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

LMR wrote:

OMG! Do you even know how IP addresses work? The internet company assigns them to the router in your home. So when you trace an IP address it tells people where your home is. It's not the same as a GPS tracker.

As per the IP addresses in the wikipedia changes, the first change was done yesterday at 2:40 in the morning, from near the Glenside Train Station. Do you really think I am sitting outside Mike's house at 2:40 AM waiting for his wife to take the train?

The second change was made at 10 PM yesterday from near Riverton, NJ.

You're STILL mentioning Mike's family? What is wrong with you?

Ken that is not how it works, at least not for people like you using a free website. The "Internet company" (wtf is that?) doesn't allow what you call tracing based on the truncated IPs you are looking at. They are only good for comparing to previous posts and very rough geolocation.

I know how IPs work. It is my profession.

You can't prove that you geo'd that IP can you?

No. Cause you're full of it.

I create thread dilution wrote:

You didn't even add the new stuff from Greg?

Thanks for reposting this though! Can't wait for you to do it next page

1. Rossi posted online a letter he received from the principal of his children's elementary school because he took his two children out of school to watch him run in the Boston Marathon.

2. He then responded and wrote a sarcastic and self-serving letter to the principal, addressing it "Dear Madam Principal" rather using her real name which would have demonstrated generally accepted standards of respect (he later tries to claim he loves the school and the principal and meant no harm) when writing a letter. He essentially threw a hissy fit because he believed that he and his family should be treated differently than any other school district families.

3. He never sent that letter to the principal or any other school administrator but instead posted it online. I could understand taking all of this public after you have exhausted all avenues of recourse that responsible people first try, that is, meeting with school officials.

4. He subsequently said he posted both letters on only his Facebook page which were solely intended for his "friends" to see. He then denied that he posted either letter anywhere else but to his Facebook page, yet that was a lie as has been shown via screen captures and saved images of his twitter account and other social media sources (including his company website) that he posted/reposted and tweeted/retweeted said letters and giving tv and radio interviews, all before ever meeting with any administrator in the school district. One could argue that he was cyber-bullying the principal by his childish behavior, the tone of his letter and the sarcasm he envoked.

5. The principal did not single out Rossi or treat him and his two children any different than any of the other 7,500 students in the school district. Partial disclosure - I live in this school district. Letters such as this are issued for unexcused absences. Why he choose to make an issue of this is beyond me because it does not affect a student, especially third graders, unless the student already has a history (10 or more I believe in the state of PA) of unexcused absences.

6. This attention brought scrutiny to his public "running" and race times, as well as all of his posting and boasting on his social media accounts. As questions arose, the once very public figure decided to go uncharacteristically quiet and close his social media accounts or made them private.

7. Rossi posted and boasted about his running and training like he was an accomplished runner or athlete, although much of it sounded quite amateurish. He posted pictures like a teen.

8. He "runs" the race of a lifetime after only 18 months of running and total of about 1,000 miles at the age of 46 and all of sudden he finds modesty and barely mentions his Lehigh Valley Health Network Via Marathon's race time, in spite of somehow cutting an enormous amount of time from his PR. After every other race, he wrote a lot on his social media accounts and posted tons of pictures at each race. However, for some reason, barely a peep from him after the LVM. Things that make you go hmm?

9. When questioned in an interview about the disconnect between previous race times and his LVM race time/pace, he said he wasnt trying in the other races yet in his posts he blatantly boasted about his race times and expressed how he thought his race times were good etc., thus his posted comments are consistent with someone trying to do his best and trying to get BQ. In fact, in the Philadelphia Marathon he mentions his time and the BQ and being upset that he "just" missed a BQ because of a bathroom break.

10. There is not one single photograph of Rossi on the LVM race course, with the exception of the ones at the finish line. The race course did not have time mats but did have several camera checkpoints on the course. There is a nearly continuous run of photos at least three checkpoints.

11. At one of the photo checkpoints there was on average more than 48 photos published per minute for a 13 minute stretch during which Rossi would have to run by the checkpoint (with the fewest photos in any one minute stretch being 40 photos). All of the 20 closest finishers to Rossi (in terms of place, 10 ahead, 10 behind) were spotted at all three checkpoints and yet Mr. Rossi is absent from all three.

12. An analysis of the first photo checkpoint revealed that 199 of the top 200 finishers were photographed. Guess who is missing? Yep, Rossi #2161. Is it a coincidence that the individual who ran his fastest pace/time for a marathon and at a faster pace than many of the shorter distances (in spite of usually slowing down over longer races) did not have one single photo on the course? I think not. No reasonable person thinks its a coincidence. However, I am open to seeing and reviewing any photos or evidence that shows he was in fact on the course, excluding the start and finish lines.

13. The LVM Committee did NOT confirm nor did it state that they believed that Rossi ran the entire race, and they also did not say that they thought his time was accurate and did not say that they thought he did not cheat. Quite the opposite, as their statement said there was no conclusive evidence that his time was inaccurate. Saying or concluding a runner's time is accurate (and here is why we think so) is much different than saying that there was no conclusive evidence that a runner's time was inaccurate. In fact, they did not did provide any evidence that his time was accurate. Why not? But how could they? They did not have interim timing mats and there was not a photo to be found of him on the course. Moreover, they didn't even address the issue of photos in their statement. That is telling.

14. Other runners can at least point to time-stamped photos at various points on the course to say "there I am", which is more than can be said for Rossi! He can't. He hasn't. He refuses to!

15. The lack of photos of Rossi is arguably more damning than his time/pace time. Why? One can debate race times/pace, training etc., but there is no bias in continuous, time-stamped photos being taken by professional photographers there to capture every racer. That is not to say that race times/pace and training is not an important piece of evidence, it is, especially in light of his other race times, particularly his pace in 5k's.

16. The mere fact that the LVM Race Director decided to impanel a committee to "review" this debacle meant there was enough "probable cause" or suspicion to do so. Therefore, it is the LVM Committee's and Rossi's responsibility to provide the conclusive evidence that his time is accurate, not anyone else's to provide conclusive evidence that his time is inaccurate.

17. Of course this isnt any evidence that he ran the race or his time is inaccurate because the LVM abdicated its responsibility of ensuring accuracy and validity of the race times BEFORE the race by not having timing mats throughout the race course and AFTER the race by its flawed investigation, reasoning and statement.

18. Rossi claims to have photos and other exculpatory evidence to demonstrate that his time is accurate/ran the entire race. It is time for Rossi to provide any and all information that he claims to possess rather than just saying so. Saying so does not make it true. If he truly has such evidence, then there is no reason why he should not or would not share it. NONE. Failure to provide this information can only lead one to reasonably conclude that he is lying about this so called "evidence" and thus, he cheated and his time is inaccurate.

Hey ken. I mean facts guy.

You ready to prove how well you know ip geolocation?

You're not very good at hiding your own persec, are you Ken?

Hey Ken still waiting for you to prove how you know the edit came from the train station and only the train station using the IP.

Oh wait, you can't.

Good luck staying up all night trying to figure out how to lie your way out of this one.

Hopefully, you'll be banned by the morning for being a creepy stalker.

What do you want to bet that ken goes to the train station in the morning and tries to look up the IP from there using the IP locator only to realize he's made a fool of himself?

Or would he even know?

Maybe he'll just post the entire ip address for his device as well.

Registered users only from now on! No more Ken.

Just hardcore runners who hate ken.

what are the odds wrote:

What do you want to bet that ken goes to the train station in the morning and tries to look up the IP from there using the IP locator only to realize he's made a fool of himself?

Or would he even know?

Maybe he'll just post the entire ip address for his device as well.

Registered users only from now on! No more Ken.

Just hardcore runners who hate Mike Rossi and his cheating.

Corrected

First, I rather read posts like these than any of Ken's diatribes or the "Hi Mike, Hi Ken" posts or the one liners from trolls trying to bait.

I think your post was well thought out and I think you have several fair and valid points.

First of all let's address the question of the photographs. Mike Rossi tried to demonstrate the very thing you are trying to claim by aligning and posting the two photos side-by-side on his twitter background in such way. Unfortunately for him, the guy in the very blurry background is not him. The bib placement is not right the blurry guy has the bib pinned much higher than Rossi. You can also pick up the turquoise hue in the blurry photo next to the bib which is from runner 2325's shirt. Rossi's shirt and bib combo would not have produced this turquoise hue in a blurred image. I see no hat in the blurry background and neither can you, you're making up patterns that are simply not there.

The other issue is that if we take your position and assume that the person in the background is indeed Rossi then where did runner 2325 come from? Why was he not in the background of any of the other photos? Just as Rossi conveniently disappeared he conveniently appeared? Again, I refute the claim that the person in the background is Rossi but let's entertain it for argument's sake.

Your other claim about Rossi passing the photographer on the photographer's left also does not stand ground. Take a look at this photo, shot by the same photographer:

You can see that the photographer is planted on the yellow center stripe. If Rossi has passed him from the right it means he went outside of the course meaning he left the course.

But for the sake of argument let's give you both that Rossi is indeed in the picture (he is not) and he passed the photographer on the outside (he did not) your whole work is still ahead of you. Because now you have to explain Rossi's time.

These photos were taken at the second relay exchange point, the camera facing south on Main Street just north of W Lehigh St pointing towards the intersection.

Note the matching concrete cracks in the pavement to this photo:

. Also note the big clock right next to the camera guy kind of pointing to the ridiculousness of your claim about Rossi not only circling the camera man from the other side but also the timing clock of the half marathon.

So the runner that was actually photographed in the photo you claim Rossi is visible in the background was bib 1689, SCOTT KEPPEL, he ran a 3:48.

The person behind him was 1529, BORIS GUZMAN, he ran 3:32:57.

The next person was 1370, MICHAEL ESDERS, DNF.

The next person was 1421, PETER FOYTLIN with 3:34:16.

The next one is 2325 JOSEPH SUSTENTO with a 3:22.

So if this is how you want to play this game then sure, go right ahead. Mike Rossi ran an impressive negative split marathon coming from behind at the halfway mark and blew everyone away in the 70F temps while no camera caught him and had no race times before or since that would match this incredible feat and he went into obscurity and never really mentioned such an amazing feat to anyone.

Again, your very first premise about the photo showing Mike is false but even if it was true the times do not match up.

As for your other arguments, that is precisely where you have a leg to stand on and that is where the race and their director caved. Note that I did not read the waiver so I take it on blind faith but if the race waiver did stipulate no headphones and no dogs then you are correct, every one of those people should be DQd and it is obviously not a path Barb or the marathon is willing to take. I never run with dogs or headphones so I don't have a dog in this fight (no pun) and they should be DQd for breaking the rules just as Mike Rossi should be DQd for cheating. He did violate USATF race rules that were in effect in this race.

I also made the point and explanation before that Mike Rossi did not single handedly caused a runner to miss out on Boston. We're in full agreement on that one. Anyone who is playing that angle is playing it wrong.

The only angle I'm playing is that the DQ is a matter of principle. He already ran Boston, nobody can take that experience away from him. I'm no hypocrite, I say DQ all headphone toting marathoners and dog slamming runners.

So I'd say while your "evidence" was weak in terms of Rossi actually running this race your points about the after effects and resulting non-DQ are pretty much spot on. Too bad none of it changes the fact that Mike Rossi is still a marathon cheat and he will remain as such for the rest of his life.

LMR wrote:

OMG! Do you even know how IP addresses work? The internet company assigns them to the router in your home. So when you trace an IP address it tells people where your home is. It's not the same as a GPS tracker.

As per the IP addresses in the wikipedia changes, the first change was done yesterday at 2:40 in the morning, from near the Glenside Train Station. Do you really think I am sitting outside Mike's house at 2:40 AM waiting for his wife to take the train?

The second change was made at 10 PM yesterday from near Riverton, NJ.

Kenny,

First of all, Do you even know who assigns these IP addresses? And to whom? IP addresses don't grow on trees and there is only a finite amount of them. Did you know we actually ran out of IP addresses already? I'm talking about IPV4 here, I would hate to burden your small brain with IPV6.

So IP addresses are not necessarily assigned to each individual "router in your home". They are actually assigned in ranges (subnets) to ISPs. Then ISPs can do whatever they want to do with these addresses. Some large ISPs like FIOS have more IPs than users so they assign each individual one to their user's modem at their house, heck they might even assign unique ones to specific computers at the user's home. Some, like your mobile phone provider, don't have an abundance of IPs and they have more users than IPs to assign so they do tricks such as NAT to get around this problem. Others use IPV6 if possible.

The websites you linked to which supposedly pinpoint the exact location of an IP address can't do it because they have no knowledge where each IP address is assigned by the ISP. They can only tell "this IP range was given to this ISP and the ISP said they would be using these IP addresses in this area". Now some ISPs will report with higher granularity than others but none of them report with pinpoint precision to these aggregator websites. For you to know which machine used a particular IP address at a particular time, these addresses are actually leased to you and they expire so you might get a different one next time around, you would need a subpoena to the ISP and then they could tell you who they assigned that IP at that particular time as long as they keep such records.

I'm just telling you this information because I want to make you look like a fool. Again, we're back to the fact that you don't know jack shit!

Oh, and let me clue you in about one more thing regarding timestamps on wikipedia: UTC. I won't explain this one, you will have to google it yourself. But I'll tell you this much: it's not as complicated as the sync licensing issue so you might actually be able to grasp this one.... 2:40AM Geez man! #rolleyes

Did Barb McKeever review surveillance footage from local businesses along the course route?

Golf wrote:

I am going to play some golf next monday with Mike!

Who wants to join us?

Philmont Country Club Monday, August 3, 2015

(Rain Date is Monday, August 17)

Sign-in: 10:00 AM to 11:45 AM

Shotgun Start: 12:00 PM

http://vincekellygolf.com/registration@vincekellygolf.com

They will auction Mike's Boston medal.

A unique collectors' item.

And in the end what is the purpose of having Mike's IP address? How does that help get him DQ'd?

McKeever event mgmt blows wrote:

Did Barb McKeever review surveillance footage from local businesses along the course route?

The thing that scares the hell out of me is you are probably serious.

Ken, do you not know how much this information could help you, personally??

The gimp posts, the posts about your past, etc..could be tied to him directly.

Mike is playing the victim. This information could blow that out of the water.

^This

LMR wrote:

And in the end what is the purpose of having Mike's IP address? How does that help get him DQ'd?

You completely fvcked up. Greg just proved you were full of bs when you claimed Rossi's wife's commute was easily accessible knowledge.

You are a stalker.

You need to be banned before you become totally unstable.

thread dilution wrote:

You didn't even add the new stuff from Greg?

Thanks for reposting this though! Can't wait for you to do it next page

Your welcome.

good job Ken wrote:

LMR wrote:

And in the end what is the purpose of having Mike's IP address? How does that help get him DQ'd?

You completely fvcked up. Greg just proved you were full of bs when you claimed Rossi's wife's commute was easily accessible knowledge.

You are a stalker.

You need to be banned before you become totally unstable.

BEFORE he becomes unstable...lololololol. He was unstable a few hundred pages ago.

Ken - The IP address has a lot more validity and relevancy than your convoluted and delusional conspiracy theories. You are creepy and the whole train station thing and work schedule is creepy and concerning. You are adding to his argument that he is the victim. He is not, but everytime your fingers touch a keyboard regarding this debacle, you give me more ammo to plead being a victim, which is he is not and in spite of what you write, it does not change the facts about his marathon cheating and lies about it and the cover-up.

Yup.

And everything in this is true.

People like Greg should be posting.

Ken, you should not.