rossi

This is something we were looking into ourselves, but Runner’s World beat us to the punch (or they’re plagiarizing articles before they’re written now): Michael Rossi, the Montco runner who achieved internet fame after his letter asking for his kids to have their absences excused because they went to watch him run the Boston Marathon, may have cheated his way into that race.

Earlier this week, we stumbled across long message board threads on both Lets Run and Runner’s World that claimed Rossi may have cheated in the qualifying race in which he earned his marathon bib. Before he deleted his twitter account, Rossi refuted the claim. But internet sleuths, who have been wrong before, started to compile their evidence. The issue was that none of Rossi’s previous paces really came close to his 3:11:45 at the Via Marathon in Allentown, Rossi’s qualifying race. Seeking Boston Marathon summed the whole thing up. In the Lets Run thread, one person listed the evidence compiled:

1. No correlating performances before or after, or tuneup races
2. No pictures on course
3. Went out — and maintained — a PR pace FAR BEYOND that required for BQ
4. No visible sweat in finish line photo (especially considered in combination with #1, with someone running the hardest race of their life)
5. Owns, uses, wears GPS watch — but not for BQ race
6. Very brief mention of BQ on Twitter, saying “Thanks” when congratulated by someone else — DESPITE active running boasts elsewhere — instead of a picture of a medal, finishing time, watch, or other evidence that somebody likely proud and aware of an achievement that is also an active social media user would likely post
7. (Along with 6): Only brief mention of BQ effort, no pictures or run reports or details offered, yet goes to great lengths to make t-shirts and a video for running Boston
8. Called Philly Marathon result 2 months later a ‘great day’ on Twitter — with more talk about it than the superior Lehigh time — despite running a half hour slower
9. Had short paragraph defense of BQ, yet offered no proof, nor exhibited righteous indignation, that someone having a legitimate performance questioned would show.
10. Along with 9, “This is all I have to say on this issue,” shut down all social media. Especially unusual given the circumstances of the original story, in which he exhibited strong characteristics of defiance and attention-seeking

“The allegation against me that I did not achieve a qualifying time at Lehigh Valley is completely false,” Rossi wrote in an email to Runner’s World. “I focused my training to peak for the [Via Marathon] race in order to hopefully qualify for Boston.” But according to Runner’s World, people aren’t convinced:

Among those who question Rossi’s time, the main arguments are that his 3:11 marathon was not in line with any of his other race results, and that he does not show up in Via Marathon race photos anywhere other than the finish line. The 10 runners who finished ahead of Rossi and the 10 who finished behind him were all photographed in three to six different spots along the course …

The other argument skeptics point to is Rossi’s race history. Running a 3:11:45 marathon requires averaging 7:19 pace for 26.2 miles. Until the Via Marathon, Rossi, who began running in 2013, had never maintained that pace for longer than five miles in a race, according to his Athlinks.com page, a searchable online database of race results. For his half marathon best, Rossi averaged 7:41 pace. His second-best marathon is 3:43:52—8:32 pace—which he ran at the 2014 Philadelphia Marathon, 10 weeks after the Via Marathon.

It may sound like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo, but Runner’s World claims they caught Rossi in a lie on his blog. ““I finally looked at my GPS watch and saw that I was not far from another BQ!” Rossi said of his Philadelphia Marathon run. “Then, around mile 22 I had to use the bathroom…and that crushed any chance of a BQ. Bummer.” But according to the time splits from his race, “he was never on the 7:50 pace he would need to run a Boston qualifier.” Fudging some numbers on your blog is one thing, but cheating your way into the Boston Marathon is another.

For his part, Rossi says the accusations are 100% false and he’s contacted his lawyer. But people are still digging.