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

He's now the second most famous cheater next to Rosie Ruiz.

Come on. You're insulting Kip.

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth; banks are going bust; shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter; punks are running wild in the street, and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat. And we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be!

We all know things are bad -- worse than bad -- they're crazy.

It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials, and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone."

Well, I'm not going to leave you alone.

I want you to get mad!

I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your Congressman, because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street.

All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

You've gotta say, "I'm a human being, goddammit! My life has value!"

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell,

"I'm as mad as hell at Mike Rossi,

and I'm not going to take this anymore!!"

trigdon wrote:

Million Runner March wrote:

There's some guy posting on their FB page that there are "thousands" of people upset with the race over this.

Really?

Thousands?

Yeah, that "some guy" is me, funny how on Facebook it actually displays a name! Yep, I'm not a coward hiding behind anonymity on a running board forum. Sure, I don't have proof like Lehigh Valley Marathon requires, but a little bit of logic and knowledge of how apathetic people are tells me that if this many unique individuals are posting their displeasure on LVM Facebook page, there are thousands more that feel the same way but won't actually take the time to post.

If you could name just one thousand, I'd give you some credibility.

I really hope some runners do actually crash Lehigh to see if they can pull a Rossi. Egg in the face of the race directors.

And while we're at it, why not a cheaters marathon where the most creative and audacious cheaters win prizes. Proceeds go to a worthy charity.

King of Karma wrote:

I really hope some runners do actually crash Lehigh to see if they can pull a Rossi. Egg in the face of the race directors.

And while we're at it, why not a cheaters marathon where the most creative and audacious cheaters win prizes. Proceeds go to a worthy charity.

Moving forward the LVHN Via Marathon has taken several action steps to verify runner participation and provide the utmost accuracy in timing and scoring the race for all runners. For the 2015 LVHN Via Marathon, the course will have a minimum of six timing mats - at the start, finish line and four additional on-course locations. In addition, there will be video surveillance of the course at several locations which Via will archive annually.

Million Runner March wrote:

There's some guy posting on their FB page that there are "thousands" of people upset with the race over this.

Really?

Thousands?

Take a look at Hal Higdon's post where he basically calls Mike a sociopath:

Over 1,000 likes of that post… so it isn't too much to extrapolate that 1,000's are upset with the lack of a DQ...

Fence Hopper wrote:

I think you are taking your obsession to an unhealthy level. This is about a guy who may have cheated in a marathon. Why don't you try investing your passion in a cause like ending world hunger?

Hi Mike.

I agree that a concerted effort needs to be made to any and all that will listen, most importantly the Boston Marathon because this is a credibility issue now. Below is a rough draft of what I am preparing to send, although it is far from final form.

I am writing to you, as well as every sponsor of the Lehigh Valley Marathon ("LVM"), local and national news outlets, magazines, sporting/running organizations (including the Boston Marathon Racing Director), and countless other sources and social media venues regarding your flawed statement and decision not to disqualify Mike Rossi.

While I am not privy to what evidence the LVM reviewed, or more appropriately, what evidence the LVM may have that is not in the public record, but if the LVM is in possession of such evidence then I would think that it would behoove the LVM to share it in order to support your conclusion and defend the integrity of your race. Specifically, in part, the LVM issued the following statement "…the Marathon committee concluded that while there is data from Rossi’s participation in other racing events indicating that Rossi’s time may not be accurate, there is not conclusive evidence that his time in the 2014 LVHN Via Marathon is inaccurate". I am not sure I fully understand the assertion that Ross's time may not be accurate in relation to other races, but in the case of this race, it was his time in relation to all his own posted race and training times and mileage that gave rise to question his run/time in the LVM.

However, his race time was not the direct and most concrete evidence that he may have not run the entire LVM and what your statement glaringly omitted. The most direct evidence the he did not run the entire race is he did not show up in any Via Marathon race photos other than at the finish line. The runners around Rossi in the results were all photographed in three to six different spots along the course. You make no mention that you have photographs contradicting that. At one photographic point, there are time stamped photos covering 100 meters with at most 6 seconds between each frame and yet, Rossi does not appear in one single photo. Please explain that.

My understanding is that there was also a relay going on concurrently with the marathon, so it is no surprise that "The LVHN Via Marathon has not received any reports from the more [than] 2,500 race participants, thousands of spectators, and more than 600 volunteers, course marshals, security personnel, medical personnel or race officials on the course of any wrong doing by any runner". No one is actively looking for a cheat, and given the weather conditions that day and the relay race, it is conceivable that Mr. Rossi could have avoided detection. How many people came forward to say they saw him at some point on the course? Are there any? If someone said they did not see him, is that proof enough that he did not run the entire race? Likely not because how can you prove you did not see him. However, the photographers essentially proved that he was not on the race course because his only photo is at the finish line unlike every other racer who has photos at other points along the course Moreover, if someone during your investigation asserted they saw something amiss, what level of proof would you need to believe them? That is why, unless you have information that the public does not have, the lack of photographs by the professional photographers throughout the course is not only direct evidence, but incontrovertible evidence that he did not run the entire race.

The other evidence, which would be deemed circumstantial, yet strong when considered in its entirety is his race time in relation to his times for prior and subsequent races and training runs. In addition, Mr. Rossi is an individual who is notorious for posting and boasting and memorializing his every running move. However, in his seminal event of his short running history, he runs a personal best by inconceivably smashing his best time by a landslide and barely mentions it in any of his postings. Not only had he never ran this fast before, he never displayed this kind of modesty either. Any reasonable person would find this behavior suspicious.

So my challenge to you is to publicly disclose what evidence do you have that he actually ran the entire race? Proving a positive (running the entire race) is certainly much easier than proving a negative (that he did not and was not on the entire course). You owe it not only to those runners who take running seriously and have trained diligently, but the credibility of the LVM, its supporters, runners, volunteers, those who use it as a Boston Marathon qualifying event etc. deserve it.

Not playing with a full deck wrote:

King of Karma wrote:

I really hope some runners do actually crash Lehigh to see if they can pull a Rossi. Egg in the face of the race directors.

And while we're at it, why not a cheaters marathon where the most creative and audacious cheaters win prizes. Proceeds go to a worthy charity.

Moving forward the LVHN Via Marathon has taken several action steps to verify runner participation and provide the utmost accuracy in timing and scoring the race for all runners. For the 2015 LVHN Via Marathon, the course will have a minimum of six timing mats - at the start, finish line and four additional on-course locations. In addition, there will be video surveillance of the course at several locations which Via will archive annually.

Sounds like a great challenge! I predict this race will actually sell out next year.

I followed this thread very closely the first 40+ pages. I even helped look through photos, etc. to gather evidence. I am positive he cheated. I'm also positive he is a bad person.

However, it is not worth my harassing my friends, not worth my harassing a race, not worth my harassing news outlets, not even worth my (further) harassing Mike himself. If nothing more comes of this debacle, I'm honestly okay with the "justice" that has occurred at this point.

Don't get me wrong, exposing cheater in our sport is important, but at some point you have to remember how to be happy with your own life.

I get your frustration but the truth is we've been had. Why have we've been had? Because we are an immaterial drop in the bucket full of hobby joggers. The RD doesn't care about integrity or what the more serious runners think. Money and social capital are prioritized. What actually happens during the marathon and how fast people ran (or didn't run) is irrelevant. Money will continue to flow in, both charity and registration fees. America is only tuned into sound bites and after a few days it might as well not have happened because everyone forgets.

This story had a significant audience for one week and then the RD kicked the can down the road knowing it would die. The RD already knew what the decision was going to be as soon as they were made aware of the issue: whatever doesn't rock the boat. Limiting the guilty test scope to something almost impossible such as relying on people to come forward with evidence of him leaving or re-entering the course effectively defaulted this to a no DQ. With that said, during the month of May the only material investigating that took place consisted of the RD contacting MR to let him know they were looking into it and to ask him if he ran the course. Do you really think they fervently worked to interrogate a bunch of runners and staff or even considered the lack of photos and amazing evidence put forth by LRC? If so I have some widgets I'd like to sell you.

Only the LRC community will continue to follow or care about this. Mike is never to go attempt a marathon again for obvious reasons, but this will not be suspicious or news to anyone else out there since that's what everyone does, they run one or two and are gone from the sport. Thanks everyone for donating so much time to this, it's been wildly entertaining but that's about all you'll get from this story. Great job Brojos for taking an eternity to react to this issue and for not using any muscle to keep an honest level of attention. EOT ~ go home folks

Fail.Higdon's post is about Rossi cheating. Those likes are long before the RD decided there were no grounds to DQ him.If that guy gets over 2000 likes on his post on the race FB page, then we can talk about "thousands." Until then it's just a gross exaggeration.

well at least over 1,000... wrote:

Million Runner March wrote:

There's some guy posting on their FB page that there are "thousands" of people upset with the race over this.

Really?

Thousands?

Take a look at Hal Higdon's post where he basically calls Mike a sociopath:

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=891753454204230&id=118381048208145&hc_location=ufi

Over 1,000 likes of that post… so it isn't too much to extrapolate that 1,000's are upset with the lack of a DQ...

King of Karma wrote:

I really hope some runners do actually crash Lehigh to see if they can pull a Rossi. Egg in the face of the race directors.

And while we're at it, why not a cheaters marathon where the most creative and audacious cheaters win prizes. Proceeds go to a worthy charity.

Let's all run the race, cheat, and then one by one report each other until they are over their heads investigating cases of cheating. And if we all claim the same story, that our chips and video camera must have malfunctioned they will have to let it go, like they did with the Rossi decision.

They have set the bar for proof so high that they won't be able to DQ anybody. We now have a documented legal precedent that they require eye witnesses to DQ a runner. We all chip in a get the same lawyer.

Can you imagine the awards? 'The coveted Rosie Rossi (F) and Rossi Ruiz (M) trophies...and a $25 gas card, a Boston or Philly entry, plus dinner for 4 at Benihana AND a 2013 Boston Marathon Celebration jacket lovingly signed by Suzanne and John Murphy.'

King of Karma wrote:

I really hope some runners do actually crash Lehigh to see if they can pull a Rossi. Egg in the face of the race directors.

And while we're at it, why not a cheaters marathon where the most creative and audacious cheaters win prizes. Proceeds go to a worthy charity.

Frist, the draft I previously posted should have been addressed to LVM Race Director, and it will be copied to everyone else.

Second, I am not Mike Rossi.

Third, you look like an ass asserting that.

Can we get a crowdfund going to get a bunch of us entries into the race and hotel/travel expenses?

We could all get matching shirts and stuff. It would be awesome.

LoserMikeRossi wrote:

We now have a documented legal precedent that they require eye witnesses to DQ a runner.

I don't think their decision quite amounts to a legal precedent. Also, it has been clearly stated that next year the race will incorporate timing mats and video. I'm more worried about your health (mental and adrenal) at this stage.

abingtonrunner wrote:

Frist, the draft I previously posted should have been addressed to LVM Race Director, and it will be copied to everyone else.

Second, I am not Mike Rossi.

Third, you look like an ass asserting that.

I hope that you realize that you just responded to Mike posing as me.

Seems like it should have been obvious.