From last thread (because it took me two hours to type it):
wikipedia wasnt helpful, did he actually run the time he gave?
- senstroll
Oh frank, no.
I just looked at the Wikipedia - it doesn't give you 1/100th of the story, so here goes.
And keep in mind, I'm only scratching the surface of this story. Go get yourself a coffee.
A Philadelphia DJ (mostly weddings, but has a part time gig at a station) runs the 2015 Boston Marathon. He creates his own film of it, etc.
He subsequently gets a form letter from his kids' school - that they can't authorize him pulling his kids out of school to attend (the Boston Marathon is on a Monday in April).
So he writes a little response to the principal on Facebook, saying that the experience in Boston taught the kids history, civics, cuisine, etc., so he's not sorry. The letter was actually pretty clever - and I identified with it, as I had in fact pulled out my two kids from school to run the exact same marathon. He never actually mails back the letter to the principal, but it goes viral.
So immediately two things happen: Rossi becomes a bit of a celebrity - even appearing on Good Morning America.
And, I swear to goodness, the principal starts getting death threats. Anonymous idiots on the interdweebs take such offence to a form letter, they start threatening the principal. The principal's son has to plead with people to stop.
So you would think that would be the end of it. Ha ha ha HAHA, that's just the beginning of this crazy train.
A couple of Philly locals who do not like Mike Rossi figure out that he cheated in order to qualify for Boston. This is a huge franking no-no in the running community. They look at his times, figure out that he ran about 40 minutes faster than he ever had before - essentially impossible.
This spreads like wildfire on a running site called Letsrun.com - which has an anonymous message board which is the wild, wild west. A bunch of them decide they are going to take Rossi down. They form committees to analyze everything - including going through every single photo taken of the race. They crowdsource it - it's thorough.
It forces the LeHigh Marathon Committee to make an official ruling - and they take the easy out. They basically say that although they strongly suspect he cheated, they can't prove it.
This enrages the Letsrun mob, but it emboldens Mike Rossi. He goes on and gloats - and at least to the casual reader, it seems that Rossi knows his harshest critics personally.
And then it gets really, really personal, and really really weird. Potshots at Rossi's hair, his personal life, his wife. He returns fire.
About this time, a new person arrives at Letsrun - Ken Stillman, a 450 lb. rival DJ and wedding photographer (I swear to god, I'm not making this up). Him and Rossi have a grudge, because apparently Rossi got him fired from a gig.
It gets deeply, deeply personal. Insults of each other's kids. Rossi discloses that Stillman has been sued by multiple couples for not delivering on their wedding videos.
This rages on for about a year. At one point, Rossi gets Inside Edition (I swear, this is true) to set up a scam gameshow where Ken thinks he is going to answer sports trivia, but instead is confronted by wedding couples who still want their videos.
And then Ken dies. Yeah, he dies.
Rossi gloats on Letsrun. People get even more furious. But Rossi's livelihood has dried up. It takes a toll on his marriage.
Rossi gets arrested in the parking lot of a Kenny Chesney concert. And then another arrest for domestic assault. And then another domestic assault arrest.
His life has pretty much been completely destroyed.
All because of a simple little letter that went viral.
