LetsRun plays detective, says “Marathon Dad” definitely cheated

Many of you likely remember Mike Rossi, or as the internet dubbed him, the “Boston Marathon Dad.” He first gained traction in the eyes of the global running community when he posted a letter on Facebook to his children’s principal responding to her admonishment for pulling his children out of school. In his letter, he explained that he took them out of school to watch him run the Boston Marathon because that experience was as educationally valuable as being in the classroom.

The attention that Rossi gained from his response letter, in which he stated that his kids “learned about dedication, commitment, love, perseverance, overcoming adversity, civic pride, patriotism, American history, culinary arts and physical education,” snowballed into people looking into his running background. This resulted in some beginning to voice speculation as to whether or not the Boston Marathon Dad had, in fact, legitimately qualified to run the race.

Now, months after the race and speculation of cheating, LetsRun has posted a long-form article stating:

“The evidence is overwhelming that Mike Rossi cheated his way into the 2015 Boston Marathon by cutting the course at the 2014 Lehigh Valley Marathon where he was given a 3:11:45 finishing time and he should be DQ’d from Lehigh Valley.”

LetsRun mobilized the running community to delve so extensively into Rossi’s running history, that the site is comfortable in stating that the runner is unequivocally a cheater, based on three main criteria, which are as follows:

1) Mike Rossi’s running background clearly indicates he was not physically capable of running a 3:11:45 marathon.

2) Mike Rossi is the only finisher in the marathon who was not photographed on the course.

3) Mike Rossi has provided zero evidence to support his assertion that he overcame Powerball odds and ran the race of his life while managing not to be seen on the course at Lehigh Valley. In fact, some of his social media posts incriminate himself.

The site was prepared to publish their findings seven weeks ago, but received an email from Lehigh Valley (the marathon in which Rossi “qualified” for Boston) that explained that they would not be disqualifying Rossi. LetsRun reached out to Rossi himself prior to publishing, to encourage the running dad to provide them with any shred of evidence that he did, in fact, have the ability to run the time he supposedly did at Lehigh Valley. They received an email in return from a lawyer acquired by Rossi who threatened prosecution for defamation.

In a later conversation, the lawyer added that Rossi has identified six photographs of other runners in the race that he believes himself to be in the background of. However, when LetsRun requested to see the photos, none were provided.

LetsRun is so sure that Rossi is physically unable to run the time that he supposedly did at Lehigh Valley, that it has even gone as far as to offer Rossi a financial incentive to prove himself.

We will give Mr. Rossi $10,000 if he breaks 3:25 in the marathon (standard course) in the next 12 months. That’s nearly 20 seconds a miler slower than his “official” PR.

We’ll have to wait and see if Mike Rossi takes the site up on its offer. But we’re pretty sure he would have to do some extensive (re, miraculous) training in order to prove himself.

This isn’t the first time that LetsRun has busted a cheater, they previously caught an American dentist who was “forging” times, so to speak.