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

FINISH HIM!!!!! wrote:

Hopefully if their is a god his kids will get picked on at school, his wife will leave him, his friends will abandon him and he will lose his job and ultimately kill himself. You guys will masterbate to the thought (or hopefully for you, reality) for a couple of hours until you go to work on your next suspect.

You need to quit smoking that stuff. All genuine runners want is to find out the truth and in doing so help to dissuade people like this guy from doing the same in future.

Kiprossi - the fast Kenyan wrote:

I ran with Rossi the first 20 miles. We were on 2:11 pace and passed all the photographers before they had their cameras up. With 10k to go he put down the hammer and, well, I just threw in the towel. That guy is a monster! He ran solo until he had just half a mile left. There he collapsed due to the heat. My girlfriend Rosie said he lay on the ground for almost an hour before he got up and staggered down the last stretch.

How dare you question this great runner!!!!

BEST DAMN explanation to date! This solves the Mike Rossi Mystery!

I burned the UBER receipt for his ride with me as well at LV.

Raysism wrote:

I just found the roll with the starting photos (Roll 4, starting at frame 326), and have two new facts:

-- I can't find anyone who started that race wearing a black hat.

-- There is absolutely no way a 3:11 marathoner would start 30 seconds after the gun in that mess of a race. It was a very narrow start, and a 30 second delay in starting would cost you minutes in the first mile. People were barely at a jog after the first 100 or so people started.

Be careful of absolute statements to convict someone. In this case there are too many unexplained issues to make me think he didn't cheat, but there are some plausible explanations for some individual issues. For example, I got caught off guard by the start at a St. Patrick's day half marathon this year (they had announced the start would be delayed by a train and it ended up starting on time). Then my gps wasn't finding a satellite, so I stood right before the start for at least 30 seconds hoping it would find a satellite. I finally took off before it connected, realizing I was going to spend the first mile dodging 9 minute milers.

Basically, all I'm saying is stick to presenting the very strong proof you have, but be careful about absolute statements without considering some possible alternatives.

of course it is possible:

1. improve with talent + training

2. improve with ped

LRC = internet FATALITY!

Thanks, Something Substantive!

It looks like some heroes/LR detectives are getting started on this already, and that about 3 out of the 23 are done now. I'd encourage everyone to sign which people they are going to do before starting to minimize duplicated effort.

Also, keep in mind that there are 13 pages worth of lost and found photos, and going through them all looking for your runner will take a while. So probably just sign up for one person for now. Thanks again to Something Substantive you have a physical description to get you started. I'd also recommend seeing what they look like by first putting in their bib number to see them at the finish. You could also try to find pics using their finishing time. Other than that, good luck, Letsrun detectives!

Roll 6 is pretty close to a smoking gun. That photographer took hundreds of photos from the same spot, and you can see everyone really well. All of the people on our spreadsheet are just filing through. And they are all dripping with sweat, by the way.

OK, so looks like Rossi is guilty as charged.

One thing that I am curious about is why the investigation started in the first place. Does someone scan all results, compare them against past performances and look for any anomalies? Seems way too labor intensive. Did someone just not like that this guy posted his note to the principal and decided to take a close look (and lo and behold he's a cheater)?

Just curious - how did this whole thing get started?

If anyone tries to cheat in a marathon after having read this thread, I'll be impressed.

Hopefully Lehigh RD or someone else recorded the start of the race near the starting line. The video would show who was crossing the timing mat 30 seconds after the gun.

Yeah maybe Rossi falls behind Rendall early in the race when it's crowded and then he gradually works his way back, but doesn't quite catch up. I would buy that, except that in the photo roll for the green parkway, which seems to be the last photo point before the finish, Rossi is nowhere to be seen either before or after Rendall. And he can't be found near O'Connor either, who finished a bit behind Rossi.

I'm curious if any other runners were "skipped" by the photographer in this particular stretch of the race.

takes some balls wrote:

If anyone tries to cheat in a marathon after having read this thread, I'll be impressed.

Not me. Not necessarily anyway.

What are the odds that the LRC crowd is going to notice me when I come in at 3:39 in my next marathon? I mean, even if I cheated why would anyone think to check out finisher # 2,765?

All this effort over some dude who isn't even a sub 3 marathoner?

Let's Run is really starting to disappoint.

We need more posts about runners shaving legs, 5k nutrition predictions, the McDonalds nutritional plan, high school coaches leaving their best athletes at home during state and what to do when your best friend's mom catches you...

Hey Mike Rossi,

I see what you did there. Of course, the children are innocent bystanders in this and no one in their right mind (except you) want to drag them into this. That's on you.

Work "WON'T YOU PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN" into your patriotic plea of sympathy from the Internet bullies. You can still turn this around.

GregTR wrote:

IFartInYourGeneralDirection wrote:

Doug Rendall, you seek Doug Rendall. Dartmouth.

THIS! The guy started 2 seconds behind Mike Rossi and finished 2 seconds in front of him. There is no freaking way they have not crossed paths during this run or ran side by side for a substaintial part. Bib#2531.

http://results.chronotrack.com/event/results/event/event-10268?lc=en

I thought the same thing, but this does post an interesting question for his accusers. Obviously they started and finished the race within seconds of each other. What are the chances that Rossi left the course and would re-enter the course so that he would finish right behind him? Did he remember this person and what he looked like? Did he cut the course, as some maintain, and wait for the guy in the lime-green tank further on down the line and jumped in right behind him? Thoughts?

Here's video from the start of the Lehigh race, I believe:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-video-thousands-race-lehigh-valley-lvhn-via-marathon-20140907-premiumvideo.html

Just Wondering Again wrote:

OK, so looks like Rossi is guilty as charged.

One thing that I am curious about is why the investigation started in the first place. Does someone scan all results, compare them against past performances and look for any anomalies? Seems way too labor intensive. Did someone just not like that this guy posted his note to the principal and decided to take a close look (and lo and behold he's a cheater)?

Just curious - how did this whole thing get started?

The first I heard of this was that Felice guy's post on Runner's World. Not sure what his angle is or if he has a personal beef with Rossi.

The guy who is quoted in the philly magazine article started it. A few of us mentioned how arrogant this guy was as his story exploded. He went through athlinks and nothing added up. A few of us went through photos and saw nothing of Rossi. We started going on message boards to get the word out.

Someone needs to blow up FB searching for runners/spectators who might have seen something or have pictures. With this controversial story the masses would jump right in to assist. There is at least one damming photo out there.