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

So, what did he do? Pretended he dropped a nickel and picked it up while stumbling over the finish mats? Usually finish mats do not react when someone walks on the sidewalks, is my experience.

triathleteguru wrote:

Here is a better crop of the relevant part of the photo. Only missing two runners in a 20 second span from 21:02 to 21:22, Mike Rossi and either Charles Newman or Jake Aylmer.

http://imgur.com/ZkbHzjp

Jake Aylmer is 13yo.

I think this is it, 95% sure, with 5% that he started, jumped off, then back in late. But this makes the most sense given no pics in race gear and quite frankly this is easier!I also think he could very well have just walked across the finish, vs just near the finish, no one is paying attention, he's incognito, no big deal.Tri Gury, love the pic with the time stamps! Keep up the good work with the other finishers then send the RD the evidence.Any chance the worthless RD Barb Mcgeever, who enabled a cheater, would DQ him if he is proven to have cheated here? What do you all think? Probably not.

runningonempty wrote:

Has to be option 1

He has no pictures of himself in race gear at the start.

Picture of start of race way back in the pack ( like a walker or spectator)

Nobody suspects anything because he is not in race gear.

He walks across/by the start, Hangs out for the needed time and walks close enough to trip the finish time on his chip.

Good job Tri......

Uzhorod wrote:

Usually finish mats do not react when someone walks on the sidewalks, is my experience.

The do react... The tags with this system are in the bibs, so they have to be able to read 3 or 4 feet up into the air at a minimum. It is not read in a direct line upwards, but like a cone, it spreads out. When a race starts, it might start picking up the "passings" of the runners that scoot up to the starting line, but all the passings before the gun start are discarded and typically the race file is written to take the last passing on the start and the first passing on the finish.

What is their gun-chip-timedifference?

Isn't Mr Rossi due in only 30 seconds?

Also, the cables themselves form the signal that is sent up, the plastic mats just protect the cables. So, from the edge of the plastic mats to the actual timing boxes can pick up reads...

Taway wrote:

What is their gun-chip-timedifference?

Isn't Mr Rossi due in only 30 seconds?

Files could be written differently, but typically in the timing setups i've worked, everyone's gun time starts at the same time, your chip time starts with the last read of your chip at the start line. Theoretically, a person could line up and start at the front and get an early chip read, but realized they forgot something, go backwards and get a "new" chip start time when they finally cross the start line the final time.

Uzhorod wrote:

So, what did he do? Pretended he dropped a nickel and picked it up while stumbling over the finish mats? Usually finish mats do not react when someone walks on the sidewalks, is my experience.

This came up in the Litton thread more than once, an experienced RD said that he could reliably set them off from 15 feet away as I recall it.

I have made them beep whilst trying not to before the start of races.

I keep thinking about WHY there are no photos of him at this race. We know he loves to mug for the camera when he runs. And if he was going to collect on the $10,000 it would be smart of him to take multiple photos along to course because a small race like this wouldn't have pros.

So what would make him PURPOSELY avoid all cameras at this race?

My theory is this:

He hurt his ankle while training and showed up at this race with a swollen ankle. He can't be photographed with a boot on because that would make running a 20 minute 5K an impossibility. Maybe even went without the boot for the duration of the race. And maybe he's not concerned about collecting the $10K, but just wants to record a respectable time that makes his 3:11:45 seem probable and make all his "haters" go away.

So he shows up and hangs out way in the back so nobody can see him. Crosses the starting line way after everyone else to be sure no friends or relatives are still snapping photos. And then just hangs out like a spectator and doubles back and crosses the finish at a time close to 20 minutes. There's no photographic proof, but he claims that's because it's just a stupid Turkey Trot in a small town in New Jersey. But he can now claim he was capable of 3:11:45 at Via and everybody on Let's Run can eat his shorts.

Then he goes on Twitter and posts some more memes from Frozen and all is well with The Rossi Posse.

I guess crooks hang out with crooks... if both are cheating there's incentive not to rat the other out. I know two posters here that would happily volunteer to help him for free: SmartRunnr and Fat Fingers.I agree it's all so so far fetched but wanted to lay out all the theories that were floating around. I think he lined up dressed like a walker (which is why no selfie was taken) and simply stepped out and triggered the finish line mat by getting close enough to it at the WRONG TIME.

ExpertKipWatcher wrote:

Trollminator wrote:

I don't buy the accomplice theory either but want to note that if we see finish photos taken around the time he finished but don't see him either running or in the background at all then it would be the only explanation left other than hacking.

I'd probably go with "aliens helped him" before imaginary accomplices - try the simple test - "How would I find an accomplice to help me cheat in a race?" Put an advert in the personals entitled "5K race cheat accomplice required - no previous experience necessary" ?

How do you guarantee this person never rats you out ? Non-disclosure agreement? The complexity and costs are mounting up.

Nicely laid out. I believe as Liz and Charle were crossing the mat Mike walked past it from behind the crowd. It's a thin audience near the mat, super easy to do! I wonder if he actually tried to trigger the mat unsuccessfully a few times and finally got it to register when it was too late. This would explain the tweet about results coming out, because he was not sure he triggered it early enough! Any sane runner would know their time immediately upon crossing. Even if you don't wear a watch you could do simple math as you run by the clock.

triathleteguru wrote:

Here is a better crop of the relevant part of the photo. Only missing two runners in a 20 second span from 21:02 to 21:22, Mike Rossi and either Charles Newman or Jake Aylmer.

http://imgur.com/ZkbHzjp

So, If the chip time initiates with the last read at the starting line, maybe our guy crossed the starting line earlier than 42 seconds but doubled back too close to the timing mat at :42. This might explain why he thought he beat the 20:00 time.

I was too lazy to check the course online, was it out an back finishing at the start?

printer wrote:

So, If the chip time initiates with the last read at the starting line, maybe our guy crossed the starting line earlier than 42 seconds but doubled back too close to the timing mat at :42. This might explain why he thought he beat the 20:00 time.

printer wrote:

So, If the chip time initiates with the last read at the starting line, maybe our guy crossed the starting line earlier than 42 seconds but doubled back too close to the timing mat at :42. This might explain why he thought he beat the 20:00 time.

No, that would make his time worse, not better.

The only reason he is close to 20 minutes on chip time is because he started so far back in the pack

Trollminator wrote:

I was too lazy to check the course online, was it out an back finishing at the start?

.

Loop course that crosses back over the starting line about 1/4 of a mile prior to the finish.

So Rossi crossed the starting line at the back of the pack and then had 20 minutes to get a fourth of a mile down the road to set off the finish line chip mat. But he screwed up the math. He's dumb.

I'm just more generally perplexed that he thought he could get away with cheating again with all of us keeping a close eye on him. He should have known that we would scrutinize every angle. That is just plain stupid.

runningantelope wrote:

Trollminator wrote:

I was too lazy to check the course online, was it out an back finishing at the start?

.

Loop course that crosses back over the starting line about 1/4 of a mile prior to the finish.

So Rossi crossed the starting line at the back of the pack and then had 20 minutes to get a fourth of a mile down the road to set off the finish line chip mat. But he screwed up the math. He's dumb.

I'm not great at math, so if I screw up something, please correct me.

Assuming Rossi ran the race (which he didn't), and everyone ran even splits (which they don't), with his 42 second clock/chip differential, Mike would have been roughly 8 seconds behind runner Maureen at the two mile mark, right? Maintaining the same rate of speed, he would have passed her about a 1/4 mile later? If he did run and started in the very back behind that wall of people, his first mile would have been nightmarishly slow, so you could only assume he would have passed her even later in the race with such a slow start and a 42 second deficit. I wonder if anyone who finished just after 21:07 remembers a guy with an awkward stride passing them like a freight train in the last half mile of the race. Doubt it.

Here's the photos of him at the school:

http://imgur.com/a/Ahblg

I'm sure he can't show up at the school anymore without people giving him and Cindy the stink eye. At one point there was a story on the school's website with a photo of all the teachers that were at a school meeting to support the principal. They have since taken it down, but I got a screen shot of it. I can only imagine what it must have been like to stand up in a room full of teachers and parents and declare that your children should get special treatment and b excused from school.

In one of his news stories he was even quoted as saying that the rules regarding absences for family vacation should only apply to kids whose parents weren't actively involved with the school. But since he went on class trips and read to the kids a few times a year the rules should apply to him.

I warned him when this whole thing started. He made enemies of everybody at that school and word was going to spread throughout other school districts and so forth. Eventually the effects will trickle down through the DJ, photography and video company he works for. Weddings are usually planned a year or more in advance, so they won't feel it now. But come next summer they will start to see a decline in bookings, which leads to a decline in referral base. And then it all just snowballs from there.

I just wonder how long it will take for his boss to identify the problem and fire him.

Aylmer and Gustafson should have seen him pass (near) the finishmats. I usually remember when I'm passed by someone in the last meters of a run. Or the people I manage to pass myself: You target them when you're pushing yourself the final stretch.

I doubt that any of the 10 or so people who finished right after the 21:07 remember a man with a very duck-like gait out-sprint them on the final stretch.