the form letter response after all. This is the guy who "ran" way faster than he needed to in order to ensure a BQ, after all. Mike Rossi leaves nothing to chance.

Plus the longer the trip, the more people ask "where have you been, Mike?", the more of an event it was and the more he got to talk about how he ran the Boston Marathon.

Are you wearing a tinfoil hat right now?

It's time you moved on from the letter.

The letter was not disrespectful. I'll post it below.

He originally posted it on his Facebook account. Wow, what a rebel.

Let's get a little perspective here: there are only four types of Facebook posts:

1) Humble bragging about yourself

2) bragging about your kids

3) pointing out the absurdities of everyday modern life

4) hilarious pictures involving cats.

Our boy Mike's post was #3. I don't have a hard time believing that he posted it merely for laughs amongst his friends. And then it went viral, and instant celebrity can make people do strange things.

But here's an important point that you and your fellow weirdos fail to grasp: it's not Mike's fault that internet psychos started issuing fatwas against the school principal. That's not on our boy Mike. He didn't ask for any exceptions to be made. He didn't criticize the policy. He merely stated that if he had to do it again, he would.

This is not to excuse him cheating at the LVM. And yes, there is no doubt in anyone's minds that he cheated. He's been exposed, and he's going to have to live with that for the rest of his life.

That won't change, so maybe it's time you moved on.

The letter (yes, the bit about dedication and commitment are hilarious):

Dear Madam Principal,

While I appreciate your concern for our children's education, I can promise you they learned as much in the five days we were in Boston as they would in an entire year in school.

Our children had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that can't be duplicated in a classroom or read in a book.

In the 3 days of school they missed (which consisted of standardized testing that they could take any time) they learned about dedication, commitment, love, perseverance, overcoming adversity, civic pride, patriotism, American history, culinary arts and physical education.

They watched their father overcome injury, bad weather, the death of a loved one and many other obstacles to achieve an important personal goal.

They also experienced first-hand the love and support of thousands of others cheering on people with a common goal.

At the marathon, they watched blind runners, runners with prosthetic limbs and debilitating diseases and people running to raise money for great causes run in the most prestigious and historic marathon in the world.

They also paid tribute to the victims of a senseless act of terrorism and learned that no matter what evil may occur, terrorists can not deter the American spirit.

These are things they won't ever truly learn in the classroom.

In addition our children walked the Freedom Trail, visited the site of the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre and the graves of several signers of the Declaration of Independence.

These are things they WILL learn in school a year or more from now. So in actuality our children are ahead of the game. They also visited an aquarium, sampled great cuisine and spent many hours of physical activity walking and swimming.

We appreciate the efforts of the wonderful teachers and staff and cherish the education they are receiving at Rydal Elementary School. We truly love our school.

But I wouldn't hesitate to pull them out of school again for an experience like the one they had this past week.

Thank you for your time.

You are wrong. As another posted said, there are "dozens" of people all over the world who care about this now. Runners United!!!!!1111!!!

It is fairly obvious what happened: he knew he had to run a 3:21-3:22 to have a safe cushion to qualify and get in. He did the math and figured he had to cross the finish line at 10:21ish AM. He folded his bib up and stuffed it in his shorts. Apparently there is a loop or curve near the hospital near the start; so he stopped to tie his shoes or something to step off the course. Then he just blended in with the crowd and got in his car and drove down (possibly stopping at Starbucks along the way). He forgot to add the extra 10 minutes for the late stop. He either jumped back in the race at the last relay stop, or stepped into a porta-potty where he pinned his bib on, and busted out of there like a bat out of hell to claim his glory. He crossed the finish line and realized he ran it 10 minutes too fast and had a mini-panic attack. Therefore, his only reaction could be, "Holy shit, I did it...," instead of his usual lengthy report. Then he ran Philly 10 weeks later in an attempt to legitimately qualify, and bombed there.

the missing 10 minutes wrote:

why do you think an accomplice , isn't it more likely that someone who wanted in to Boston and had never been through the process before, would know that there is a cutoff to qualify but that within that cutoff they take the best times, therefore figuring heavy demand that year on Boston, they would give themselves what they thought was a safe buffer of say 10 minutes

the experienced runner might figure they only need 3-4 minutes at most, but if you were bent on getting in you would want the buffer

How can a runner who can't break a 7 min mile run a 3:11 marathon

How Can wrote:

How can a runner who can't break a 7 min mile run a 3:11 marathon

He didn't have to stop to fuel the car. That saves time.

Have a friend or his brother drive him

I have plenty of perspective and have no problem about him taking his precious children out of school. Perhaps since he claims they learned more in those few days than in an entire year, the school should test the children on what they learned. But I digress. Also, my post was not a comment about the letter only a means to lay out the history. However, in response to you, the was no reason to start the letter "Dear Madam Principal". That alone was sarcastic and disrespectful. Moreover, while I can surely appreciate that trips such as his can be very educational and one can learn things not able to be taught in a school, it is also a bit of stretch to say they learned more in those few days than in an entire year. If that is truly the case, then he is a complete failure as a parent to allow his children to attend such an unworthy institution and not much of a concerned parent or resident to address the shortcomings of the school by not providing a better educational environment given the taxes he pays in the township.

Truly concerned parents, residents and citizens have a dialogue with those who can make a difference not by first throwing a hissy fit and then back peddle and try to blame others for the viral nightmare that ensued and led to the principle having to deal with threats.

And that's the reason you threatened his life? Over the contents of a letter?

seriously???? wrote:

And that's the reason you threatened his life? Over the contents of a letter?

Seriously???

I never threatened anyone's life, most certainly not his as it is not worth threatening.

seriously???? wrote:

And that's the reason you threatened his life? Over the contents of a letter?

What planet are you from?

Nobody threatened anyone's life. Get a grip. It was a Belushi quote.

seriously???? wrote:

And that's the reason you threatened his life? Over the contents of a letter?

seriously???? wrote:

And that's the reason you threatened his life? Over the contents of a letter?

In other words, treat me like an idiot. Please share the threat. All I remember was a movie quote, an overly litigious attorney and a risk adverse website.

hy·per·bo·le

hīˈpərbəlē/Submit

noun

exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally.

synonyms: exaggeration, overstatement, magnification, embroidery, embellishment, excess, overkill, rhetoric;

You really don't have perspective on this.

I get that as a parent of the school, you are upset about what the principal went through.

But you should be directing your ire towards the low-life d-bags who were harassing the principal.

NotABQer wrote:

Nobody threatened anyone's life. Get a grip. It was a Belushi quote.

seriously???? wrote:

And that's the reason you threatened his life? Over the contents of a letter?

The problem is that he probably already has a grip on either his or on Mike's _ _ _ _, just not on reality.

The next question is will the Rossi posse be present in Chicago? Isn't he signed up to run already since the LVM automatically qualified him.

I like bacon.

abingtonrunner2 wrote:

I have plenty of perspective and have no problem about him taking his precious children out of school. Perhaps since he claims they learned more in those few days than in an entire year, the school should test the children on what they learned. But I digress.

That's one of the most interesting things about what he did to that principal is that it wasn't a big deal to begin with.

I took my son out of school for a whole week to go to DisneyWorld. We went 3 weeks after Xmas vacation for no other reason than it was right after Xmas and the lines would be short and we'd have a lot more fun. We talked to the teachers beforehand and got his assignments so he wouldn't get zeros on anything. And other than that trip he had good attendance the rest of the year. He rarely ever gets sick.

I guess we have to assume the opposite for Mike's kids. They must have been on the verge of disciplinary action or what would have even been the point? They could have just thrown the letter away and never even thought about it. But there has to be a reason that he was going to fight tooth and nail to get these 3 days off their school record.

I wonder if anybody reading all this works for the school district and would have access to their records and let us know if there might be a reason why the Rossi kids had missed so much school time.

And what would be the reason behind Mike's wife not talking him off from the ledge and just telling him to stop taking to reporters and going on the news. You'll notice that Cindy Rossi isn't quoted or seen in a single news story or interview. If she was so supportive of this letter and the viral sensation her husband turned out to be why did she NOT ONCE stand behind her man?

Her lack of support has been a glaring omission to everyone during this whole thing, and perhaps there is something going on that needs closer examination. Mike bullied a school principal, so it's not unthinkable what he might be doing to his own family.

My guess is the guy MIGHT have bipolar disorder. Not sure which type. But the grandiose, out of touch with reality, thinking would make sense

Analysis of others busted for road race course cutting:

Chandra B had it too. Years later, She later got into trouble - was in prison according to newspaper articles I think for using others' credit cards to purchase luxury goods and have them delivered to various houses on her street. Rosie Ruiz did some hard time for something similar.

I suspect Kip Litton had narcissistic or borderline personality disorder with bipolar tendencies.

Sometimes the bipolar causes one to act impulsively and not to consider the consequences. It's not uncommon if they don't get treatment to have a light criminal record - even the licensed lawyers, doctors...