i am almost ashamed to admit i know this, but there are TWO Mike Rossi who both live in PA (and both work in radio) and BOTH runners. the older guy (52) is totally innocent.

How much do timing mats cost anyway? Assuming that you at least have two for the start/finish meaning you've already paid for the timing chips for everyone, how much would it cost to add an extra mat?

I think all BQ races need mats every 5k, this way if a timing mat malfunctions you still have 9 other mats to find you on the course. Of course the two critical mats are at the start and finish which is why most big races will double and sometimes even triple the number of mats on the start/finish lines. Timing mats miss people all the time, this is why you need several throughout the race.

I'm with you. This is has easily been the most entertaining part of my week. The LR folks are amazingly impressive investigators.

and both in radio, both from PA, and both qualified for and ran Boston.

it gets weirder..... in the search for photos showing the cheater leaving the course after crossing the start line timing mat, they found a suspicious individual walking backwards on the course in front of the hospital at the start. Somebody quipped "hey, get the security camera footage from the hospital".

Guess who is head of the LVPA hospital?

a third Mike Rossi

No different than most males approaching 50, trying to turn back the clock. Trying a little too hard that is.

To put some perspective, this guy has NOTHING on Dr. Jim Michaels, a water ski cheating doctor of dentistry. He rigged up a ski course in his awesome lake with remote controlled electro-mechanical adjustment. So when he skied, the course would go narrow (easy). He ran this charade for a full year, in a comedy of circumstance he was able to side step every "real" test. He set masters(senior) world records, he declared he would take on the pro world record. Registered USA/World records!!

The climax was a bonafide pro-tour event held at his place - big boat company sponsored, The US Open by Malibu. He was skiing like crap so he pulled the trigger and got caught. Unbelievable, but actually to piece things together, quite understandable. He started in bits and it just snowballed.

<http://skifly.com/...dal-dr-jim-michaels/

Easy BQs for everyone. Cross the start line, chill in your car for three hours, cross the finish line, and you are in. What a joke.

I hope the Letsrun guys keep digging.

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/...i?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/...g-with-cheaters.html[/quote[/url]]

I just want to say that I have BQd twice (not really a back or front door brag) and never tweeted or facebooked or anything else about it. Of course that is consistent with the fact that I don't post much to social media at all. Your point about Rossi and his lack of social spam is probably totally accurate based on his prior social media presence. That was the only exception I took to your blog post. Everything else was excellent.

Not everyone wants to let the world know about their athletic achievements. I know that just about no one cares about my hobby.

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Jason
None of the secrets of success will work unless you do.