Internet fame Dad who took kids out of school for Boston accused of faking BQ

[Fast Eddie]

Questions Arise Over How a Pennsylvania Dad Qualified for Boston

Mike Rossi took his children out of school to watch him run the Boston Marathon, and gained internet fame with his explanation for their absence. Now, runners are wondering about the race he ran to qualify. http://www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/questions-arise-over-how-a-pennsylvania-dad-qualified-for-boston

Last week it was hard to miss the news about a Pennsylvania father, Mike Rossi. He had received a letter from his children’s school principal stating the three days of classes they missed to accompany him to the Boston Marathon would not be excused.

The response Rossi posted on his Facebook page on April 25, outlining the educational value of the trip, quickly went viral and was shared more than 32,000 times. News outlets all over the world, including Today, People, Fox News, and AOL, picked up the story.
 
Now Rossi is experiencing the downside of internet fame. Some members of the running community are scrutinizing his past race results and questioning the legitimacy of his Boston Marathon qualifying time. (See the threads on LetsRun.com and RunnersWorld.com.)
 
At issue: Rossi’s qualifying time of 3:11:45 at the Via Marathon in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on September 7, 2014, is inconsistent with all of Rossi’s other publicly available race results.

[RandMart]

I've said enough about this already

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=5533716

[iwuzwilson]

oops, didn't think that one through very well

letsrun is basically a trash heap (to which I'm addicted) but they do a great service when exposing stuff like this.

[Chasing Amy]

It's easy to cheat at the Via Marathon.  There are several turn around areas that you can simply cut ahead or, because there is a relay happening concurrent to the full marathon, you can hop on one of the buses to the next relay point.

[iwuzwilson]

The letsrun thread is now 100 pages (2000 posts) in just 5 days. They don't take well to marathon cheats over there.

Drug cheats, it's a different story. Generally they skewer them but one of the primary members of the inner circle and a forum moderator is an admitted drug cheat. He gets a bye from the brojos because he claimed he only did late in his career and that "it didn't help" him. That's about as disingenuous as Clinton's didn't inhale.

 

[RandMart]

The letsrun thread is now 100 pages (2000 posts) in just 5 days. They don't take well to marathon cheats over there.

The two Kip Litton threads add to 312

Just about one-third there

[iwuzwilson]

The two Kip Litton threads add to 312

Just about one-third there

They might actually catch Kip Litton, considering the rate of 400-500 posts a day. And from what I've seen the guy has been all defensive on Facebook, which just makes for more fodder. Footnoted spreadsheets. Photo and video analysis.

Also liking (well not really) the http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6057002 exposing the new U Tennessee coach who took away freshman scholarships from students who had barely stepped on campus. The rationale was that she wanted to head in a "new direction" which was to take full or 3/4 scholarships from sprinters and convert those to partial scholarships for distance runners. What she did is not illegal by NCAA rules, but certainly crosses the line for being callous if not unethical.

[iwuzwilson]

Fascinating to watch this unfold in real time on letsrun. Some interested parties are looking at photo shots of runners along different parts of the course (Lehigh Valley Marathon) and have deduced that he was not near the start, and and then was a good 10 minutes behind pace at spot later in the course. Meanwhile, the brojos have put out the IP address and have verified that Rossi has postued under numerous names in the same thread, defending himself. What differentiates this this that Kip Litton was winning age groups and such, and he was always kind of shadowy. This guy is a 3:50-4 hr marathoner and he's back in anyone's face who happens to question the purported 3:11 qualifier last year. Bart Yasso of RW is the race director at Lehigh and is in the mix too. Real Drama.

[RandMart]

Gerry Yasso, is vice president of resource development for race sponsor Via Lehigh Valley. ... You don't fuck with the Emmaus Mafia

[i am party]

Damn. I wish I had caught that letsrun thread from its inception. Going to be a project to catch up now. 

I love this stuff, though. 

[iwuzwilson]

Ahh this is great. Memes are popping up:

http://memegenerator.net/Mikerossicheat

[i am party]

 

[iwuzwilson]

Love it!

[Fast Eddie]

Damn. I wish I had caught that letsrun thread from its inception. Going to be a project to catch up now. 

I love this stuff, though. 

Now that's entertainment.   
 

[Plugging Along]

Wow. My 5k PR is better than his, and I was a 48 year old fat man when I ran it.
My marathon PR was from about the same time, 3:44, and just 5 minutes faster would have been impossible.
Now if I lost 30 pounds and got down to 190 I might have had a chance.

He ran 3:11? No way.

[Eco Ellen]

I love this stuff.

[iwuzwilson]

This Facebook post from the school principal's son is probably the number one reason why he either needs to come up with some sort of documentation that he actually ran that 3:11, or fess up and maybe move on.

From the Principal son posted on Facebook you you tell me what is fair and not fair

 

Never in my life have I typed and deleted Facebook statuses so many times in one week. It's been a weird week. As most of the country has now seen my mother sent a letter to a parent about the unexcused absences of their children. This letter is required to be sent by any principal In the district anytime kids miss days for an unexcused reason. This parent didn't like the letter. He wrote a response. It went viral.

Why did it go viral? Because people agreed with his opinion that you can't learn some of the most important lessons of life in school. I agree, and so do thousands of others. I just WISH he came to see you face to face because the two of you have the same goal. You both want nothing more than to see children succeed. Instead, the issue has appeared on network after network, continuing to drive your identical goal further and further apart.

Now the situation has spiraled out of control. You've become the victim. Instead of being recognized as a woman who has given her life to educating children, and devoting over twenty five years to the community that he loves; the situation continues to drive your reputation through the mud.

What the world hasn't seen behind the scenes of all the widespread support of his email, are the hundreds of threatening emails you've received. Or the 3am and 4am prank calls. Or worst of all, the tears.

There really are some crazy people out there.

The result is an attempt to drag your reputation through the mud. An unintentional attempt to ruin what you have worked so hard for. I can promise you that this will not happen. This incident will not define you. What will define you is the sterling track record you have built for yourself. What will define you is the outpouring of support you have received from the community. From the parents who have written you uplifting letters to the entire school board who backs you unanimously. Or the fact that EVERY SINGLE ONE of your students wrote you a birthday card today and EVERY SINGLE ONE of your teachers went to the school board meeting last night voluntarily to stand by your side. You have given your life to helping this country have a brighter future and you have been a damn good mother along the way. I hope you had a happy birthday, you deserve it more than anyone. I love you, Mom

[Arrojo]

It appears more likely than not that he did not run a 3:11.  But if you're really going to fudge your time like that, you should be more low-key about it. I wonder how many of the 20,000+ BQualifiers who ran this year's race cheated on their time?  Was he the only one?

[iwuzwilson]

It appears more likely than not that he did not run a 3:11.  But if you're really going to fudge your time like that, you should be more low-key about it. I wonder how many of the 20,000+ BQualifiers who ran this year's race cheated on their time?  Was he the only one?

It's probably more common than we think. The only reason that he got caught was because of his high profile shaming of the school principal.
I bet it's in the 100s every year for those trying to get into Boston.
This case might change qualifying rules somewhat. More timing mats and video footage along the course of qualifying eligible marathons.

The letsrun thread is approaching 3000 posts. The evidence has been out there for almost a week, summaries compiled by Friday and Saturday. So now it's mostly speculating when or if there will be a DQ from the Lehigh Valley Marathon.

[RandMart]

Is a USATF/IAAF banning on the table for this dude?

[iwuzwilson]

Is a USATF/IAAF banning on the table for this dude?

I'm not aware of any penalties other than a DQ for course cuttin-cheating. But I wouldn't doubt if they develop something in the next few years.

4. Any competitor who has been found by the Referee and/or Jury of Appeal to have
gained an unfair advantage by intentionally shortening the route of the race ("cutting
the course") shall be immediately disqualified from the competition. See also Rule
163.6.
RULE

6. Leaving Track, Field, or Course:
DRAFT 2015 USATF Competition Rules ● 64
(a) No competitor, after voluntarily leaving the track or course, shall be allowed to rejoin a
race either for the purpose of gaining a place or to pace or to assist another competitor.
The competitor shall be recorded as not finishing the event. A competitor attempting to
re-enter the race shall be disqualified.

[Fast Eddie]

I'm not aware of any penalties other than a DQ for course cuttin-cheating. But I wouldn't doubt if they develop something in the next few years.

Pretty sure a lifetime ban not only the Lehigh Valley Marathon, but the Boston Marathon and any races put on by the same organizers would be in order. Any races he dares run now would be under intense scrutiny.  He will have to run under an alias for a while, if not forever.  Wonder if Kip Lipton has run a race since his outing? 

[RandMart]

He will have to run under an alias for a while, if not forever.

Not necessarily. As we've seen, there are plenty of "Mike Rossi's" around; he can just say "Nope. I'm not that one"

As long as he remembers to use a town other that Rydal, PA when he registers

Conversely, any other "Mike Rossi" who registers, is gonna face some blowback, as well

I could be wrong

[Mom of Scooby]

It appears more likely than not that he did not run a 3:11.  But if you're really going to fudge your time like that, you should be more low-key about it. I wonder how many of the 20,000+ BQualifiers who ran this year's race cheated on their time?  Was he the only one?

No.. there was a woman in the news a few weeks before the marathon who was supposedly the winner of some other marathon but then they looked a little closer and determined to Rosie Ruized the race.  They looked into her a bit more and found she did the same thing a year before to BQ.. she was removed from this years Boston.. I'll try to find the link

[Mom of Scooby]

Here is the link

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2434944-kendall-schlers-st-louis-marathon-win-overturned-in-cheating-scandal

[RandMart]

Then again, if they failed to put a course marshal at a critical turn in the marathon course and provided the lead woman with two bike escorts who did not know the course, the women’s leader could take a wrong turn, go three miles off course, dutifully escorted by the two bikers who did not know how to get back to the correct course, blather around for 30 minutes (!), get a ride from police officers, first back to 18 miles and then up to 22-1/2, and miraculously, still win the women’s division in 3:06.59

http://fittish.deadspin.com/oops-competitor-group-did-it-again-1698885485

according to USATF rules, Bretscher should have been disqualified because she did not run three miles of the course, between 18-1/2 and 22-1/2, where the second police officer dropped her back on the course. But realizing the wrong turn and resultant squad car hopping was their mistake, organizers not only awarded Bretscher the $500 first prize, they offered to pay her entry, travel and lodging to the future marathon of her choosing, Rock ‘n’ Roll product or not.

Competitor Group’s director of public relations, Dan Cruz, tweeted that the incident was “pretty embarrassing for us.”

3:09 is a BQ; not sure if they'll recognize it

[iwuzwilson]

Here is the link

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2434944-kendall-schlers-st-louis-marathon-win-overturned-in-cheating-scandal

I interrupt this thread to say that I knew the author of an article linked in the Bleacherreport article. Small world. Other than that my lips are sealed.

[RandMart]

I interrupt this thread to say that I knew the author of an article linked in the Bleacherreport article. Small world. Other than that my lips are sealed.

Are folks who work at Bleacherreport or Deadspin "authors?"

For the most part, they are just very good at finding, cutting, pasting & reformatting

I could be wrong

[iwuzwilson]

Are folks who work at Bleacherreport or Deadspin "authors?"

For the most part, they are just very good at finding, cutting, pasting & reformatting

I could be wrong

I'm referring to a source article that was linked in the Bleacherreport that Mom of Scooby posted.

[Eco Ellen]

Here is the link

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2434944-kendall-schlers-st-louis-marathon-win-overturned-in-cheating-scandal

I don't understand this.  Did this person have a response at all?  Or just..did she just get caught cheating?

I don't get cheating.  I just don't understand it.

[iwuzwilson]

I don't understand this.  Did this person have a response at all?  Or just..did she just get caught cheating?

I don't get cheating.  I just don't understand it.

I didn't follow that case as closely but read a short blurb after she was outed.
According to a Chicago Times Article, in 2012 there were 250 cheaters at the Chicago Marathon, so that's 0.5%.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-10-08/sports/ct-spt-1008-marathon-cheaters--20101007_1_chicago-marathon-previous-marathons-carey-pinkowski

I don't get it either, other than that they seem to be newbs and wannabes not willing to put in the effort. This Mike Rossi has only been running for a year and a half and appears to have legitimate 1:40 half and low 3:40 for the full and that's off of a supposed 15 miles a week. Imagine what he'd do at 35-45 miles a week in a year or two? He'd probably get his qualifier.

[Rochey]

Speaking of cheats....does anyone know if Liza Hunter-Galvan actually received the $10,000 from BAA? 

[iwuzwilson]

Speaking of cheats....does anyone know if Liza Hunter-Galvan actually received the $10,000 from BAA? 

Here's the latest, contradictory at best.
http://texasrunningpost.com/news/boston-marathon-statement-regarding-liza-hunter-galvan-confusing-conflicting/

In a nutshell, she gets the money (pending undisclosed checks) because she did her time. Meanwhile, just last winter BAA issued statement saying that drug cheats would not be allowed to compete for prize money in the open division.

[Rochey]

Yeah I get that feed on my page and read that. There wasn't anything more printed in the local paper.

[iwuzwilson]

Yeah I get that feed on my page and read that. There wasn't anything more printed in the local paper.

You'd think the BAA would try to be consistent.

Any updates on the other runner from your area that improved by 30 or 40 minutes in a short time?

[Rochey]

No she's the biggest attention whore I have ever seen. I have had to hide her from my newsfeed. All of my running friends, except the ones who train with her, think the exact same thing I think.

[iwuzwilson]

Apparently the verdict is in (from Letsrun):

And the Friday afternoon news dump comes out:

http://www.letsrun.com/news/20...ook-place/

No DQ "unless additional conclusive information" comes out.

In our minds, the statement by the marathon organizers is logically flawed. Imagine if the police in this country weren't allow to charge people with burglary simply because it wasn't reported while it was happening - crime would be even more of a problem than it already is.

When one considers that it's physiologically improbable to say the least (some would say impossible) that Mr. Rossi was even capable of running 3:11:45, given his personal bests at other distances which all equate to a marathon over 3:30, with the fact that he wasn't seen in a single photo on the course, the burden of proof should have shifted to Mr. Rossi to provide some shred of evidence that he ran the race (GPS data, photos, statements from fellow competitors, spectators or family members, etc.) or was at least physically capable of something close to a 3:11:45 (training logs, GPS data, statements from training partners), particularly when one considers that his own contemporaneous statements contradicted his initial explanation that his other PRs were much slower simply because he was injured or not going all out in many of his shorter races.

The integrity of our beloved sport is at stake. We've spent much of the last few weeks researching and writing our own story on Mr. Rossi that lays out the evidence against Mr. Rossi. We were going to publish the story tonight which was going to ask for a DQ.

We were waiting to put it out as we wanted to give Lehigh Valley and Mr. Rossi a chance to comment. Our email to Mr. Rossi was met with a reply by a lawyer who has been "retained to investigate and prosecute any and all claims of defamation arising from false allegations of competition cheating made against my client." And then we got the statement from Lehigh Valley.

We still think our story is well researched and well written. We will publish the story early next week as we don't want it to get lost as a Friday afternoon news dump.. In our minds, the evidence is indeed conclusive that Mike Rossi - the viral Boston Marathon dad - is a marathon cheat and should have not been on starting line in Boston and we hope the organizers consider it as "additional conclusive information."

Read more: http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=6479539&page=196#ixzz3bZIIuUiG

The fact that he didn't show up in thousands of pictures should be proof enough.

[RandMart]

Yeah, but neither did the other two gunmen in Dallas [unless you count The Umbrella Man, and Babushka Lady]

[iwuzwilson]

The thread is dead. Long live the Mike Rossi thread!

7,790 posts in about 6 weeks, the Mike Rossi thread had run its full course on Letsrun. The thing took on a life of its own, but devolved into absurdity and pettiness this month. Sad though, the guy got away with bullying a school principal and with cheating his way into Boston.

[RandMart]

He only got away with in in this World, Raj. Remember, there's a Special Circle of Hell for people like him

In my mind this is how they're laid down

    First Circle: People Who Fudge Their Training Logs
    Second Circle: Bike Thieves
    Third Circle: Bandits, People Who Fake Bibs, and Those Who Take TWO Finishers Medals
    Fourth Circle: Dopers and Other Assorted Cheats
    Fifth Circle: Gamblers and Sportswriters
    Sixth Circle: Sports Agents
    Seventh Circle: Team Owners
    Eighth Circle: League Commissioners
    Ninth Circle: Al Davis ... Alone for now, but saving spaces for Jerry Jones, Donald Sterling, Dan Snyder and Mr. Ed Snider, at least

[siamesedream]

He only got away with in in this World, Raj. Remember, there's a Special Circle of Hell for people like him

In my mind this is how they're laid down

    First Circle: People Who Fudge Their Training Logs
    Second Circle: Bike Thieves
    Third Circle: Bandits, People Who Fake Bibs, and Those Who Take TWO Finishers Medals
    Fourth Circle: Dopers and Other Assorted Cheats
    Fifth Circle: Gamblers and Sportswriters
    Sixth Circle: Sports Agents
    Seventh Circle: Team Owners
    Eighth Circle: League Commissioners
    Ninth Circle: Al Davis ... Alone for now, but saving spaces for Jerry Jones, Donald Sterling, Dan Snyder and Mr. Ed Snider, at least

Tenth: J.D. Drew

[RandMart]

Guest post from ST

I got sucked into the Mike Rossi cheating thread over on letsrun.com pretty early on. Then back in early June, following the non-dq decision, I converted a large gif file that someone had created and posted it to my youtube account

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxKfEiOfGmY

Following my posting of this, Mike Rossi tweeted out references to a line from "Taken" - "I will find you and I will kill you" followed by a pic of me after getting hit by a van in a triathlon  (http://forum.slowtwitch.com/cgi-bin/gforum.cgi?post=806641#806641) along with the words "This guy". Needless to say, that has kept me sucked into this whole thing. I've been in touch with some media and there should be some updated media coverage of this cheater! I wrote a blog post about the whole thing here

http://triathleteguru.blogspot.com/2015/07/running-with-cheaters.html

The heat is STILL on



... and the Letsrun thread is 500+ pages

[Fast Eddie]

Oboy.   

[RandMart]

This is pretty conclusive

http://www.letsrun.com/news/2015/05/the-evidence-is-overwhelming-mike-rossi-the-viral-marathon-dad-is-a-marathon-cheat-and-should-never-have-been-on-the-starting-line-in-boston/

[RandMart]

Oh, I clicked randomly in the LR thread and found THIS gem

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&thread=6479539&id=6603063#6603063
   

LoserMikeRossi wrote:
            He thinks this is great fun. We'll see how funny it is when his wife divorces him. His family didn't have to to suffer too much ridicule before the school year ended, but come September things in the Abington School District are going to get very interesting.

            Knowing what he did to that principal can you imagine any parent wanting their kids playing with the Rossi children? Would you want to be involved with any school activities that Cindy is involved in knowing that lunatic is going to publicly bash you if you don't agree with everything she says?

MooreFamily wrote:
        Cindy consulted a lawyer about getting a divorce this week. She is fed up with Mikes cheating.
        She already started using her maiden name again, Moore, because she hates the name Rossi.
        Cindy will ask for child custody, as Jack and Victoria dont trust Mike anymore after this fiasco.

Inconvenient Truth wrote:
    ...and you know this how? Ken? Still doesn't matter for these board purposes.

MooreFamily wrote:
I am a family member.
They had marital problems long before this fiasco. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Cindy didn't like the media attention at all. Didn't you notice that she ever participated in an interview about the viral letter?
And yes, she is fully aware of the way Mike qualified for Boston. She doesn't really care about that, but she hates how this has taken over their life. Angry runners have been calling them, Mike is surfing the internet all day, Jack and Victoria are being bullied, they have to pay a lawyer...
Cindy just wants a quiet life again.

   Indeed

[iwuzwilson]

Guest post from ST

The heat is STILL on



... and the Letsrun thread is 500+ pages

Still <1/3 of the size of the Procreative Updates thread in Yammering.

The heat is on now, I like the $10000 challenge idea.

[RandMart]

Still <1/3 of the size of the Procreative Updates thread in Yammering.

Yes, but that thread is 3 years old, PLUS it's stupid and girly

[nneJ]

... PLUS it's stupid and girly

Classy.

[Schrödinger’s Bat]

Classy.

[RandMart]

I would have put that in PINK, but the pink here just isn't pink enough, sorry

http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=5297004

[RandMart]

www.runnersworld.com/general-interest/letsruncom-offers-massive-reward-to-viral-boston-marathon-dad

LetsRun.com, a running website, published a detailed article on Friday outlining the evidence that calls into question Rossi’s results. The website also challenged Rossi, 47, from Rydal, Pennsylvania, to match his time at Via, 3:11:45, within the next 12 months. If he succeeds, LetsRun.com promises to pay him $100,000.

If Rossi can't match or better his time from the Via Marathon in 2014, LetsRun.com will give him $10,000 if he runs 3:25 over the next year or if he breaks 70:00 for 10 miles or 20:00 for a 5K by the end of 2015. To earn the prize money, Rossi would have to make the attempt on a certified course.

[RandMart]

The LR Thread is in lockdown

"You have to be using a registered username to now post in this thread. Please do not post personal information in this thread and keep the discussion on topic."

This is what was learned on ST

Was it Rossi/one of his "friends"?

Could have been his clever plan.

The guy wasn't a friend. He was posting anonymously until outed as a former colleague. The thread then took an odd turn and offered a glimpse into the world of wedding production. Apparently, this other guy had scammed lots of wedding couples out of their money for video services never rendered. He said he got behind, had personal issues, etc., but it wasn't until the Attorney General forced him to make good on his deals that he finally got around to delivering the videos - in some cased, I believe several years later.

At some point in their working relationship, this guy and MR had a falling out and then when the guy started posting comments on some of the local online "viral dad cheating" articles, MR took to bashing him on FB and Twitter. That's when this guy joined the crusade to crucify MR and get him DQed and started posting on the LR thread.

It just escalated from there and really drove the thread from the time the non-DQ was announced until the LR article offering the payouts was posted. I'm sure MR himself was posting from time to time as he was posting stuff only he could know about the guy's family.

At one point, the acquaintance received a C&D letter from MR's attorney (who, hilariously enough, still works with an aol email account). He stopped posting for a short while, but was soon back with a vengeance. It just got to be a little too much with personal attacks and calling out family members. The poster (who is apparently a ~300-lb non-runner) was warned several times by the Brojos (and other posters), but I guess it finally came to a head and they had to pull the thread.

Maybe they're weeding through posts to eliminate any libelous comments - or perhaps LR received a C&D letter themselves. It's too bad as there was a lot of good research done by the running community to prove through photo evidence and analysis of other race performances that there was no way this guy ran the full course in 3:11 on that day.

The other guy is still posting as LMR on the other thread.

[RandMart]

He's still at it

https://twitter.com/mikerossi22/status/658464481773813761

23:51 at a 5K in PA

Bib #24718 at NYC on Sunday

[Fast Eddie]

He's still at it

https://twitter.com/mikerossi22/status/658464481773813761

23:51 at a 5K in PA

Bib #24718 at NYC on Sunday

Hah!     Based on Runner's World Race Times Predictor table, that time in the 5K would lead to a Marathon in 3:48:45.

[RandMart]

http://triathleteguru.blogspot.com/2015/11/did-race-cheat-michael-rossi-attempt-to.html

Dude came all the way to South Jersey to pull his shit, and dug himself a deeper hole