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

Hvrunner67 wrote:

Wait. He told everyone he knew. There were no secrets. No one had resources to research any of this. When the story broke there was interest enough to recirculate it. It took us a couple days to go over the photos. No one is going to listen to a runner who is skeptical over a neighbors athlinks times that don't match his marathon time.

How many resources do you need to send an email to the race director with a link to Rossi's athlink's page and a note "This looks kinda fishy, not sure but there are only finishing photos..." Then it's in the hands of the RD. After the Kip Litton fiasco, no RD wants that kind of negative publicity on their hands and have their race become the vacation spot of those who run a 5k and qualify for Boston.

NowFindJimmyHoffa wrote:

Athlinks and the data was on line in September. The photos were online in september. The quote was "he knew". How did he "know" without the data? And how did "timing" factor into anything but making a bigger splash? This was about being fed up at this guy - who is a without a doubt a narcissicist. But if its about bringing them down, fine. Don't crow about the protecting the integrity of the sport and being the champion of 'that one guy'. I say, go out and find that "one guy'. Petition he gets to run next year. That would be something of value.

Code for " I'm trying to ignore a mountain of credible evidence"

I LOVE THIS STORY.

cheaters want to keep cheating at all cost.

Would the BAA provide us the name of the last person not to make the cut. Worst case scenario if they don't let him/her in it would be a classy move for the Lets Run community to charity sponsor that individual if they don't qualify for next year on their own.

I doubt they'd provide a name but what a great idea.

pop_pop! wrote:

NowFindJimmyHoffa wrote:

Athlinks and the data was on line in September. The photos were online in september. The quote was "he knew". How did he "know" without the data? And how did "timing" factor into anything but making a bigger splash? This was about being fed up at this guy - who is a without a doubt a narcissicist. But if its about bringing them down, fine. Don't crow about the protecting the integrity of the sport and being the champion of 'that one guy'. I say, go out and find that "one guy'. Petition he gets to run next year. That would be something of value.

Code for " I'm trying to ignore a mountain of credible evidence"

I LOVE THIS STORY.

cheaters want to keep cheating at all cost.

This has nothing to do with cheaters wanting to keep cheating. And I'm not ignoring the evidence. He cheated. I'm talking about doing something of value instead of sitting around waiting for the pound of flesh. What it is is trying to understand why everyone is out for blood because he cheated and cost that 'one guy' a spot and the guy KNEW. How does someone just throw that in there like its no big deal? Are you suggesting the only time to blow a cheater in is when you can score some publicity? Give me a break. And guess what? Your work is done. Its in the hands of the RD. Who could have had this information over 6 months ago. And this guy would likely have been DQ'd, wouldn't have gone to boston, wouldn't have gotten a letter from the principal, put it online, written back, principal gets no harassment for doing her job, and other dude gets to run.

Self-involved blowhards keep on being self-involved blowhards.

I like the idea of the guy who suggested contacting the Boston RD, doing a charity runner thing for the guy if he can't qualify or whatever. THAT is something redemptive of value. Certainly a lot more than letting Rossi take up all that real estate in your head.

iiagdtr wrote:

Would the BAA provide us the name of the last person not to make the cut. Worst case scenario if they don't let him/her in it would be a classy move for the Lets Run community to charity sponsor that individual if they don't qualify for next year on their own.

I doubt they'd provide a name but what a great idea.

Totally agree. The publicity will die down inside of 2 weeks. The forumites will move on to other stuff. And that other guy still didn't get to run.

Lonely evening so did some investigating. The first photo point after the start is BEFORE the first relay exchange. The photo point is towards the end of the 6th mile by the red abstract sculpture in Fountain Park on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. You can see the sculpture in photo 8-735. And here is the sculpture on Google Maps https://www.google.ca/maps/@40.59784,-75.466306,3a,75y,202.2h,69.72t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1swq0s3ROwWRAzqGMLuRfk5Q!2e0 . The first relay point according to the marathon website is further down the road at 6.2 miles. I have been going through all the photos from the first photo point and have yet to find Rossi so I suspect he did leave the course before the first relay exhange.

.[/quote]

Are you suggesting the only time to blow a cheater in is when you can score some publicity? .[/quote]

Um, I will never blow a cheater, no matter how much publicity is involved.

Field Good wrote:

.

Are you suggesting the only time to blow a cheater in is when you can score some publicity? .[/quote]

Um, I will never blow a cheater, no matter how much publicity is involved.[/quote]

Damn you pesky split infinitive, DAMN YOU!!!!!!

Well played Field good, well played. >tips hat<

How about this... if someone ran a qualifying time,

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,

Me too! Very surprised by the attitude. Probably same people that said to leave Lance alone.

"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.

Was that the lady with her photo on the couch? She said she'll have to find another sport too?

I see they've removed comments over there. Some were good though. People care about ethics and don't condone cheating.

If someone took a bunch of mulligans to qualify for the U.S. Open, would that be ok? If someone has a crib sheet for a SAT test and got into STandford, is that ok?

Bottom line is stopping cheating matters.

Split infinitive?Misused idiom maybe.

NowFindJimmyHoffa wrote:

Field Good wrote:

.

Are you suggesting the only time to blow a cheater in is when you can score some publicity? .

Um, I will never blow a cheater, no matter how much publicity is involved.[/quote]

Damn you pesky split infinitive, DAMN YOU!!!!!!

Well played Field good, well played. >tips hat

Even if Runner Felice knew about this in September, no race director is going to risk the negative press and effort to call out some random 3:11. runner. The most they would do if they found out the guy cheated is probably add a mat somewhere to the race in hopes that it doesn't happen again and no one finds out. I have set up races in the past, the last thing you want to deal with after a race has been finished is alert people that the results need to be amended. People will come out of the wood work to get an age group medal.

Now that the case has gained national attention, it makes sense for Runner Felice to alert people to what he knows. If he came on here in September saying a 3:11 guy cheated, 99% of Letsrun would say, who cares, he did not get any prize money, get a life, get a job. Instead he helped spark a great 89 page letsrun thread.

Yes I have met Runner Felice many times, so I may be bias, but he definitely does not need letsrun attention to feel successful in life.

NowFindJimmyHoffa wrote:

I like the idea of the guy who suggested contacting the Boston RD, doing a charity runner thing for the guy if he can't qualify or whatever. THAT is something redemptive of value. Certainly a lot more than letting Rossi take up all that real estate in your head.

If I take the quote above at face value, then we agree.

The rest of that post was a bunch of what-ifs and rewriting the narrative to make your point. There is no use to it.

I don't actually care about the guy. The story arch is so rich, so symbolic of Americans in so many different ways it's just fantastic.

I don't know why my post got cut off but that made no sense.

If someone ran sub 3:25 and can prove they were rejected by Boston, they get a free entry to Lehigh and a travel stipend (can we raise that can of money for a handful of people?)

If they are unfit for a full marathon they may participate as the final leg in an "irony relay."

Also, Rossi should be invited to face, I mean pace, these runners.

Pretty sure there is no "last person", just a group of people who all missed by one second. The time cutoff has to be a number of whole (integer) seconds, so if there was room that whole group would get in, or none of them would get in.

Plus many folks want to get in by making the qualifier cut and not be gifted a charity entry.

I like the spirit of the idea though.

rhizome wrote:

Lonely evening so did some investigating. The first photo point after the start is BEFORE the first relay exchange. The photo point is towards the end of the 6th mile by the red abstract sculpture in Fountain Park on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. You can see the sculpture in photo 8-735. And here is the sculpture on Google Maps

https://www.google.ca/maps/@40.59784,-75.466306,3a,75y,202.2h,69.72t/data=

!3m4!1e1!3m2!1swq0s3ROwWRAzqGMLuRfk5Q!2e0 . The first relay point according to the marathon website is further down the road at 6.2 miles. I have been going through all the photos from the first photo point and have yet to find Rossi so I suspect he did leave the course before the first relay exhange.

That was my guess, that he didn't get to the first relay exchange and instead showed up at the start, snapped a selfie for evidence, and then ran maybe a half mile or so, dropped to the back, stepped into the woods, and walked back to his car. If he had run to the first relay exchange, he'd either have to run all the way back to the start to get to his car, or have someone pick him up. So he'd have to ask his wife or someone else to pick him up at relay exchange #1, and I have to wonder if that would be crossing the line for him, no pun intended, cheating on your own verses cheating with the help of your spouse.

You should read the first post in the thread "Help us expose a Cheater" that is near the top of the message board right now. It contradicts your suppositions and confirms what those of us actually experienced in the sport already knew.

I know a number of disabled runners who could use some help with the expense of Boston...or maybe something done for them in their name or in their memory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZzaE3SqPD0&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQzNO_aEods&feature=youtu.be

Except of course that it doesn't.

Other than that your post is completely valid.