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

and this is a big deal because this cheater denied a legitimate BQ runner a place in this years Marathon.

Kipwatcher wrote:

Older Guy wrote:

The general public's reaction to this would be "what's the big deal" and "leave the poor guy alone" and turn him into a sympathetic figure

Agreed, I tried explaining the Litton story to some non-runners when it made The New Yorker and to them I was quibbling about minor details. People are clueless morons.

Just like when the brojos question elite runners about doping. Stop quibbling!

I looked at the pictures. This guy is an attention hound, yet he finishes with a hat and his head down? And no other pictures?

I'm not buying it. He brought this on himself, now he needs to prove he ran 26.2 at Lehigh. There is more than reasonable doubt here.

Back in the day anyone who could not run sub 3 would be laughed at.Nowadays you have lads like this that can't even break 4.Standards have really dropped.It's sad to see.

Check out his Philadelphia Marathon photos:

http://orders.islandphoto.com/RACE/Proofs.aspx#26781860-00358-0039

He wears a loud American flag shirt, gives the "I'm #1!" symbol to the photographer (multiple times), even poses for a shoot with his finisher medal. Why was he so shy a couple months earlier at Lehigh Valley?

I mean its not like he won the darn race, why does it matter so much that you have to go play detective? You want to crucify someone do it to that woman who fake won the St Louis Marathon a few weeks ago.

pjfan95 wrote:

I mean its not like he won the darn race, why does it matter so much that you have to go play detective? You want to crucify someone do it to that woman who fake won the St Louis Marathon a few weeks ago.

This guy took a spot away from someone who actually qualified. Each and every one of the people who cheat their way into Boston is a big deal, I had a friend qualify and miss the additional cutoff by 15 seconds!

Reg Fields wrote:

pjfan95 wrote:

I mean its not like he won the darn race, why does it matter so much that you have to go play detective? You want to crucify someone do it to that woman who fake won the St Louis Marathon a few weeks ago.

This guy took a spot away from someone who actually qualified. Each and every one of the people who cheat their way into Boston is a big deal, I had a friend qualify and miss the additional cutoff by 15 seconds!

I don't think every time cheat would get this level of attention, but this guy decided to make a spectacle of himself by publicly circulating his snotty letter to an elementary school principal. That letter touted his "accomplishment" of running Boston as more rewarding to his children than a year of school. If you are going to be so self-aggrandizing, you should expect a little bit of scrutiny.

i

Reg Fields wrote:

pjfan95 wrote:

I mean its not like he won the darn race, why does it matter so much that you have to go play detective? You want to crucify someone do it to that woman who fake won the St Louis Marathon a few weeks ago.

This guy took a spot away from someone who actually qualified. Each and every one of the people who cheat their way into Boston is a big deal, I had a friend qualify and miss the additional cutoff by 15 seconds!

He may have cheated some 4 he runner out of a spot. Big whoop.

The kind hearted principal that he wrote the letter to, who was simply following administration rules, received threats and hate mail thanks to his attention seeking behavior. I hope his cheating scandal goes as vital as the letter did.

This guy deserves to be called out. He wouldn't have blocked all his social media account or hidden his blog if he was innocent.

I missed the first 5 pages of fun!!!

pjfan95 wrote:

I mean its not like he won the darn race, why does it matter so much that you have to go play detective? You want to crucify someone do it to that woman who fake won the St Louis Marathon a few weeks ago.

Might be worse. The lady in St. Louis seemed to possibly have some mental health issues. She showed up, crossed the tape and disappeared. This guy has been out there in a big way talking up his experience at Boston. His "viral" response to his kid's elementary school may not have been so viral considering that this guy is in the media business and could have pushed the story really hard with friends at media outlets. it is one thing for a troubled soul to sneak onto the course and cross the tape and then disappear. It is another thing for someone to very publicly insert himself into the marathon for personal gain (the guy has an event company and is a radio personality), but only get there because he cheated at a qualifier.

Just so ya'll know, the principal has been informed about this thread and the blog article linked above. Bet she's going to get a snicker out of it.

As a clarification here, the Mike Rossi in question with concern to running is NOT the same Mike Rossi who works for a Wilmington, Delaware radio station. Same name, similar jobs, two different people. The radio station clarified this recently on Facebook.

cheater wrote:

I think it was closed but I'm not sure. The part on the D & L path is so narrow that being on a bike would attract a lot of attention even if it wasn't prohibited.

Very unlikely that he cheated by riding a bike on the actual race course. Too bad, because official race pictures of him riding a bike on the course would be all time comedy gold.

If he has different gun and chip times then the most likely scenario is that he crossed the starting line, then got back off the course (before the first photo op for sure), got in his car, drove around to the finish area and slipped back on at some point between the final photo op (prior to the finish line) and the actual finish line.

Not hard to drive 26 miles in 3 hours.

Switek wrote:

As a clarification here, the Mike Rossi in question with concern to running is NOT the same Mike Rossi who works for a Wilmington, Delaware radio station. Same name, similar jobs, two different people. The radio station clarified this recently on Facebook.

I thought it was a REALLY old picture of the cheater Mike Rossi from PA. But I must have been wrong.

Torontooo wrote:

Switek wrote:

As a clarification here, the Mike Rossi in question with concern to running is NOT the same Mike Rossi who works for a Wilmington, Delaware radio station. Same name, similar jobs, two different people. The radio station clarified this recently on Facebook.

I thought it was a REALLY old picture of the cheater Mike Rossi from PA. But I must have been wrong.

Mike Rossi the runner and DJ / radio personality who you ARE LOOKING FOR works for 92.5 WXTU FM in Philadelphia. His participation at the 2015 Boston Marathon was mentioned in a brief blurb on their site:

The other Mike Rossi in radio, the non runner and the man who you are NOT LOOKING FOR works at 93.7 WSTW-FM in Wilmington, Delaware, which is about twenty five miles away.

The two men named Mike Rossi have apparently met in professional circles (broadcasting groups, I suppose) but they are two different men.

Yeah, I get it. What are the odds of two Mike Rossis on air within easy driving distance of each other. Bizarre.