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

If I was Mikes friend on Facebook I would be going through all his friends facebook pages to see if he commented on anyones status that day while he had his feet up on the dashboard in his car waiting for the pack to get closer. You know he got in his car and immediately went on his phone and opened facebook or twitter. I noticed he "liked" a status on the race facebook page but no way of knowing when it was "liked". But if he had commented on a status that is time stamped.

He might be a cheating attention whore, but surely he isn't THAT stupid.

darkwave wrote:

I doubt that data is still in existence - companies can only maintain so much data for so long.

As an IT professional. Companies can maintain as much data as they want for as long as they want. And without much financial impact. Unless his cell phone carrier is Joe's Mobile Service.

So with all the evidence presented, Mike Rossi either cheated by jumping in late in the race to "earn" a BQ, which is an outlier performance

OR

took EPO, just to get his BQ, then got off the juice to coast at Boston 2015.

Letsrun should investigate. Send the testers. #cleansport

Tinfoil Hat wrote:

Has anyone else noticed he looks like Al Gore? Manbears some pigvestigating..

FTFY

Liza Wins $10K wrote:

How, in this age of videos and cameras, is there no photographic evidence of cheating? That would be the smoking gun.

Someone somewhere has photos/video of him, they just don't realize it.

Deadman Running wrote:

I'm surprised by all the comments on the RW FB page about this. Many many comments along the lines of who cares, who has time to look into this, what kind of person would go after Mike Rossi like this, leave the poor man alone, and on and on. They even criticize the LRCers for their "conspiracy theories". They all sound like a bunch of Oiselle angry birds wanting to be friends with Kara. Heck, one little Oiselle wanna be type who ran Boston this year even commented - "what's the big deal ? There are bigger things to worry about" I bet she would feel different if someone who cheated a BQ took her spot this year.

This is why I love this story so much. It brings out the American zeitgeist.

Fundamentally, this is why the sport has an integrity problem. So many people want to keep the cheating option available.

Meanwhile some cranky Lesson Teachers are calling out the cheater for cheating and other cheaters don't want their good thing to end.

For what it's worth, here is a link to the runner's guide to the Lehigh Marathon.

http://www.viamarathon.org/files/LVHN_Via_Marathon-Athlete_Guide.pdf

Two things. 1.). There was a bag check that day, and there was a tear off tag on the bottom of the number to affix to your bag to ID it after the race. Mike's tag is completely removed from his bib. Other runners have their tag completely removed, half removed, or still there. I'm thinking the half removed tags are those runners who used bag check? I'm guessing Mike didn't use the service, and removed his tag to make the bib smaller. Plus he could just throw all his stuff in his car!!

2.). There is a entire section that provides info on what areas are best for spectators, where the exchange zones are and even times of day runners will be passing by each zone. There is also a link to very specific driving directions to these areas. Mike must have found this most helpful!

Yes! Someone on this post has already claimed to be a friend of his on FB. But how difficult is it to find comments on posts from that long ago?

WFH wrote:

If I was Mikes friend on Facebook I would be going through all his friends facebook pages to see if he commented on anyones status that day while he had his feet up on the dashboard in his car waiting for the pack to get closer. You know he got in his car and immediately went on his phone and opened facebook or twitter. I noticed he "liked" a status on the race facebook page but no way of knowing when it was "liked". But if he had commented on a status that is time stamped.

Someone Somewhere wrote:

Liza Wins $10K wrote:

How, in this age of videos and cameras, is there no photographic evidence of cheating? That would be the smoking gun.

Someone somewhere has photos/video of him, they just don't realize it.

Most marathons (even bigger city marathons) have large sections of the course with virtually no "fans." Has someone already said exactly where all the photo points were on this course? He probably exited somewhere before the very 1st photo point and entered somewhere after the last one. However, even that is speculative. He could have run past any one or two photo points and just not have been caught on camera.

I've already lost too much time bc of this tool. No way I'm scrolling through all of his friends pages to see if he commented. Sorry. :)

Local philly news story. Part one of many I'm told!

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video/#

!/news/local/Marathon-Runner-Accused-of-Cheating/302990541

BigRedOuch wrote:

Dude, the guy with the dog is just pure gold... almost as good as this whole thread. WTH is wrong with these hobby joggers?!

He just wanted to carry his wife across the finish line.

Good idea wrote:

Yes! Someone on this post has already claimed to be a friend of his on FB. But how difficult is it to find comments on posts from that long ago?

WFH wrote:

If I was Mikes friend on Facebook I would be going through all his friends facebook pages to see if he commented on anyones status that day while he had his feet up on the dashboard in his car waiting for the pack to get closer. You know he got in his car and immediately went on his phone and opened facebook or twitter. I noticed he "liked" a status on the race facebook page but no way of knowing when it was "liked". But if he had commented on a status that is time stamped.

Also I think I remember when I saw his Facebook that he went to a sports game or something that day after running Lehigh in the AM? Not that that's incriminating, certainly plenty of people can function normally after a marathon, but might be weird for a guy like Rossi, if he had a habit of doing otherwise.

darkwave wrote:

Confuzzled wrote:

This is actually a great angle. Not sure we need NSA :) It is another thing ol Mikey boy could provide to prove his innocence.

I doubt that data is still in existence - companies can only maintain so much data for so long.

You wouldn't need cell companies even. As long as Mike had location enabled on his phone, it should be stored in his Google location history. If you're signed in to Google, you can see your own here:

Definitely goes back to the date of the Lehigh marathon.

it's too late for you now Mike! You blew it! I was hoping for your sake you'd have come clean by now. Welcome to the media circus that will dominate the next week of your life.

Hvrunner67 wrote:

Local philly news story. Part one of many I'm told!

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video/#

!/news/local/Marathon-Runner-Accused-of-Cheating/302990541

Hvrunner67 wrote:

Local philly news story. Part one of many I'm told!

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video/#

!/news/local/Marathon-Runner-Accused-of-Cheating/302990541

[/quote]

Amazing!! At this point, I don't see how its possible he doesn't confess! He said he is holding comment until those investigations (Lehigh and Boston) are complete..why else would he refuse to go on camera with his denial?!

:11 in, wearing a Boston t-shirt. This in addition to the 2014 Boston jacket and 2015 Boston Jacket. How much Boston Marathon gear and outfits does this guy own jeez

captain sparrow wrote:

Hvrunner67 wrote:

Local philly news story. Part one of many I'm told!

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/video/#

!/news/local/Marathon-Runner-Accused-of-Cheating/302990541

Amazing!! At this point, I don't see how its possible he doesn't confess! He said he is holding comment until those investigations (Lehigh and Boston) are complete..why else would he refuse to go on camera with his denial?![/quote]

Uh huh wrote:

As someone pointed out earlier, the same people saying "who cares?" and "leave him alone" are the same ones who cheered his letter last week. They don't want to admit that they were wrong.

No. They want to ignore the rules and have no consequences for ignoring the rules. Maybe not in running, but, some aspect of their lives.