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

It happens at every single race where the leader doesn't know the course. Every. Single. Time.

Ultras are typically trail and dirt-road races with course marked with chalk on the ground. On a local 50 miler a few years ago a heavy downpour washed away the turn marking and the lead group of 5 runners missed the turn and ran an additional 30 miles even though they were DQed.

funny wrote:

It happens at every single race where the leader doesn't know the course. Every. Single. Time.

True, I would say for most any race you thought you might win would would want to have the course memorized. Obviously there are exceptions to this with long races and smaller races with no maps available.

Ran 12k race a few months ago where there were about 5-10 men ahead of me (I was first woman) and they all missed a turn right at the beginning of the race - we could see off to the right that there was a person standing next to a car at the top of the hill, but there wasn't anything directing us up the hill, so everyone ran straight by it. I wasn't sure if we had missed the turn or not until I came through the mile in world record time. Probably the top 100 or so runners missed the turn, until the race directors realized what had happened and blocked it off. The competition was pretty light, and so many people missed the turn that women who finished up to 10 minutes after me all missed the turn, so it didn't really affect the finishing results. After the race was over I talked to the race director about missing the turn, and he said "Well, that means you didn't win." Obviously the top runners didn't accept that as an answer, and we all kept our places.

So, note to race directors: if runners go astray in a poorly marked course and it doesn't affect the top results, don't tell the winners that they didn't win.

not so fast there wrote:

1:39.99 wrote:

Your fault. You failed to prepare. That is part of winning.

I disagree with this logic. If the race is so poorly organized that the route can't easily be followed, or there's no people to point you in the right direction at a turn, who's to say their map is even correct? If it's that bad I'd say there's an equal chance that the race director would switch up the course to be different than the map shows, which in that case following the map would be the worst case scenario.

Strawman fallacy. You are not addressing my argument. You make an assumption that I did not make. I am not assuming the map is incorrect. You are. No reasonable person would expect anyone to following the course correctly if the map is incorrect.

It still stands. Part of winning is knowing the course. Running blind and depending on course officials to guide you on your entitled win is ridiculous.

Is getting lost in road races really this common?? I got off track at Fat Dog 100 in BC and lost a lot of time and a few places in the process, but that's a different breed of cat from some local 5k. Wow. Sounds like a lot of American road runners are not real men (yes, I add basic orienteering skills to Flagpole's otherwise excellent list).

That is crap! This happened to me at Pikes Peak Ascent, which holds itself high and mighty as premier trail race, but they don't even mark the course. It was my first time running it, and I was sent off course twice. I wasn't in the lead but in 7th and after climbing for 2 hours, I was in no man's land. I had never been on the course as its a B***h to drive to Pikes, pay for parking and then do the whole 13 miles up and then back 13 down.

The first time, a spectator told me the wrong way and them after a few seconds someone else shouted much louder "wrong way!" Then just above treeline, there was an unmarked switch back that I missed and just kept going straight. A few other guys behind who all were doing the race for their 1st or 2nd times missed the turn too.

The worst part was that there was still a faint trail with rock cairns we all followed. It wasn't until we were off the trail for 5 to 10 minutes that we realized we were off track. At that point we kept "running" up the steep slope since going back downhill, rather than the summit, seemed like suicide for finishing. They just assume you will follow someone else up or are older and have done the race/trail many times.

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.

So when you run the Boston Marathon how do you get back to the starting line or do you warm up 3 hrs prior to jog back then start the race?

Run Doctor wrote:

It happens often.

It is the athletes responsibility to know the course which is the reason there is a reason XC races allow you to walk the route before the race. If you think you are going to be a potential leader you definitely should be walking the course.

Lesson learned..............

OK and now back to how things really work. If you're exhausted at the end of a race and race officials point you in a direction you're going to assume they're right and then it falls on the race. No one walks the fun run. Course pre race.

Happened to me once when I was leading a 10K with one 1K fo go.. It was funny after a beer,

Um, yes its YOUR fault for not knowing the course....as a former elite runner, I ALWAYS made it a point of running the last mile, backwards and they forwards to be sure I Knew where i was supposed to be. All race maps are online now, and ALL certified course maps can be found at the USA T&F website....

You deserved to go off course. You failed to prepare. Own your mistake. Blaming the officials for not marking the course or sending you off course is pure mental weakness. You deserved to fall off a cliff and be consumed by wildlife.

The weakness is abundant in this thread.

Sure I've been there, directed the wrong way. Most recently in a half marathon last winter with about a mile to go.

Typically, a volunteer stands there with head up their behind, zoned out, dial-toned, while they watch you take a wrong turn.

I was in the lead pack of a 5k some years back in Oakland. The problem, it was at the split between a 20k course and the 5k was 'sposed to turn to the finish about 600 meters away.

A group of three brain dead volunteers watched a lead pack of 7-8 runners continue on for 20 meters, then one of them yells "5k turns here!". It wasn't pretty.

I got lost during a "6 legged" race where you run with your dog. The race was a fund raiser for an animal shelter. It was a two mile race on trails that I was unfamiliar with, but I didn't want to make my dog warm up too much by running the course. There were about 60 entries, and they sent us off about 20 at a time two minutes apart and were going to figure out the times later.

At the starting line I specifically asked the race director if the course was well marked. She said yes. I then asked if it was blatantly clear, as we were going to be dealing with other dogs, leashes, branches, tree roots, etc. She said yes.

I had a feeling I would win because I didn't see any of the local road racers there, and I had a good running dog. I was in the second group to go and ended up passing everyone in the group in front of me and easily pulled away from the leader of that group. After 10 minutes I kept thinking I'd leave the trail and see the finish line. Then 11 minutes elapsed, 12, 13........finally at 17 minutes I came to an unknown road and knew I was lost.

When I found the finish line I talked to the race director and recalled our conversation at the starting line. She just said sorry. I told her that I should have won and wanted the first prize of a free vet visit, and to ask the "winner" who was in the first group if he remembered me passing him. She wouldn't do it. I then gave her all the goodie bag crap back and asked for a refund. Nope, can't because it was a fund raiser. Her callous attitude really pissed me off and I continued to 'hound' her over the next few weeks at the animal shelter. She finally wrote me a personal check, which I cashed. Was I a jerk, yes. Did they put on a horrible race, yes.

yep ... happened to me and my team, years agooooo!

fall, 1981 (i'm really old), ran for cpslo ... traveled 100 miles south to uc santa barbara (byu was also there w/o eyestone who would have been on his mission)... coach lionvale was the head coach for the guachos... carmelo rios and i and couple other mustangs were leading. the course meandered through a poorly marked trail. a couple gauchos trailed us but didn't alert us when we began going the wrong way. mind you, the course went through a lagoon ... it was actually pretty cool until we noticed we were going the wrong way but the ucsb dudes neglected to tell us. pretty bush league. i let lionvale know how unprofessional i thought it was (in my best french) ... i was 19. the byu guys were trying to cool me down. i was soooo pissed. a couple years later i would transfer to byu and become ed eyestones' teammate.

there you go!

This has happened to me many times. I'm 40 now and I'm over it. The moment it happens I tap out now. Last time was about a year and a half ago...I was probably 30 secs on second place and the motorcycle cop I was chasing went straight and I was just following along as you do. Then suddenly a guy runs out from the next intersection yelling and the cop stops, turns his head, and as I follow suit I see that there is a turn about 300m behind us now. So I turn around, pissed, chase down the guys who now is in first, pass him, and then drop out with .1 to go.

Also 1981

High school Xc league meet. We had walked the course and I knew it well. I was in the lead by 50-60 yds around 2 miles. After running along a line of trees, we get to the end, make a 180 turn and run along the other side. After 2nd gets to the end of the trees, they realize there is a pylon that we were supposed to go around but the spectators were standing in front of it. By the time they got me stopped I was more than a 100 yds by.and told I would be dq'ed if I didn't go back. I went from 1st to about 20th. On top of that the course was much longer than the 2.5 miles it should have been. I ended up running about 3 miles and finished 6th 10 seconds behind the winner. Only the top 5 got all league.

A bad one for a whole race apart from the first! In april 2015 in one of the hardest uk road races snowdonia half marathon .i was in a group of 3 following lead bike then with last mile i pulled away for 2nd crossing the line to see about 12 people were finished! They cut the course by 2 miles in the forest because there was no marshal at the tree and the whole race bar the first 3 went wrong.some did 16 miles.i still got prize for 2nd tho.

They really should have some kind of "escort vehicle" even if it's just a guy on a bike

I did "win" a race where this happened (the first guy made a wrong turn and the guy behind me yelled he was going the wrong way) early in the race. It's ambiguous that this affected the outcome -- I barely hung on to him but then decisively outkicked him.

In this case there was an "escort bicycle" but we weren't told about this up front so the guy who was leading didn't understand that he was escorting us (and not just some random guy on a bike)