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

It's not that he has one slow training run that makes people think he can't run 3:11. It's that of all the training runs he's ever posted, none of them are anywhere close to suggesting a 3:11 and he appears to be bragging or proud of these runs at least. So while a 2:20 marathon guy might run 8 minute pace, he's going to also have a lot faster training runs and he's not going to select only his slow training runs to brag about on social media.

lol simmer down wodie - this is a message board not a court of law.

I stated a fact. That I would not do the same in his situation. And I'd be interested in taking a survey and determining a percentage of people who would agree with me. I'm guessing it'd be pretty high.

ScarletSquared wrote:

If they had mats and it didn't pick up splits then it's his responsibility to show he ran, by providing pictures or whatnot.

Even when races do use interval mats, the chips are not infallible. In such cases a RD reviews stills and/or video evidence. They also contact finishers the suspected cheat should have been running near to the last miles of the race. Based upon those findings a RD can most certainly DQ a participant.

Complete non-runner here who followed the links from phillymag.com yesterday.

You guys ROCK. This thread is one of the most beautiful things I've read on the Internet in almost 20 years. Almost makes me want to become a runner and stick around.

I'm awed by your crowdsourced photo analysis and extensive documentation of the evidence, or lack therof. Nice work.

I'm an average hobby runner. Started running to lose weight after kids.

I'm not Boston material, nor will I ever be, unless I run in my 70's and train for the next 30 years! :)

However if I was challenged in any race, BQ's or otherwise, I would provide all the evidence needed to clear my name. Immediately!

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.

Okay, I've now officially spent way too much time on this, but I think there’s a spot where you can see almost everyone go by in order. It looks like it is a couple miles after the start along a fairly broad road. The series begins with picture 5-470 if you look at the entire set. I've been able to find everyone who finished within 10 places Rossi, either in the foreground or somewhere in the background. I’m pretty sure about everyone with one exception. The picture for each of the 20 finishers is as follows:

1444 6-535

1163 6-510

1185 6-581

1388 6-595

1603 6-584

2550 6-574

2544 6-574

1242 6-577

2531 6-550

1823 6-544

2161 ROSSI

1997 6-597

2028 6-563

1711 6-567

1950 6-594

2233 7-602

1880 6-528

2372 6-544

2515 6-532

1933 6-570

1255 6-560

The one questionable one is 2515. You cannot see his face, shirt or hat in picture 6-532. But I think that is his arm on the right edge of the picture. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt, which fits the picture, and you can see in an earlier photo that he was tucked in with the group that is in that picture. You can see the group in pictures 12-1160 to 12-1163, and runner 2515 is clearly visible in 12-1162. All of this is early in the race. Everyone is there. And Rossi is already gone. (And even if you don’t think that that is 2515 in picture 6-532, then at least everyone within 10 spots of Rossi got photographed in one of the first two spots along the course.).

jamin wrote:

The sweat pattern on his clothing does look suspicious. When I sweat through clothing, the marks start at my neck and waist and expand downwards all-around.

sweat pattern means nothing. I have similar sweat pattern, and i do sweat a lot. sides of the shirt are not in constant contact with the body, so they don't get drenched like front and back.

stop focusing on sweat pattern and focus on important things, like none of his races coming close to 3:11 and lack of on-course photos.

I always wondered, with the price of video cameras and memory getting so low, why marathons don't put more on the course. They don't have to be high resolution, or even manned. They could, for instance, just set one up on a tripod near aid stations or mile markers and let it run by itself.

Then again, I guess cheating wasn't such a problem until recently either.

BOPA nailed it.

I have also looked at every photo in up to roll 16 and the other set of photos (that was mostly half marathoners), Rossi isn't there. Not in one photo.

I may actually start cross referencing the top 10 finishers in each age group to see if they each have a photo at that section.

morecameras wrote:

Then again, I guess cheating wasn't such a problem until recently either.

Has cheating really not been a problem though? Or have we just become more aware of it?

This is one of the main things that has convinced me. This guy is all out in the public about running and racing and I've followed that for a long time (aquaintance, hence friends on FB). He never mentioned being 5th in his age group. He would be all over that if this was a normal race for him. He would have blasted that and about 15other tweets and comments. There was nothing that day about this and no mention of it any of the days after. His only comment that day was "Holy S&it. I did it." - That's it.

But, true evidence is needed to DQ. I wonder how investigative this investigation will be.

Letsrun.com is truly a remarkable place with a very remarkable group of people.

1. Instrumental in identifying the Boston bombers

2. The Kip Litton thread

3. This thread

When this group sets its mind on something the results are astounding. Imagine now if that were put to some actual good use like investigating real crimes, catching online criminals, sex offenders or whatever. Between the thousands of crap threads there are real gems. Good work.

I looked over Rossi's overall numbers on Athlinks. His numbers at similar distances are virtually identical to mine. A little about me - almost 53, duathlete (with a triathlete type body) that is about Rossi's size, but with less body fat. I've run a total of one marathon - it was 86 degrees at the finish. My time was heavily impacted 4:23 (versus a realistic goal of 3:45). My best half (at age 47) was a 1:41.

My wife qualified and ran Boston. We were talking last night and I asked:

1. Do you believe I could run Rossi's 3:45 Philly? We both agreed I might need favorable weather, but the answer was about 50% to the "yes".

2. Do you believe I could run Rossi's 4:11 marathon? We agreed to about a 90% probability - with only weather being an issue.

3. Finally I asked, do you believe that I could run a 3:11 marathon? We again agreed on a probability number - 0%. Certainly if indeed it was hot that day, I would suspect he would be fortunate to break 4 hours.

I've won age groups in small to mid-size runs, placed in my age group in bigger runs, and was a State Champ in my age group (2013) in the Duathlon. And I would NEVER believe that I could run a 3:11 marathon. Bluntly, given my body size and muscle weight (which I noticed that Rossi brags about on his blog) I don't ever believe I would qualify for Boston.

Yet, I would be even or beat Rossi in nearly every distance through a half marathon that he has competed in. And I am running in Texas - where heat almost always impacts my times.

And if he has been "injured" why did he race over this past weekend? Again, looking over his times at the Broad Street 10 mile, very consistent to what I would do (1:20 for a 10 miler).

So he is 1 second/mile faster than me in a 10 miler? But would finish 35 minutes or more ahead of me in a Marathon? I don't think so. That's one hell of a strong kick!!! :-)

For people who have said "the sunglasses are back" in his post-race photo, go back and look at his finishing photo -- I think he had them on when he finished.

Which is weird, right? Has ever ever run in sunglasses for an entire race before? Are those even running sunglasses?

#TeamMikeRossi

She finished approximately 6 minutes after Rossi and started exactly the same time. She looks like she just ran a marathon! He looks like he splashed water on his clothes.

Are there any other race photos of him looking drenched?

mileage_man wrote:

morecameras wrote:

Then again, I guess cheating wasn't such a problem until recently either.

Has cheating really not been a problem though? Or have we just become more aware of it?

Is cheating really such a problem NOW? Now I know Rossi cheated and he's kind of a jerk with his note about the principal. So he earned his public roasting...

BUT it seems as if you folks have pretty convincingly determined that he was THE ONLY cheater at Lehigh. This actually surprises me since I think it would be so easy to cheat. To me it looks like you folks have shown that cheating isn't exactly a massive problem today.

Raysism wrote:

For people who have said "the sunglasses are back" in his post-race photo, go back and look at his finishing photo -- I think he had them on when he finished.

Which is weird, right? Has ever ever run in sunglasses for an entire race before? Are those even running sunglasses?

"Running sunglasses"?!? WTF?