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

I've mentioned the low weekly mileage before but a lot of people seem to think 50 mpw works just fine. This is true for some runners, but certainly not most, and certainly not this guy. I'll add that the truth is his alleged BQ came after only 19 months of total running. He only started running the spring of 2013- after the Boston Marathon bombing. He hadn't been running at all before that!!! So it's incredibly unlikely that without having seasoned legs and joints he could have pulled off the 3:11. It takes a lot more running and physical experience (fueling and other training adaptations) to be able to do that in what was for all intents his first marathon.

MarathonMind wrote:

I've mentioned the low weekly mileage before but a lot of people seem to think 50 mpw works just fine. This is true for some runners, but certainly not most, and certainly not this guy. I'll add that the truth is his alleged BQ came after only 19 months of total running. He only started running the spring of 2013- after the Boston Marathon bombing. He hadn't been running at all before that!!! So it's incredibly unlikely that without having seasoned legs and joints he could have pulled off the 3:11. It takes a lot more running and physical experience (fueling and other training adaptations) to be able to do that in what was for all intents his first marathon.

I went from 240 lbs obese couch potato to 3:07 BQ in a year on Hal Higdon Advanced II peaking at 55 mpw. Like you said, it can be done but it's the exception rather than the rule.

For those who checked the photos: see if every runner who finished in 3:00-3:20 (these are the people he would have been running w in the race) were all captured at the very first photo stop (4miles in)?

Pretty damning if he's the only one not captured so early in the race. Can't see how the photographer would have missed too many people so soon in the race - smallest spread of runners plus easy to capture the fastest people.

Excellent effort to narrow the list to 1

honestly didn't see this coming. Mike Rossi is a devious mofo.

Something substantive to add wrote:

Wow, looks like Mike Rossi knows some Chinese hackers and is trying to bring the LRC message board down! Check out the main forum page right now.

That would be a great twist to this whole thing. He doesn't have to worry about RW or FB, there are plenty of sympathizers there ready to overlook any integrity issues.

Everyone wants him to release his training data. He would be stupid to do this...for free.

Just think of the revenue he is in line to receive from this. He has discovered the key to substantial improvement in the marathon. This is worth millions and everyone trying to BQ or PR will be lining up to pay big bucks for his secret.

Books, seminars, personal coaching are all on the horizon for this guy.

Canova, Pfitz, Hudson, McMillan, Daniels? He's going to put these guys out of business.

Plus, the revenue for the invisibility cloak he's developed has got to be worth billions to the military. I just hope he's on our side.

MarathonMind wrote:

I've mentioned the low weekly mileage before but a lot of people seem to think 50 mpw works just fine.

Are we talking about Rossi? His 55 miles was per month, not week.

Sara, I can't edit the spreadsheet, but here are screenshots of his Athlinks profile from before it was taken down:

http://imgur.com/FSD8DQO,noGLeA1,V0e0g3u#0

There are three: I paged down but overlapped at the top so that it can be seen that it's all a single page.

1

StickToTheFactsRojo wrote:

10. Having never run more than 5K at 3:11 pace, it is illogical that he would attempt a marathon at that pace, particularly as only 3:25 needed for BQ

Obviously, write the article as you see fit, but I'd stick to simply presenting a strong case of the massively incriminating evidence.

11. Calls Boston Marathon "once in a lifetime" experience, despite having easily qualified by 30+ seconds/mile.

Nice work there Sara. I wonder why he is responding on an obscure thread such as Dopey, heck I couldn't even find it to see if he is still active (any help?). Also, was he challenging LR- "I am here... Lets Run". I assume you're monitoring this board as well, make yourself known so we can enter into a proper dialogue instead of a half assed challenge; reminds me of a loud mouth who's spewing crap from the other side of the river.

Don't get out of this thread. If you go to the main page again, the forum is gone.

Can we get an FB page going? Is there one already? What do we need to save or screen shot while we're still in this thread?

What I don't think Mr. Rossi understands (or is just choosing to ignore) is photo evidence, or lack thereof, is the most damning evidence of all. It's actual physical evidence, and the strongest evidence a RD can use to DQ a runner.

Chip times only prove where your bib was, and when those are missing, it's a flag to look at the photo evidence to ensure the runner was where he/she was supposed to be.

You can have volumes of video and detailed logs of your training leading up to a race, but it is not evidence you were on the course on race day.

If you're not in the picture, you're just not there.

I think "I didn't turn my GPS on" is the "I didn't inhale" of the 21st century.

Honestly, this is why lawyers don't let their clients say anything. People who have something to hide can only make things worse by talking -- the inconsistencies and impossibilities just multiply. So putting aside the photo record and his prior race times, we are now left to believe that a hard-working, overly analytical guy who was ready to lay it all on the line for a BQ:

(1) signed up for several pre-marathon races and didn't run any of them very hard,

(2) wore a GPS watch but didn't turn the GPS function on (or if it's like mine, actively turned it off),

(3) listened to music before the race started, as he has during essentially every other race, but then pulled his headphones out for the race,

(4) instead of wearing a crazy race shirt as he has in essentially every other race, wore all black with sunglasses,

and

(5) went out over 30 seconds per mile faster than he needed to, and held on to that pace.

I'm quite certain that among the 500,000 or so marathon finishers in 2014, all of the above occurred absolutely zero times other than this alleged race. So I'll say it again, he's either the unluckiest and most unphotographicable person on the earth, or he didn't run that race.

Sorry... it took it a while to load, but still here. Ooops Face Palm! 0_0

ilanarama wrote:

Sara, I can't edit the spreadsheet, but here are screenshots of his Athlinks profile from before it was taken down:

http://imgur.com/FSD8DQO,noGLeA1,V0e0g3u#0

There are three: I paged down but overlapped at the top so that it can be seen that it's all a single page.

thank you, i've added it. I thought it was best to keep the spreadsheet view only so that someone can't just delete it all. I'd need email addresses of individuals if they want to be able to edit it

Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get it dude. You are annoyed by anyone that can not break 14 in a 5K an run a sub 2:25 marathon like yourself. Congratulations on your running prowess...now just go read another thread if you wish.

Bad Wigins wrote:

There are nearly 2000 posts on this thread about an ordinary hobby jogger supposedly, or not, I don't care, cheating.

When did any thread about Gatlin, or Gay, or Lance, or Jeptoo, or any other known elite doper ever reach 1800 posts in just a few days? Why are you so much more offended by an ordinary road runner than people who are paid thousands or millions of dollars?

He said in the Dopey FB Group, he wants to see the "raw photos"; wouldn't that be considered "lost and found"?

Lshek wrote:

For those who checked the photos: see if every runner who finished in 3:00-3:20 (these are the people he would have been running w in the race) were all captured at the very first photo stop (4miles in)?

Pretty damning if he's the only one not captured so early in the race. Can't see how the photographer would have missed too many people so soon in the race - smallest spread of runners plus easy to capture the fastest people.

I looked at this and couldnt find him. However I also never found Rendall, so I think the photography is not capturing everyone at this point. Its a bit too crowded to make everyone out.