2026 USATF Half Marathon Championships - LIVE! CHAOS. Lead women taken off course, McClain loses win and $20k!!!!

One of the myriad problems with this silly argument is that we actually know that McClain (and I think the others too) ran the full correct route faster than the "winner".

You can work that out by deducting the gap between the moment of the wrong turn, and the moment they got back to the bridge, from their finish times.

Even with the additional stress/burden of over 2 mins of running off the course, their time actually on the course was less than that of the winner.

My understanding (?) is the lead vehicle made the correct turn because it cant go over the pedestrian bridge? Is that right? Even if it is, they need to ID that part of the course as needing super clear directions so they don't follow the car. But again, car didn't stop to tell them either they turned wrong either.

What makes me ill is the official statement from USATF that says not our fault... look at ATC. This is your championship, there were no doubt committee meetings, and planning and someone was is responsible for ascertaining the lead vehicle knows everything inside and out. In fact how about 1 or 2 people in the car that know? Plus a driver. USATF is responsible for who they hire. If you don't at least take responsibility, you can't do better next time.

My athlete lost a race he was leading by 200 meters in XC last yr because of poor course marking. The next year, that course had a golf cart and an official at the crossroads!

BTW. Did anyone notice that right after the wrong turn, like 2 sec after, there was an AD for Garmin read by the announcers? Priceless.

Yes I mentioned the ad in my post - something about her having "perfect timing" which was spectacularly ironic.

I'm not sure if it's correct that the car couldn't go over the bridge. But the bikes turned as well and they certainly should have (and later did) go over the bridge. If the car was turning to depart from the race route then that should be very clearly signalled to the runners.

Also if the car was knowingly turning off the route with the runners intended to go straight on, why did it keep going for well over a minute with the runners behind it? Surely in that situation you would stop immediately and say "you shouldn't be following me, go back"?

No coverage in Atlanta media or elsewhere from what I've seen. Besides LR, is anyone reporting this?

Just curious, are there 242 rules that come before "make sure the course is marked" Rule 243? I always thought it was Rule 1.

Sounds like this needs to result in an immediate escalation.

I have an acquaintance who was one of the top 20 male finishers; it was interesting hearing his perspective. He stated the course at the end was definitely not marked clearly at all, and in the men's race a motorcycle that was just in front of him missed a turn just before 20k, but someone ran out and directed them to turn before they made it all the way through that intersection. I wonder if this is the same spot (he was unsure)?

They were given a map that only had (a couple) major road names on it, and no one from out of town would be able to memorize it if they tried, as there were over 30 turns.

Earlier this morning my feed had an article from the NY Post, one from Atlanta's WSB-TV, and one from another non-Atlanta outlet. Can't find them now, though.

Would that leave USATF open to complaints from anyone who wasn't in the top 3 of the men's race to the effect that if the course wasn't eligible for the women's race, how could it be eligible for the men's race? I guess in that case USATF could just select both teams by committee and just happen to select the men who made the podium fairly.

Thought I read yesterday that the cross street was part of the marathon course (maybe in the 2nd half of the marathon) with cones, which may have confused the pace car driver. Did you run on the cross street at any time in the marathon?

Not quite as simple when you have multiple races on identical-in-places and different-in-places routes at the same time. Still probably doable, but you also would need arrows at intersections where the course crosses itself and other ways to indicate when a course doubles back on itself or overlaps itself.

Yes indeed. I just thought that was utterly priceless. Garmin! When you have to have the best in navigation! Literally just after after the wrong turn.

the marathon split off around 12.6 and they had a sign that read marathoners go this way and half marathoners go straight. It was obvious as we were going to the finish. However the top 3 ladies were lead off course before this...it was around mile 11.

This happened to me once. I was in about 10th place in a race, lost sight of the leaders. Apparently the lead vehicle did an extra mile. I knew the course and "won". The rest of the field followed me.

It was a 5K and the men's winner got $100 - but they didn't give it to me, they gave it to the 4.1 mile winner. They gave me a bouquet of flowers.

Were the runners allowed to wear a GPS watch during the race?

Looks like she turned off the race course at ~1:03:21 in the race. (11.7 miles reading on screen.)

Turned around at ~1:04:41.

Back on course at ~1:06:01, right where they left.

Basically 2m40s of running off the course!

(~800 meters extra at the 5:20 per mile or 3:20/km race pace.)

"It starts at the top, Max Siegle is unqualified to lead USATF."

It's kind of the thing in the US these days.

Best to check your math first.