Pennsylvania Man, Whose Social Media Post Went Viral, Accused of Cheating in Marathon

An Abington man, whose story about his 9-year-old twins not receiving an excused absence from school for a trip to Boston went viral, is being accused of cheating during a Pennsylvania race, according to NBC Philadelphia.

The report states that Mike Rossi, who gained national attention after posting the school’s letter to Facebook, is being accused of cheating in the Lehigh Valley Health Marathon in 2014 with a time of 3 hours, 11 minutes. The time was good enough to qualify him for the Boston Marathon, which he ran in April.

Fellow runners scrutinized his qualifying time on forums on Lets Run and Runners World web sites because it was much faster than his Boston Marathon time, which was 4 hours and 1 minute.

However, Rossi told NBC Philadelphia that the difference in time can be attributed to a “hip injury.” According to the report, Rossi said, “The allegation against me that I did not achieve a qualifying time at Lehigh Valley is completely false. I focused my training to peak for the LV race in order to hopefully qualify for Boston.”

According to the report, organizers of the Lehigh Valley event plan on reaching out to runners who finished around the time Rossi finished, and also reviewing photos from along the course to look for Rossi.

The previous Patch story about Mike Rossi’s viral post can be found here.