Only one person completes full distance in Marathon of the North (Read 276 times)

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/runners-furious-only-one-person-completes-full-distance-093501975.html

Yeah? I bet a lot of Garmins are saying otherwise!!!

If only I could hit the tangents well enough to not loose .16 of a mile...

Someone needs to spring into action and create a 26.04 sticker.

A course should always be marked well enough that a reasonable runner can follow the course without having to see the person in front of them.  Hard to know from the info given what exactly caused the runners behind the leader to not be able to follow the correct course.

I once ran a marathon in the UK that was kind of strange.  The course was not marked at all and instead we were given four pages of typed directions that we were suppose to follow.  That was quite a challenge as I did not bring my glasses.  Anyway, maybe it is not the tradition in Britain to have a well marked course.

 

I once ran a marathon in the UK that was kind of strange.  The course was not marked at all and instead we were given four pages of typed directions that we were suppose to follow.  That was quite a challenge as I did not bring my glasses.  Anyway, maybe it is not the tradition in Britain to have a well marked course.

Remember this is the nation where Dorando Pietri went the wrong way in the stadium at the end of the 1908 Olympic marathon.

However, this is also the nation that gifted the world with the Hash House Harriers, and they seem to be able to mark a course just fine, albeit with the aid of a bag of flour.

I ran a rather small half-marathon this past weekend with a course issue that is causing quite a bit of consternation among some local runners in Minnesota. I lined up near the back of the pack and settled in for a comfortable run with about 600 or so other runners. (My Running Wizard plan had me scheduled to do a 12 mile “Jog,” so I had no intention of racing it or pushing for a PR – this worked out well for me on this particular day.)  At about mile 4, I saw a large group of very fast runners gaining on us from the left and merging onto the trail we were on. Turns out, the race organizers had some young person on a bike leading the runners on the course. The young person apparently took a wrong turn at some point, causing a fairly large group (including the fastest 100 or so runners) to run a significant ways off the course.  When they figured out the error, they “re-joined” the course, and then had to weave their way through the plodding masses of us "back of the pack" runners. One rumor is that someone (not associated with the event) turned one of the course markers around so that the arrow directed them the wrong way (at a fork in the path I’m guessing). The race organizers are trying to figure out a way to “adjust” the times for those affected by this error. However, one issue pointed out via Facebook is that the 100 or so runners should be disqualified, since they “re-joined” the course, but did not actually run the true complete course (notwithstanding the fact that many of them ran a lot farther than the 13.1 mile course).

Here is a link to the course map: http://www.maplegrovehalfmarathon.com/uploads/3/2/5/5/3255189/mg_map2012v6a_1.pdf