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

Also Haddonfield 5k that he ran is lightening quick. Definitely the fastest 5k around this area.[/quote]

I just took a quick look at results from Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k and came up with two people that finished near him in that race who ran Boston a few weeks later. One guy who was slightly ahead of him ran 3:41 at Boston and one women who was slightly behind him ran 3:48 which was very impressive at 63 years old. I don't want to put their names on this thread.

dreamin wrote:

Everyone who is too lazy to click the link needs to see his may 20th post.........

Posted by Mike Rossi at 1:48 PM No comments:

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

I know it may be a little bit of a reach, to qualify for the world's greatest marathon in only my second year of running. But I am going to do whatever I can to qualify for the Boston Marathon.

So he knows it's a reach based on his running background and previous race times. He knows his qualifying time is 3:25. It makes absolutely no sense that he runs a 3:11. Nobody I know who has to reach for a BQ would attempt BQ-14 pace.

Running faster than necessary in the first half of a marathon is a fool's errand. For a guy with his PRs and the underwhelming training data we've seen here, going out at 3:11 pace would dramatically increase the risk that he would bonk and miss his BQ. A guy who knows BQing is a reach is presumably going to go out at something close to his BQ pace of 7:49. You could see him going out at 7:45, maybe 7:40 pace. But 7:19 pace - or even faster since the first few miles are downhill? That would be a suicide mission, especially on a hot day.

GregTR wrote:

But it sure doesn't sound like he "jogged" that half either being sore as fvck from it!

More lies. Eagerly waiting for the appearance of the GPS track file. Which will likely be as real as Radcliffe's frozen samples.

Fred Gwynne wrote:

I just took a quick look at results from Haddonfield Adrenaline 5k and came up with two people that finished near him in that race who ran Boston a few weeks later. One guy who was slightly ahead of him ran 3:41 at Boston and one women who was slightly behind him ran 3:48 which was very impressive at 63

years old. I don't want to put their names on this thread.

ah, but remember, he jogs all his other races. He just made an exception for Lehigh.

113 wrote:

One new thing I just noticed: he isn't wearing headphones in the finish line photo at Lehigh Valley.

He is wearing them in the finish line at ODDessy:

http://www.pennimages.com/p527297772/h37891ed1#h37891ed1

He is wearing headphones throughout the Philly Rock N' Roll 1/2:

http://www.marathonfoto.com/Proofs?PIN=60V863&LastName=ROSSI

He is wearing them throughout the race at the Philadelphia Marathon:

http://orders.islandphoto.com/RACE/Proofs.aspx#26781860-10289-0058

The dude seems to like wearing headphones. But not on the day he ran a crazy PR.

Any other examples appreciated.

He's not wearing headphones for the Rocky Run (his athlinks profile pic) but he's definitely carrying his phone in his hand. So maybe he runs everywhere with that phone.

gatorade&vodka wrote:

So maybe he runs everywhere with that phone.

He needs to, he never knows when his fans and admirers might ring him.

It is sad. If he had just put in more time, more patience, and more miles, I'm sure he could have gotten the BQ standard legitimately at some point. It wasn't much of a stretch for someone who had only been running for two years. Maybe he didn't know that and just thought it was some kind of unattainable, impossible goal.

I just don't understand how someone could get so completely obsessed with running Boston in the first place. Aren't there more important things in life to focus on, like, I dunno, his kids who supposedly got such a great education through this experience?

Just looked on Facebook and the Yahoo article is being shared by some of my friends. I followed up with sharing it myself, everyone needs to take to the internet and start sharing it on Facebook and Twitter.

thatswhatssad wrote:

It is sad. If he had just put in more time, more patience, and more miles, I'm sure he could have gotten the BQ standard legitimately at some point. It wasn't much of a stretch for someone who had only been running for two years. Maybe he didn't know that and just thought it was some kind of unattainable, impossible goal.

I just don't understand how someone could get so completely obsessed with running Boston in the first place. Aren't there more important things in life to focus on, like, I dunno, his kids who supposedly got such a great education through this experience?

And it's not like he's friends with a bunch of elitist running snobs, so why not go the charity entry route? He seems well-connected enough to raise the money, and he could pat himself on the back some more for being an even bigger hero.

I love myself wrote:

gatorade&vodka wrote:

So maybe he runs everywhere with that phone.

He needs to, he never knows when his fans and admirers might ring him.

Maybe he needs the GPS in case he gets lost on his way back to the reentry point.

dreamin wrote:

Until then I'll be keeping you updated on my races, my training, my diet and my state of mind.

I wonder what his state of mind is at the moment, fairly ordinary I reckon.

As for the BS re educating his kids, he's no different to that POS who led out Boston and later came up with the excuse he was doing it for his kids.

These look-at-me show ponies do it for no else but themselves and they'll do what ever it takes. Your typical narcissist's.

Lehigh Valley public defender wrote:

So he knows it's a reach based on his running background and previous race times. He knows his qualifying time is 3:25. It makes absolutely no sense that he runs a 3:11. Nobody I know who has to reach for a BQ would attempt BQ-14 pace.

.

part of this is on the BAA. The qualifying times and the registration windows means to be guaranteed an entry a Bq-10 is needed (yes I know the "actual BQ - minus is only a few minutes). But if you wanted to assure yourself a shot, being ten minutes faster would get you there.

The sad thing is he didn't even need to do all this. the BAA lets 1/5 of the field run without needing to qualify. He could just pay the $$

While he didn't send this letter, rumor is Rossi posted this to his Facebook page.

Dear Monsieur Race Director,

While I appreciate your concern for my completion of your marathon, I can promise you I ran as much in the time that I drove from relay exchange one to relay exchange five as I would in an entire marathon of running your course.

I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that can’t be duplicated by me if I actual ran a marathon or was verified by race photographs .

In the 16 miles of the race I missed (which consisted of standardized miles that I can run at any time) I learned about dedication (or lack thereof), commitment (or lack thereof), love (of myself), perseverance (or lack thereof), overcoming adversity (traffic), equivocation, rationalization, culinary arts (stopped for a bagel on the way to the relay exchange), and physical education (running a marathon is painful; it's a lot easier to drive over half the distance.)

I overcame, injury, bad weather, the death of the last of my scruples, and many other obstacles (who knew there were tolls on I-78) to achieve an important personal goal. (The goal of getting to The Boston Marathon in spite of being unqualified to be there.)

I also experienced first-hand the love and support of thousands of others cheering on people with a common goal. (They even cheered me on, not realizing I had another goal entirely, as stated above.)

At the marathon, I watched blind runners (they didn't see me jump in with four miles to go), runners with gps watches that could actually verify their accomplishment, and debilitating sense of honesty and fair play. (Suckers)

I also paid tribute to the victims of a senseless discrimination of such heroes as Rosie Ruiz and that guy who jumped in front of Frank Shorter in Munich.

These are things I won't ever experience by running an actual marathon in 3:11

.

In addition I walked to the parking lot, had my parking validated, grabbed an ice cream cone, and still made it to exchange five in time to read a great debate on the use of Oxford commas. (Which I chose to eschew until now.)

I actually drove LONGER than a marathon so in actuality I am ahead of the game and would appreciate my time adjusted to under three hours to reflect that fact.

I appreciate the efforts of the wonderful timers and photographers and cherish the race everyone else got to experience at The Lehigh Valley Marathon.

But I wouldn’t hesitate to pull out of a marathon and drive towards the finish again for an experience like the one I had this past April at Boston - which once again, I would never have experienced by actually running your marathon

.

Thank you for your official time of 3:11 - it got me what I needed.

You win the internetz!

gatorade&vodka wrote:

Did anyone post this yet? Lehigh is the lime green ribbon in the very middle:

http://imgur.com/GZvbHNd

He's a beginner compared to this marathon cheat:

You guys are looking for the wrong thing. Of course it's going to say 3:11 since he started it at the beginning. See what it shows for the distance he traveled in that 3 hours. Odds are it's nowhere near 26 miles.

I can't believe I just read this entire thread.

I read the first 4 pages in the Bahamas and was pretty confident MIke had cheated. Now I no dobut.

Its is clear to me:

1) Mike Rossi cheated with his BQ qualifier.

2) Mike should come clean Mike if you are reading this, it is time to admit your mistake. Your kids will learn a lot more about life and what a real man is when they learn even their dad can make a mistake and confess to it. We are all fallen creatures Mike. There is not shame in our mistakes. Denying them is shameful.

Qualifying for Boston is not admirable in its own right. Doing your best and living honorably is. If you'd like to come clean feel free to email me

wejo@letsrun.com

.

I agree. I even have some sympathy (as in, understanding -- not condoning) for his thinking, and don't think he was likely as devious in plotting this as some are suggesting.

I qualified my 2nd year of marathon running, and ~3 years after training more seriously...and just barely. At the time, I really thought it was going to be my 'only' chance, because the training was difficult and I was right on the edge with training and race predictors. I thought I'd want to back off on marathons due to the time commitment and the fact that I thought I was unlikely to improve. If I missed a BQ at this 'one shot,' I was going to go back to biking and other things that were legitimately more fun.

This is laughable, now -- 10s of thousands of miles later -- as I was 29 at the time -- but I could see it even more for someone definitely on the age upswing, especially with his injuries as well.

I had no idea at the time that training gets significantly easier (for the same pace) if you keep at it; and that 2-4 years/training cycles really trains not just musculature and CV system, but also joints and nervous system, in a way that makes things much easier.

While I also think it's silly when he thinks his pace on earlier runs was close to BQ, I also remember the days of poorly executed pacing, ideas about 'banking time,' and things like 'being on pace until Mile 21-22' (when in reality, dropping off pace significantly in those last few miles represents a huge failure in pacing). I believe that he trained believing he had a chance.

But then, I also believe, if I had to pick the most likely, that any cheating wasn't overly elaborate: using a car or SAG-wagon to get to the finish line.

You could always just use mileage to explain the difference... The 27 second difference between 7:19 and 7:46 is a marathon time of 3:11 vs 3:23. In those 12 minutes, the first runner would have gone almost 2 more miles further by the time the 7:46 is crossing the line. Said the other way, the slower runner is still at mile 24.6 as the fast runner is crossing the line,