Boston Dad may have some explaining to do to his son

[canalrunner]

Sometimes when you fly to close to the sun, you risk getting burned. It appears that the Boston dad who explained the value of taking his kids out of school in an open letter to the principal that went viral might have taken a short cut to get there. Wee bit of an awkward moment, perhaps. Doesn't look there is a good explanation as to how a 4 hour 47 year old marathoner smashes a 3:11 BQ time. If there is, I want some of that. Wonder what his message to his kids really is.

Looks like Mike might caught a virus from his viral post.

http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/05/05/did-boston-marathon-dad-mike-rossi-cheat/

[turd ferguson]

his name wasn't ***** was it?

just checking if that word is still banned.

[Jwolf]

There's one person who has posted in the very long Runner's World online thread that went to the "real" media with this story. I'm not sure what to make of it. Yes, it seems as if there are no other times in his portfolio that indicate a 3:11 marathon, and his blog (which had a lot of boasting stories of his accomplishments) said nothing of what should have been a stellar time. It's very possible he never ran it-- but no one has proven anything yet.

If it's true it makes me really mad, although I know this kind of thing must happen a lot (especially the "surrogate" runner qualifying for a friend). The BAA does a good job vetting qualifying times, but some still slip through. What's even more annoying though is how much of a media hog this guy is-- I never liked the tone of that letter to the principal in the first place. Get over yourself, man-- so, you ran the Boston Marathon! How is your vacation any more important than someone going to Disney World?

[canalrunner]

his name wasn't ***** was it?

just checking if that word is still banned.

What word?

[La]

his name wasn't ***** was it?

just checking if that word is still banned.

[turd ferguson]

his name wasn't ***** was it?

just checking if that word is still banned.

What word?

I can't type it - its banned!!!!!

It an old RM story. Somebody did a giant math job outing a guy as a cheater in some Toronto races, the cheater got all butthurt and threatened to make life hard if we kept defaming him, so his name is now banned on RM. Its the only banned word beside ****, **** and **********.

[turd ferguson]

There's one person who has posted in the very long Runner's World online thread that went to the "real" media with this story. I'm not sure what to make of it. Yes, it seems as if there are no other times in his portfolio that indicate a 3:11 marathon, and his blog (which had a lot of boasting stories of his accomplishments) said nothing of what should have been a stellar time. It's very possible he never ran it-- but no one has proven anything yet.

If it's true it makes me really mad, although I know this kind of thing must happen a lot (especially the "surrogate" runner qualifying for a friend). The BAA does a good job vetting qualifying times, but some still slip through. What's even more annoying though is how much of a media hog this guy is-- I never liked the tone of that letter to the principal in the first place. Get over yourself, man-- so, you ran the Boston Marathon! How is your vacation any more important than someone going to Disney World?

He's pretty self-absorbed, even for a runner.

[La]

his name wasn't ***** was it?

just checking if that word is still banned.

What word?

I can't type it - its banned!!!!!

It an old RM story. Somebody did a giant math job outing a guy as a cheater in some Toronto races, the cheater got all butthurt and threatened to make life hard if we kept defaming him, so his name is now banned on RM. Its the only banned word beside ****, **** and **********.

H a m p o.

[turd ferguson]

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46531

As long as he didn't inseminate anyone with a contaminated sperm sample, I'm golden.

[MINITEE]

There's one person who has posted in the very long Runner's World online thread that went to the "real" media with this story. I'm not sure what to make of it. Yes, it seems as if there are no other times in his portfolio that indicate a 3:11 marathon, and his blog (which had a lot of boasting stories of his accomplishments) said nothing of what should have been a stellar time. It's very possible he never ran it-- but no one has proven anything yet.

If it's true it makes me really mad, although I know this kind of thing must happen a lot (especially the "surrogate" runner qualifying for a friend). The BAA does a good job vetting qualifying times, but some still slip through. What's even more annoying though is how much of a media hog this guy is-- I never liked the tone of that letter to the principal in the first place. Get over yourself, man-- so, you ran the Boston Marathon! How is your vacation any more important than someone going to Disney World?

He's pretty self-absorbed, even for a runner.

My thoughts from the get-go of his "letter to the principal".

Lesson of the day, you want to become a media sensation make sure that closet is sparkling clean as someone's going in...

[canalrunner]

http://www.runningmania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46531

As long as he didn't inseminate anyone with a contaminated sperm sample, I'm golden.

That was an amusing and occasionally dark thread with a smattering of heat. Thanks for sharing. On the list of things not to do:
1. cheat on a BQ time
2. inseminate someone with a contaminated sperm sample
3. take your kids out of school to watch your run Boston based on #1

[Jwolf]

http://www.runningmania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46531

As long as he didn't inseminate anyone with a contaminated sperm sample, I'm golden.

I totally don't remember that one. Reminds me of an ER episode, though. Or was it Grey's?

[La]

http://www.runningmania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=46531

As long as he didn't inseminate anyone with a contaminated sperm sample, I'm golden.

I totally don't remember that one. Reminds me of an ER episode, though. Or was it Grey's?

I'd forgotten that one and I was the one who posted it!

[mas_runner]

I have read almost all of the let's run thread on this. Man those folks are thorough. They have looked at every race photo and he only appears in 4, all at the finish.

He definitely cheated, because one of the camera points has timestamps and a wide angle so when looking at the entire roll you can essentially watch the whole field run past. Rossi isn't in a single shot.

For me, the most damming thing is that he shares every aspect of his running life online. From race reports, training logs, nutrition etc. However after running the race of his life, nothing but a post saying, "holy **** I did it!". Nothing else, except a selfie at the start and a picture with his medal at the end.

Weeks later he wrote a huge story all about the Philly Marathon, saying that had it not been for a potty break he'd have BQd again. He finished in 3:45, so he must have had one heck of a potty break as his BQ is sub 3:25.

I also learned that I am a despicable "hobby jogger" only there to make up the numbers and shouldn't get excited about marathoning until I can go sub 3. Umm OK.

[Jwolf]

I also learned that I am a despicable "hobby jogger" only there to make up the numbers and shouldn't get excited about marathoning until I can go sub 3. Umm OK.

Letsrun is brutal. I try to avoid reading there.

p.s. Your analysis of Rossi seems right on to me.

[daddy_runner]

Looks like he closed off his blog. He's in damage control mode.

[canalrunner]

Looks like he closed off his blog. He's in damage control mode.

He might want to take up golf. We don't give mulligans to people who cheat their way to Boston.

[Jwolf]

Looks like he closed off his blog. He's in damage control mode.

He did that pretty much right away.

[mas_runner]

Looks like he closed off his blog. He's in damage control mode.

He did that pretty much right away.

Everything got closed. Blog, faceboo, Nike+, Twitter.

The sleuths over at letsrun cached them all. Someone there is in the goofy facebook group with him. He can't stop posting there saying his BQ was legit, he won't answer any questions and will only comment on those who are supporting him.

He has been screencapping messages from his supporters and posting them to FB with snarky remarks like, "didn't run the race...says who...jealous".

He's dead in the water, but LVM have yet to conclude their investigation.

[mas_runner]

Looks like he got away with it. LVM cleared him because they couldn't prove he didn't run.

Looks like they took the easy route, a charity race doesn't need a lawsuit and the number of enraged people is low compared to most of the running community who either don't know about it or don't care.

[Jwolf]

http://www.runnersworld.com/general-int ... ad-cheated

[chunkymonkeymelonhed]

The Capital City Marathon in Olympia only had mats at the start and finish. I have to admit that I thought about how easy it would be for some dishonest person to cheat the course. That was until I started noticing race marshals at random locations who were writing down bib numbers as racers passed by them. I thought that was a great idea. There was no rhyme nor reason to where I saw them so someone who tried to cheat would have no idea where they should be on course to be sure they were 'checked in'.
This only works with a small number of racers, I don't know how many were in the LVM? It's possible that a spot check like this would have provided the evidence they needed to disqualify this guy.

[Jwolf]

The Capital City Marathon in Olympia only had mats at the start and finish. I have to admit that I thought about how easy it would be for some dishonest person to cheat the course. That was until I started noticing race marshals at random locations who were writing down bib numbers as racers passed by them. I thought that was a great idea. There was no rhyme nor reason to where I saw them so someone who tried to cheat would have no idea where they should be on course to be sure they were 'checked in'.
This only works with a small number of racers, I don't know how many were in the LVM? It's possible that a spot check like this would have provided the evidence they needed to disqualify this guy.

LVM had about 1500 people. They could have had someone doing something similar there. Kind of like manual timing mats and what races always used to do..
Just goes to show that smaller marathons can get by without investing more money for multiple timing mats. Yes Ian, I'm talking to you.

You'd think that the LVM race photos would serve as a substitute for timing mat checks- if, as it has been alleged, that there were spots where every single runner was photographed except him.


LVM has said they will now have 6 timing mats.

[ian]

LVM had about 1500 people. They could have had someone doing something similar there. Kind of like manual timing mats and what races always used to do..
Just goes to show that smaller marathons can get by without investing more money for multiple timing mats. Yes Ian, I'm talking to you.

And I call BS… 1500 people passing by a checkpoint near halfway will be mostly within a 1 hour window, thereby averaging a runner every few seconds. When a pace bunny goes through, that could be several dozen runners in a pack. No way does a volunteer bib recorder have 100% accuracy writing all that down, therefore no way could this be sufficient grounds for a DQ if someone was willing to lawyer up. I just paid $115 to run a marathon with no intermediate timing mats and I suspect that these fees will jump even higher if the BAA insists on additional measures as part of the certification process.

[Jwolf]

Well, they could also have used the photographic evidence they already had- and it wouldn't have been so hard to ensure that was complete enough to use as a backup check. They just hadn't considered that it would be needed so they didn't set it up that way.