Canadian half-marathoner misses turn, runs full marathon, wins race anyway

wow, this is truly hard to believe this was an accident. You really think you can just "black out" for many miles and not realize you were running farther than 13.1?

So it took until mile 20 before she realized she'd gone astray? And then managed to personally speak with the RD who happened to be standing alongside the race course?

hmmmm. I say. hmmmm.

Wonder wha the leader of the marathon till that point thinks about the RD's decision? Personally I believe they should let the halfer have a marathon time for BQ sake, but not let her in the official standings. Who knows how the the race would have played out if she was a known marathoner from the get go.

I for one believe her, and believe she deserves all the accolades she worked so hard to earn. This is just a witch hunt by people who are jealous of her speed and good looking spouse.

EPOpian wrote:

wow, this is truly hard to believe this was an accident. You really think you can just "black out" for many miles and not realize you were running farther than 13.1?

Based on the half marathon female winners, she would have been in 6th place (roughly) at the half.

I could imagine a scenario where someone saw ALL the female runners turn at the half split and think, hey, I'm in first in the marathon. I'll just run it instead.

Not saying that's what happened, but it makes more sense than running 20 miles before figuring out that she's not on her half marathon pace.

But more important...

Did she also backpedal into another finisher at the line?

+ 1 for tightening the W Boston qualifying times

if a woman can run 3:11 while wearing headphones and apparently not keeping track of her splits...

A volunteer on a bike contacted the RD with some cutting edge technology. Possibly a Ouija board.

Anyone who gripes about this is a sore loser.

SMJO wrote:

A volunteer on a bike contacted the RD with some cutting edge technology. Possibly a Ouija board.

Anyone who gripes about this is a sore loser.

So, the second place female was beaten by a competitor that didn't even exist till the 20 mile mark. Now. I haven't heard anything about her being miffed, but if she was, I could understand it. I think it sets a bad precedent. Say an event has two races which start at the same time. Said events have money three deep in each race. After the races are off, a competitor realizes they are sitting fourth in the money and it doesn't look good for catching anyone. They just ease up a bit and continue on with the longer race and beat an advantage as the other racers don't realize there is competition ahead of them. Now this might only work on certain courses, but it has just been proven to be a possibility. I could definitely see some of the road whores trying to pull something like this. Just my opinion, whatever.

Better detail here:

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2013/09/23/marathon-win-a-surprise/

"I was doing the race as training for my first full marathon in Detroit. But I’m looking at the time and wondering where the finish line is...Once I realized what I had done, I figured well I’ll just run 20 miles and use it as a long run and call it a day"

But as she headed back from the turn-around in River Canard she started to count people ahead of her. She realized there were only nine men ahead, and no women. She asked the official on the bike if she finished the marathon, even though she was signed up for the half, if it would count as a finish and, more importantly, would she be able to use her time as a Boston Marathon qualifier.

“The official said he was going to ask the race director and he’d be back,” she said. “So as I’m running I’m wondering if my race is going to count, I’m thinking about my friend who is at the finish line probably wondering where I am since I have the keys to the car. And my neighbour, who was going to be waiting for me at the finish line. I knew they were going to be worried about me. “

The bike official finally came back and said the race director, Chris Uszynski, would honour her race as a completion in the full distance.

“While I was waiting for a response I wasn’t sure what to do,” she said. “I felt really good but I was scared because I hadn’t planned to run 26.2 miles that day and was worried if it didn’t count that I would burn myself out for Detroit.”

all these Canadians are so flipping unpredictable

Closer scenario, which has already occurred, is marathon starts with elite female group heading out before main group. Non-elite female runs a faster time than any of the elites but finishes "behind" the "elites". Who gets the win?

Winning iS about the fastest time. Deal with it and stop projecting gun versus chip arguments.

This is BS. Any marathon i've EVER seen with a half option wouldn't even COUNT you at the end regardless, so no she didn't qualify for boston. She didn't even pay for the full..

Where's a triathlete when you need one?

cvvvvfjjjjjjjjjj wrote:

+ 1 for tightening the W Boston qualifying times

if a woman can run 3:11 while wearing headphones and apparently not keeping track of her splits...

+1

datbutt wrote:

This is BS. Any marathon i've EVER seen with a half option wouldn't even COUNT you at the end regardless, so no she didn't qualify for boston. She didn't even pay for the full..

They have this thing called a timming chip bro, they place mats all over the course, so yes she did qualify for Boston.

fisky wrote:

EPOpian wrote:

wow, this is truly hard to believe this was an accident. You really think you can just "black out" for many miles and not realize you were running farther than 13.1?

Based on the half marathon female winners, she would have been in 6th place (roughly) at the half.

I could imagine a scenario where someone saw ALL the female runners turn at the half split and think, hey, I'm in first in the marathon. I'll just run it instead.

Not saying that's what happened, but it makes more sense than running 20 miles before figuring out that she's not on her half marathon pace.

But more important...

Did she also backpedal into another finisher at the line?

Did she finish like all the NORMAL people with a gaggle of children around her? If not, she is not NORMAL and should be DQ'd.

I read the article and looked at the course map. It's basically a half loop to 13k, an out-back of 21k, and then the backside of the loop for 7k. The course zig zags a couple of times just before the half-full split.

She apparently took the split the wrong way, realized it was wrong and decided to run it as a 20 miler, but when she saw runners coming back from the turn around, she saw that she was in the lead for the marathon. That would have been about the 23k mark. She then asked a bicycle official if she could change to the full. He rode up somewhere and called the RD, who said she could.

I didn't think so at first, but this looks like an honest mistake by the runner and a spur of the moment wrong decision by the RD to let her count for a medal. As another post said, I'd let her have the BQ time, but not give her the winner's medal.

SMJO wrote:

Winning iS about the fastest time. Deal with it and stop projecting gun versus chip arguments.

And road racing is about head-to-head competition. Not some smorgasbord pick a distance, start whenever you want scenario. Sign up for a race, run against the people you want to race and go for it. If you want elite money, race the elites. The Wesley Korir(sp) incident is the only time I'd have given money to someone from the peoples race. And that was because he was denied entry into the elite race.