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

Good idea, Rojo, but you have to extend the deadline. Rossi's purported ankle injury gives him an excuse not to accept any challenge that would have him run between now and the end of the year. Instead, you should extend the 5k challenge deadline into next spring based on his apparent injury. Also, you should keep the 20 minute time limit because, as others have pointed out, running a 5k in under 20 minutes would be easy for anyone who ran a marathon in 3:11 within the past 18 months or so. But, for goodness sakes, Rossi should be required to tell you in advance when and where he is running, or it doesn't count.

As far as having someone shadow him, hell, offer to have someone pace him. Then, have someone else videotape the whole thing. When Rossi sees the pacer take off at a 20 minute 5k pace, Rossi will pull a groin muscle faster than you can say "Barb McKeever."

Here's the deal you should offer Rossi: You offer to pay him $1,000 if he breaks 20 minutes in a 5k on a legitimate course next spring, but he has to announce on Letsrun when and where he will run well enough in advance that anyone who wants to join in the race will have time to register. You further offer that if he runs the entire race, fails to break 20 minutes, and admits afterward that he had no excuse for failing to break 20 minutes other than he is not currently able to do so (which to all runners would be tantamount to admitting that he cheated at the 2014 Via Lehigh Valley Marathon), then you will donate the $1,000 to his father's charity event. Can you imagine how many people would sign up for the 5k race for the chance to "Run with Rossi?" You should still offer him a pacer and videographer. In particular, the videographer would be for Rossi's protection and would ensure that no one does anything stupid (I'm looking at you, Stillman!).

It's a win-win-win. Rossi gets $1,000 for his father's charity event, whichever 5k race Rossi chooses to run in gets a big boost in registrations, and the running community gets something positive out of this whole trainwreck: a ginormous 5k party with the best damn Philly DJ anyone has ever seen. Maybe Rossi's DJ company could host a post-race dance party. I can see it now. 2000 people all doing the chicken dance with Rossi after the awards ceremony. Might even break the Guinness Book of World Records for largest group of people doing the chicken dance!

Rojo, you need to do this, and you need to publicize the proposal on Letsrun, in Runners World, and in the local Philly media. Maybe Cecily Tynan will mention it to her followers. If Rossi turns down the challenge, and the opportunity to raise money for multiple charities that goes along with it, there could be no better proof as to what kind of person he truly is.

Even with the injury giving Mike more time is a terrible idea. Are you going to drug test him too? What if he has a legal RX from a physician? He will try to cheat, that we know.

You all are getting as bad as Mike salivating over visions of grandeur including videotaping, charity benefits, dance parties, media coverage, etc.

Enough already.

Rojo - You have won. Do not extend anything. Dont provide a pacer. Injuries are part of running. If anything, your offer should be officially withdrawn due to questionable behavior. He has tapped out anyway without directly admitting it.

Bored troller is right on, enough already. Extending the 5k circus basically gives him what he likely craves the most, more attention. All the fantasy hypotheticals wont happen.

There is still the marathon time challenge which will not be breached. Again, you have won, congratulations.

If you are gonna throw away money on this guy, donate a certain amount to charity only if he admits to cheating. Not likely ever going to happen.

Please don't give this azzclown a dime. You won. Mike Rossi lost.

Mike Ross wrote:

Please don't give this azzclown a dime. You won. Mike Rossi lost.

+1

The more I think about it, why give him a chance to save face? Cheating to run Boston and pilfering an age group medal at a turkey trot are pretty bad, but let's not forget some of the despicable things he has said and posted these past months (the picture of triathleteguru and tweets about Cecily Tynan's family, especially). Let him wallow about in his latest mess. He doesn't deserve any sort of second chance, and your money is safe. He can continue to waddle his 120 miles a month now until next July and he'll still never get near 3:25 - at least honestly.

Mike, you're no longer in the game, baby!

OK...been on vacation...help catch me up...the Rocky at 21 high? was that legit? I know NJ was cheating..and before that at Brain tumor he ran 23 high. Just wondered if he really even made it to 21 high? Thx

Agree, don't extend anything. Anyone who actually ran 3:11 would have run the sub 20 5k the week the challenge was issued. 72 hour notice with someone to film the run, not a pacer, but someone to simply run whatever pace Mike does.

max power wrote:

Rojo - You have won. Do not extend anything. Dont provide a pacer. Injuries are part of running. If anything, your offer should be officially withdrawn due to questionable behavior. He has tapped out anyway without directly admitting it.

Bored troller is right on, enough already. Extending the 5k circus basically gives him what he likely craves the most, more attention. All the fantasy hypotheticals wont happen.

There is still the marathon time challenge which will not be breached. Again, you have won, congratulations.

If you are gonna throw away money on this guy, donate a certain amount to charity only if he admits to cheating. Not likely ever going to happen.

titaniumbolt wrote:

rojo wrote:

I may offer him a $1000 to simply run a 5000 on a track. He gets $1000 if he runs a 5000 on the track before the end of the year. I get to film it. He gets his $1000 (He has to break 22:00 as I don't want him walking it).

What are your thoughts?

I love this idea. Make it even better:

1) Have a pacer go out at 19:59 pace just to make it entirely clear, from a visual perspective, how far off Rossi's fitness is. And how he never was close to being in the type of fitness he was purported to be in at Via.

2) Consider having Ken Stillman drive a golf cart at 19:59 pace ahead of Rossi. I want to see how fast Rossi can run when fueled by pure hate (I'm thinking 21:30).

I agree w/ people above - no need to extend the timeline for the 5K for this guy. He'll likely find some shady MD in New Jersey to give him EPO.

Instead, let's have a wintry 5K at the track. Same pacers as before, including Stillman buzzing laps on his golf cart.

But let's add Cecily Tynan as a pacer just so we can watch her demolish Rossi on the track.

No shortcuts wrote:

Mike Ross wrote:

Please don't give this azzclown a dime. You won. Mike Rossi lost.

+1

The more I think about it, why give him a chance to save face? Cheating to run Boston and pilfering an age group medal at a turkey trot are pretty bad, but let's not forget some of the despicable things he has said and posted these past months (the picture of triathleteguru and tweets about Cecily Tynan's family, especially). Let him wallow about in his latest mess. He doesn't deserve any sort of second chance, and your money is safe. He can continue to waddle his 120 miles a month now until next July and he'll still never get near 3:25 - at least honestly.

Mike, you're no longer in the game, baby!

Thinking along these lines myself now, no one owes this scumbag anything. A sub 20:00 for a 3:11 guy should have been easy and accomplished and properly witnessed weeks ago, don't give the prick a chance to save face (not that he'll do it anyway unless he get's on the PEDs).

The main game now is getting him disqualified from the Turkey Trot.

Game over, Mike. As you asserted last spring, the Rossi family trip to the Boston Marathon was a "once-in-a-lifetime experience".

Mike Rossi's actions this fall have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he is incapable of any 3:11 equivalent times. He is now a 2x cheater and not to be trusted in anything he says or does.

However, the Rojos shouldn't pull, or extend, their offer. They made an offer and they have to stand by it. They should send a letter to his lawyer saying that his questionable actions at the Haddon Township Turkey Trot 5k requires them to demand A) 72 hour notification of any attempt B) Racing on a chip timed TAC certified course C) Full video proof of any monetary claim.

I completely agree with bored troLLer and the others that say this thing is now over. There will be no other attempt by Mike Rossi to claim the prize.

Let Ken spend the rest of his life chasing this guy down.

I definetly would not extend the 20 min 5K award, it was way too easy of a target to begin with and it's honestly pathetic that Rossi couldn't work hard and achieve it. You'd think someone who craves attention like him could've put 100% into it and made it happen. Of course runners would've known the 3:11 wasn't legit but nonrunners would've looked at it as validating his result. Mike definitely does not win.

Hopkinton wrote:

Game over, Mike. As you asserted last spring, the Rossi family trip to the Boston Marathon was a "once-in-a-lifetime experience".

Not true - there's always room for spectators to cheer on those who legitimately qualify.

Another Haddon TT blog, but nothing new re Rossi. He would have been a perfect pacer though if Rossi had been up to it:

"I tried not to worry about the pace of those around me and just run my own race, telling myself I would be ok if I came in over 20 minutes (usually my gauge for race performance in a 5k), so I was surprised to pass the first mile marker in 6:14. Nothing was bothering me so I just tried to keep up the pace. I was pushing it but not to the brink of exhaustion like in some 5k's.

I entered the final stretch and took out a few more runners. I don't care if I just ran a 3:01 marathon six days ago, I just can't kill that competitive drive I get in shorter distances.

Final stats:

19:39

24th overall (out of 742 finishers)

4th in age group (30-34)"

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AYFXMFaiJ88J:ithoughttheysaidrum.blogspot.com/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

This.

PLEASE IGNORE WHATEVER THIS POS POSTS. that is all.

Agreed, SmartRnr is almost as annoying as SaraB.

printer wrote:

Mike Rossi's actions this fall have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he is incapable of any 3:11 equivalent times. He is now a 2x cheater and not to be trusted in anything he says or does.

However, the Rojos shouldn't pull, or extend, their offer. They made an offer and they have to stand by it. They should send a letter to his lawyer saying that his questionable actions at the Haddon Township Turkey Trot 5k requires them to demand A) 72 hour notification of any attempt B) Racing on a chip timed TAC certified course C) Full video proof of any monetary claim.

I completely agree with bored troLLer and the others that say this thing is now over. There will be no other attempt by Mike Rossi to claim the prize.

Let Ken spend the rest of his life chasing this guy down.

^^ This, no extensions, no change in time requirement.

This is a great example as to my it should be easy for Mike to run a 5K. This guy ran a marathon less than a week ago and he easily ran sub-20. Mike has had time to train and still cannot get even close to sub-20.