Runner knew marathon leaders were running off course, doesn't stop them: "I’m not going to shout. It’s not my job.’’

How would Pence get those guys back to the course?

Yelling would have done no good 20 seconds back. It's on the race organizer for not having a lead car bike.

But way to post this and make the winner look like douche.... Great job.

Happened to me a few years ago. Less prize money though. Where’s my article?

He was in the lead not much before this mishap so I don't know what the gap really was. It is hard to estimate 20 seconds when asked about it 2 hours later. Watch a marathon on TV and try to estimate the lead and then time it and you will be way off.

cmkgcv wrote:

For $3500 I wouldn’t say anything either

LRC reply. He would have still received $1500 for finishing 3rd in the 2:15 if he had said something and not overtaken the winners.

Re: letsrun note on this:

Yeah, because there is no real difference bewteen $3500 and $1500, right?. How do you guys know if the guy that won wasn't struggling financially? Maybe the extra $2000 is just as helpful to him.

American marathons cheating so that an "American" wins.

Hopefully this doesn't happen in Chicago/Boston/New York

I was in the lead pack (~5 men) of a half marathon when we were all directed off-course. We were about a half mile out before realizing what had happened... and it stung. But 3 of us decided to keep trucking, backtrack to where the wrong turn occurred, and get back on-course. It ended up adding about a mile and we found ourselves in the thick of the rest of the runners in the race (we were running ~1:08 pace).

We ended up catching the then-leader and taking the top-3 spots (and associated cash prizes), running 14.1 miles total. The race director was overly apologetic and offered refunds, etc... but the end result was satisfactory so we all let it be.

I agree.

But gad, what a bit of luck.

OK, opportunism at its finest. But still.

Dirty pool and unforgivable.

But still....

The third place guy was way behind and out of earshot, so he couldn’t have warned the leaders… that’s what I read in a recent article.

During a practice you're listening for splits and other instructions from your coach and there's probably a lot less surrounding noise than along the streets of a marathon. Also the coach can yell louder because he's not running 5 minutes per mile pace.

support the locals. wrote:

Are you really that naive about the sport Rojo? 3rd tier marathons have been wasting their sponsor’s money to fund 3rd tier no name Africans for years, many who dope (like the woman who). You think we should feel sympathy for them? It’s a waste of money. Races like Quad Cities could be supporting local American talent, like the guy who won and you tried to badmouth.

That would never happen....

I agree, this is terrible sportsmanship. People saying they wouldnt have heard him isnt even the point, though I still doubt it if he was able to visibly see them going off course. I saw a group of guys going off course during a race as I started to follow them and notice it was the wrong way, I immediately shouted and started going back to go the correct way. One of them heard me and they all came running back. Another time I had my head down chugging along and missed a turn, I noticed no one around me and then heard someone shouting in the distance, turned around and a guy was waving his arms and pointing to the turn I missed (was another runner and not a volunteer).

So yeah, that guy seems like a d!ck.

sub sub elite local hobby jogger wrote:

I wish there was a downvote button so I could downvote utterly ridiculous and unnecessarily indignant posts like these.

Agreed, his quote doesn't make him sound great, but there's not really much he could do. The reaction from rojo is way over the top.

I was there running the half marathon. I am 50 years old and i have run the race 6 times, it is a great race! It was not 30k in because the two kenyans that were turned the wrong way went passed me at 10.5 miles. It was probably at 1:05 or 1:06 into the race when they went by me so it had to have happened before this point where they went off course. Knowing the course it probably happened at about 9 miles. The half and full marathons start together. I thought it was strange because all of the times i have run the race the lead marathon runners never went passed me on the course, so i knew something was wrong. I cant speak to Tylers comments because you dont know if that is exactly what was said or if the quote is accurate. I can tell you that the course is well marked, but if you have a lead cyclist you should be able to zone out and just follow along. I can tell you the race director and elite coordinator are great guys and i bet feel horrible for them. Its great that they both got compensated, but all runners know that didn't make up for it. All of the hours of training etc were lost to an error and if you are part of the race, and you are responsible for the lead runners, you should know the course by heart and this should never happen!!

Come on. Would all of you be this upset if they weren't poor Kenyans? I wouldn't have said anything either. This is all on the race director. The coach was just running his race. Twenty seconds back at their race pace is more than 100 meters. That is pretty far back to yell and correct the runners ahead of you.

He did nothing wrong. He minded his own business and got paid. We have enough Kenyan imports as it is, do we really need more to steal prize monies from American-born runners?

The 13.5 mile mark for the M is the same as the 10.5 mile mark for the 1/2. They were at 1:05 at 13 miles and they passed you at about 1:06 like you said. They went straight with the 1/2 marathoners instead of turning left on the river bike path on Arsenal Island.