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

I have no idea if i ever posted before in this thread (I do occasionally post in other threads) but I just wanted to post now for two reasons:

• To add myself to all the recent posters who came here to show that this whole saga is more than just '12 losers on a forum thread'. I'm from The Netherlands and even here many runners know about it.

• To get this thread to 1000 pages faster :-)

• To say that I've been following this thread for a months, and absolutely love it. The drama, the sheer stupidity of Mike, the bikkering, the plot turns, the speculations. I LOVE IT!

The only thing i don't like about it is the childish offtopic stuff. Stop it already, this story is so good it doesn't need the extra storylines.

His wife is not fat or ugly, she's fine (apart from her taste in men ofcourse, but that's her case, not ours). His kids are just that, kids, no need for any of us to judge them. Leave them out of it. Ken, of course I am mostly talking about you here (yes, others do it too, I know): I would NOT want you out of this thread, but do everybody (including yourself) a pleasure and stay on topic. You are one of the main characters, don't be the villain. This story already has one.

Oh, and Mike: please unblock me on Twitter! I promiss I won't tweet you again saying you are a dirty cheater. You already know that.

Good to re-plow this old ground as many will rossi this thread and miss some key points.

Wait, that's three reasons! Dammit, where's the edit button?

Get this forum fixed Rojo, it'll be 2016 in a few days.

Welcome! Love to see new posters are here. There's no doubt in my mind that there are more readers on this thread than any of us realize.

Also, Men's Journal:

http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/exercise/the-100-000-marathon-training-plan-20150724

Didn't realize he got quite so much press.

Canadian Running:

http://runningmagazine.ca/letsrun-offers-marathon-dad-mike-rossi-100000-to-run-31145/

Morning Call:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-via-marathon-follow-20150722-story.html

RW again:

http://www.runnersworld.com/racing/athlinks-plays-vital-role-in-catching-suspect-performances

Philly Mag again:

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/07/23/ashley-madison-hack/

I'm all for upping the offer (easy to say when it's not your own money :) ) but I would make it strictly for reproducing a 3:11. No tiers and no other distances involved. For 250k we might see at least two desperate attempts which would just be golden. Mike would either injure himself for real this time, go out hard and blow up epically, or just simply be way off the mark. In my opinion, not even the best coaches and doctors could make him run 3:11, EVER, but I would throw in a couple of bucks to watch.

Mike Ross wrote:

Might as well make it $250,000. He can't turn that down

I would put $100 on the line

1/4 mill has a nicer ring to it than 200K. Just saying.

Rojos, if you do raise the $ involved, PLEASE get a lawyer to read over your offer and make the language of what's required extremely precise.

Leave him zero outs.

printer wrote:

At this point, the Rojos are just trying to keep this thread alive. They are only interested in page veiws.

Please. This thread has a lot of posts but represents a tiny, tiny percentage of our overall traffic. I just looked it up - about 1%. So I'm setting myself up to potentially lose $100,000 so I can make a ton of money?

False. I put the guarantee out there because the fact that he wasn't DQd bothered me a lot. This thread continues to go strong half a year later for the same reason - it obviously bothered a lot of other people as well.

For weeks, i didn't even read this thread. I bet Weldon has hardly read any of it. I've gotten back into it as people emailed complaining about the thread and I said I"d try to moderate it a bit which has proved to be an impossible task.

Now I'm fascinated by this thread because it amazes me that people are still obsessed with a 3:11 marathon cheat. The psychology of it all is amazing.

Trollminator wrote:

For 250k we might see at least two desperate attempts which would just be golden. Mike would either injure himself for real this time, go out hard and blow up epically, or just simply be way off the mark. In my opinion, not even the best coaches and doctors could make him run 3:11, EVER, but I would throw in a couple of bucks to watch.

You're assuming he would actually try to run a whole race, he won't, but he will throw in a couple of ducks to match your bucks.

Moose Tracks wrote:

Barb's reputation appears to be spreading.

If looking for an ideal beginner marathon: "Designed by Bart Yasso, the Via Marathon . . . (is) a speedy and popular choice."

http://www.runnersworld.com/races/6-marathons-perfect-for-beginners

Expect the following to be deleted

"Via Marathon also has only a few Rossi Mats and doesn't DQ cheaters"

Closing in on 20,000 posts. And all from just 12 of us in our basement.

Still in the game, baby.

rojo wrote:

I'm contemplating doublind down on the $100,000. Maybe making it $200,000. That'll put the attention where it should be. NO way did he do it.

I love the idea of making $100k for Mike AND $100k to a charity of Mike's choosing. He looks absurd not going for the $100k for himself, but he just claims he doesn't need the money and doesn't need to prove anything. But when he fails to even attempt for a charity to get $100k, he looks like a selfish prick.

If someone offered to donate $100k to a charity I chose to beat my marathon PR, I'd bust my ass to do it, even though my marathon PR was 3 years ago at 45.

rojo wrote:

Please. This thread has a lot of posts but represents a tiny, tiny percentage of our overall traffic. I just looked it up - about 1%. So I'm setting myself up to potentially lose $100,000 so I can make a ton of money?

A lot of people seem to over-estimate the cash value of a webpage read, are they seriously thinking that every visitor to this thread clicks on every ad, buys every product and this site owners get the full retail amount in each case ?

If you do, would you be interested in buying the Eiffel Tower? $1000 or two for £1500 special deal.

Rojo, can you discern # of independent IP addresses viewing and/or posting to this thread? If you could share I'm sure that would interest quite a few here, Mr. Rossi included.

I agree re the psychology. I for one never latch on to anything like this, so I'm even shocked at my own behavior. At first I was just entertained that there was a thread about a cheater and so many people 'seemed' upset. Then I realized Mike was completely committed to his lie and was trying to squeeze PR from the principal letter fallout. I think that's when my interest in the topic grew and I became one of the "activists". Now I feel I've made a real investment in this. Yes it's about justice but it's also about not standing down, we know we are right and Mike continues to put up a fight. When he cheated at the Turkey Trot I became a Mike Rossi thread lifer (unless he confesses of course). The other main reason I'm going stronger than ever is because I DESPISE narcissism. I can't stand people who love to bring attention to themselves, specially at the expense of others including their families. Merry xmas Mike, lucky for you there are only 11 others like me right..

I'll take your word that your recent posts are not meant to encourage page views. If that's the case, what are you trying to achieve with a revised challenge other than further entertainment thru humiliation of an obviously dysfunctional Mike Rossi?

He's already proven to be a 2x race cheater, liar, dummy and poster of threatening tweets. What more is to be gained here?

Anyway, it's your message board and you can do as you wish.

You're right, I think the ideal outcome for him would be to find a marathon that he could either cheat or not be seen/photographed so he could save face and make excuses.

Kevin52 wrote:

Trollminator wrote:

For 250k we might see at least two desperate attempts which would just be golden. Mike would either injure himself for real this time, go out hard and blow up epically, or just simply be way off the mark. In my opinion, not even the best coaches and doctors could make him run 3:11, EVER, but I would throw in a couple of bucks to watch.

You're assuming he would actually try to run a whole race, he won't, but he will throw in a couple of ducks to match your bucks.