I just lost a race because I was pointed the wrong way - How often does this happen?

Live to run wrote:

You should study up on the course the night before, I think this needs to become more common.

The one time I was misdirected it was in an area I wasn't familiar with so even though I had studied the course on Google maps I still didn't know the right way, especially at the end of a 10k.

The real problem was that they had a 5k and a 10k with the exact same bib so the person thought I was in the 5k when I was winning the 10k. Races should have different colors for different distances.

Reality Bath wrote:

I always jog the last mile of a course in warmup, even if it seems "obvious". Fatigue at the end of a race messes with your judgment of distance and pathway, and I don't want to be employing guesswork at the end of any race. On at least one occasion it has gotten me the win, knowing when to time my kick properly.

I second this.

My warm up has always been to run the last mile backwards and then turn around and finish my warm up to the finish.

I want to be comfortable knowing the way if I am leading at that point.

I ran a race a few years ago where a course monitor was sitting on a chair 'pointing us to run left.' We were suppose to go right. After the race I overheard the race director asking her what went wrong. She said, "You told me to direct them to the right." Which she did....her right, as she sat facing us.

Her right was our left. Not sure who was at fault. A picture really is worth a thousand words.

A. Hipster wrote:

One time I was leading a 5k by a huge margin and a volunteer who was supposed to be marking a turn just let me run past without saying anything.

This is my favorite. These dudes have one job, but I've seen so many that just kind of watch runners approach and stare at them with an empty look in their eyes.

Ideally yes, jogging the course is best - In this instance the race was in lower Manhattan so my options were limited, also I assumed being in lower Manhattan that it would be nearly impossible to get thrown off course because there isn't much room for misdirection based on traffic closures etc... I think if I could do it over, I would have studied the map a bit harder and even slowed up to check where second place was - Glad to see many of you were awarded 1st - OP

One of the few road races I won was a big 5K in a major city. I went out hanging off the back of the lead pack of about 15 guys. At about 3/4 mile there was a 90 degree left turn that took you out on a loop. The leader bikes didn't turn and kept going straight. Everyone followed the leader bikes, but I knew the course. I quickly seized my opportunity and made the turn and put on a major surge for about a quarter mile. After a quarter mile there was another turn where I dared to look back and I was in the clear - no one in site. Ran scared the whole way as there were a few runners in the race who were much better than me. Never looked back and won it going away. The biggest road race I ever won.

I generally always jog the entire course before a 5K road race. Mostly it's so I'll get a 3-mile warmup, but it's also so I can imagine myself into the course and figure out where I'll be hurting the most (i.e., sometimes a big hill in the middle) and where I'll make my final push.

Your painful experience is a great teaching tool, and should convince every racer--and you, of course--that one key thing to achieve during your warmup is a clear sense of how the course finishes. If you don't have time to run the whole course, then start at the finish line and jog one mile back to the 2-mile point, then turn around and jog it in.

But yes: especially if you've got a chance to actually win the thing, you can't take anything for granted.

This is the first and last time this will ever happen to you, in other words. From now on you'll be ready. You'll know the course.

This happened to me twice, both at small local races where I was a middling-sized fish in a tiny pond.

At one race I was leading an 8k with a half mile to go and the lead bike pulled off. The course was unmarked an unmarshalled; I guess I was supposed to have studied the route map. Anyway I took a wrong turn, and the #2 and #3 guys followed me. We looped around and came across the finish line the wrong way. I guess we should have been DQ'd, but the race organizers kept out finishing positions because #4 and later were all well behind and never would have caught us. Frustrating as hell running a race where there's no directions or guidance, and the route is ambiguous with different equally obvious possibilities. This was in Ottawa, maybe 15 years ago. It was a road race during a triathlon event. Locals will know the organizing outfit is not known for well managed road races...

The other time was a hilly 10k road race in Halifax, run along residential streets. I took a wrong turn, along with the #2 guy beside me. We had gone about 100 m when #3 and others saw us and yelled at us we'd gone the wrong way. We turned back, caught up and got back in the lead and eventually finished #1 and 2, having run maybe 10.2 km. :-) I guess that was my stupid fault, but there was a cop on the corner and I asked which way to go and he shrugged and didn't correct us when we took the wrong turn.

Having organized a couple of road races I know how easy it is to let these things happen. No big deal in the grand scheme of things...

I won a 20k once when the four guys ahead of me were directed the wrong way. I started going the wrong way too but the guy behind me knew the course and yelled for me to come back. I also lost a 5k once when I went off course at a fork in the road but no one misdirected me. It was a small local race in a town I'd just moved to. Everyone else in the race knew the course, there was a weekly series of races on it, so it was just assumed we all had run it before and knew what to do at that intersection.

In 2010, after my sons first year of XC, I decided to run a local 5k with him.

We were a group of 3, me, my kid, and some other person. First place fellow was long gone, and our little group was looking at 18:30s (6 pace).

Got to about the 4km mark, and just like someone else's story, the volunteer just let us run on by and take the wrong branch. Didn't say a word.

We ended up approaching the finish from the wrong side, at which point I just sort of gave up and slowed to a trot. We ended up getting the right awards, however I was disappointed to not be able to challenge my kid in a kick during a 5k.

After his next year he was way faster than I and no race would have ever come down to a kick.

I ran a marathon that also had a half marathon and at the 13 mile mark, the Half runners turn off and the Full runners do another loop. I knew the course and I knew what to do, but an official in "official gear" literally ran in front of me and physically started pushing me to turn off. At the time, I was so in the zone that I kind of just listened to him. After running a few paces, I realized what had happened and turned around. He tried it again and I said, "I'm running the full marathon" and he said, "oh, well then you need to be going that way" and pointed back the way I initially tried to go. I wanted to punch him.

I volunteer coach a middle school XC team and they have had the same course for like 10 years. It is just two big 1-mile loops through the woods. They have never had any problems. This season, the first meet of the year, I was getting ready to call splits for the first mile and all of a sudden the kids start running up from behind the parking lot instead of out from the woods (where they were supposed to come from). I looked over at the coach and he was totally confused. We just directed them to do the same loop again and it was about a half-mile short. Some kids went the correct way and the whole thing was a total mess. After talking to the runners, we learned that someone's mother from a visiting school directed the leaders (her son) the wrong way. So the front 30-or-so runners cut off about a 1/4 mile of the loop. We still don't know what she was thinking as the course had flag markers and most of the kids had run it a dozen times or so. Plus, she sent them through a parking lot which made no intuitive sense since the trail was well-marked and one big loop. Sometimes people are idiots.

The worst verious of this was the 2008 DII Cross Country Regionals at UCSD, 10km

The course was a criss-cross of a park area, total sh*t show:

http://www.ucsdtritons.com/pics11/800/ZJ/ZJJXQNBYLSMALUQ.20081002195309.jpg?DB_OEM_ID=5800

The lead group, eventually around 50 guys, were led off course (by the lead cyclist who was misdirected) and then turned around and forced to run into the chase pack that had made the right turn. Officials stopped the race and then decided to re-run the 10km TWO hours later. Athletes were forced to race 16km in 3 hours.

Total mess and cost some friends of mine a great opportunity. Truly a shame.

The backstory:

http://www.chicowildcats.com/news/2008/11/8/MXC_1108082851.aspx

The LRC thread:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=2752208&thread=2751629#2752208

So you're saying stick to 5 ks and hope you don't go off course earlier in long races?

A course marshal is there for a reason and they need to do their jobs,

To all the people making fun of me in the what to do with your phone during a race thread, this is exactly one of the reasons for which I run with a phone: google maps. I've never gotten lost during a race. Usually I don't need directions, but why risk it? I don't mind losing if the other runners were fitter (obviously), but losing because of something I could easily avoid. Yeah, that would kill me.

So you load the course map into your phone, and then run with your phone in your hand so you can get turn-by-turn directions? I understand not wanting to get lost but that's a tremendous PITA. Races should be able to handle this, or come up with simpler courses without a million turns...

Armchair Statistician wrote:

Live to run wrote:

I'm guessing you're a slower runner who can't empathize what it's like to lose a race due to someone else's mistake. Way to typecast faster runners, Mr moral high ground.

False. I've won more than my fair share of races. I just happen to understand that everything from the time you register for a race until you leave is an exhaustible resource that costs the organizers.

What the hell are you talking about?

I make a point to jog my 100 mile trail runs before to make sure I know the route. It has served me well. For those that don't know the course, it is your own fault. You should be more like me. I am awesome and loved by all.

That is disappointing for the OP.

Some other things I've seen include:

1. Lead runner directed the wrong way (by cop on motorcycle) on a poorly marked course. Runner who "knew the course" went the correct way and crossed the line first. Race director awarded win to runner who went the wrong way, saying that he was just following the escort.

2. First female to cross the line not given the win because the officials did not realize she was a female. They corrected this during the award ceremony, but that was pretty...awkward.

3. Lead runners directed the wrong way on purpose because of a change to the course (2005 Army Ten-Miler) that was made after the race had started. I think in that case they scrapped all scoring and awards.

Happened to me once, almost 30 years ago. It was a 10K. I was alongside two runners who were better than me, but I felt great. This was going to be the day I finally beat them. At 4 miles, I made a move and by 5 miles was 75 yards up on them. I knew the course had a turn, but the motorcyle cop leading the race and the lead bike went straight so I followed. About 5 seconds later I hear the two runners yelling "wrong way" and I looked back to see them turn.

This one got me a little angry mainly because I was finally going to beat these guys, but the race director apologized immediately so I just let it go.

I never did beat either of them in the future either!