Why is it "the runner's responsibility to know the course"?

For elites, it should absolutely not be the runner's responsibility in anything over 10K. You cannot expect a tired elite to focus on the course and not make a mistake. When you are pushing that hard for that long it is not possible to get it right 100% of the time unless the course is super obvious such as there is line marked in the center of the road along the entire course to follow. There should always be a lead car, motorcycle, or bike that knows the way. This is really on the race. Especially when it comes to things like U-turns, it is really on the race to have these properly marked and the event staff ready to direct people. At your local road race 5K or 10K if you have good event staff they should be ready to direct the top runners and have people positioned at places where runners could go wrong, but they shouldn't be held to the same standard as anything half or up.

40 year runner, have been producing races for 30+ years, the last 20 with that as my profession. Just backgrounding...

I believe it is the racer's responsibility to know the course and how it's marked/monitored, but ultimately it's the RD's responsibility to lead all racer's the right way. When a racer is directed off course, to me that's 100% on the RD and the RD needs to make it right. In our post-Boston-2013 world, there are tons of reasons why a course could have to change after the race starts; a bomb threat, fire, water or gas break, emergency situation at a store or home on the course, etc etc etc... If a racer were to go in with good knowledge of the course and then get to a spot where Course Monitors or Police are sending them a different way, and that racer said "f' it, I know the course, I'm following the course map I know" and ignored the CM/Police directions, they could find themselves in a dangerous place.

The race production company I work for, our standard is that at ANY course turn we have either a CM/Police, or a sign, or paint on the ground, or another marking specific to this race. Sometimes we have ALL those things!! I wish I could say we meet that standard 100% of the time but we don't. Sometimes a CM has to step away for a bathroom break, sometimes a sign blows over or gets maliciously removed by someone else who is on the course. We double check, but sometimes sh_t happens, and you always feel bad when that happens. Or sometimes it's out of your control like a 5k we produced where the lead police car decided to turn a block early with a mile to go, even though we had a Course Monitor 1 block down where the course was supposed to go. That made a "5k" that was 2.95 miles. Felt terrible about that, but went out that afternoon and measured the difference so at least runners would know.

Quad Cities RD, in my book, needs to take ownership of his lead bike volunteer who went the wrong way and make it good for the 2 runners who were ahead.

Well the unthinkable has happened. I started reading this thread with one opinion (it's the runners' responsibility) and I've been convinced that my old opinion was wrong. Good job boys.

I've been in a marathon where the lead bike led me off course when I was leading.

I've been in a 15K where there was an out-and-back marked with a 4-inch arrow and no cone, no volunteer. Half the field blew past it.

I've been in a marathon relay where the cop trusted with manning the first turn went for coffee and left it unmanned.

"know the course" is an excuse for poor planning by the RD.

2008 NCAA DII Regionals in San Diego says hi.

Given the amount race registration costs these days, I think it's fair to place this responsibility on the RD...

Mistakes happen and I get it. The policy that "runners must know the course" is pretty stupid, by I also realize there aren't a lot of good alternatives here in terms of awarding prize money.

HOWEVER, this particular story captures a lot of things about road races in 2021 that I hate:

1. Every race is like three races in one: usually a marathon is paired with a half marathon and a relay, and maybe a 5k too. So the attention that should to towards marking and managing a long road race gets spread over several events, and the entire situation just becomes a massive cluster.

2. Police departments are charging ridiculous fees for road closures, and more courses are veering onto various bike paths, sidewalks, or just open roads.

3. There is a weird paradox in which there are both too many races and no good ones. Every single town of any size wants to have their own half marathon. The runners and entry fees get spread out way too far, and every race is therefore too financially challenged to really provide a great experience for runners.

4. Because road close/police fees are so expensive, and everybody expects a technical running shirt and medal from every race, it's impractical to run a cheapo $20 10k that still runs on closed roads but doesn't really offer anything else from an amenity standpoint.

5. I realize 3 and 4 are contradictory but somehow I think they are both true.

If you are a runner who intends to compete for the win in ANY race, it behooves you to know the course. Does that mean it's the runner's "responsibility" to know the course? No, but knowing how races are staffed with volunteers who can't possibly assign the same level of importance on the race as a runner who might win does, a potentially winning runner SHOULD know the course.

I've seen countless volunteers steer runners the wrong way. Gotta protect yourself with knowledge. Know the course.

otter wrote:

I agree. I was led off course by the lead vehicle once In a Marathon.

Even if I knew that turn was wrong why would I go a different way than the lead vehicle? Maybe an electrical line was down or some other hazard was in the way and they had to re-route? Anyway, I’m o we it now but it costed me a potential win.

Winner of the bestest humblebrag post goes to otter.

I'm usually so far back in a race I have cars following me honking me to stop and go fking home.

memo 618, wrote:

Clearly it's the RDs responsibility to make sure the race is clearly marked.

In 1985 the race director himself (who had been the RD for the 1984 Olympic Marathon Trials) led the runners off course. Yes, the RD.

I was the timer.

Read about it here:

That same RD organized a local race a couple of years later, but course marshals/volunteers weren't all on the same page. The finish line was in a park at the top of a hill, and we saw runners coming at us from two different directions, meaning that one group hit the line from its back. Turned out that there were something like 3 or 4 different routes that the runners took. It was the only race in my timing career where the finish line guys and I just packed up and went home. There was no possible way to sort out the results.

Great points, especially 3 and 4. I have noticed the same thing. A lot of runners just seem to care. They just get another lousy t-shirt and a big medal they can post on social media. If the course is well marked or accurately measured doesn't matter.

ustabefast wrote:

I was comfortably in the lead during a trail marathon held near Lone Pine, Ca., in the eastern sierra nevada.

The course was very poorly marked and I had to make 50/50 guesses on several occasions at unmarked trail junctions.

I guessed wrong at the 23 mile mark and wound up in a dead end box canyon.

I finally reached the finish area after an extra 3 or so miles of running, but was so pissed that I stepped off the course 50 meters from the finish.

I overheard conversations from some other participants, mostly ultra runner types, and some casually mentioned that they had also gone off course, but they just laughed it off.

Ultra marathoners are a unique breed.

I never entered another trail marathon.

In a 100 mile trail run in remote backcountry it's pretty much impossible to mark the course really well. And then consider long sections will be run in the dark. It means the map must be accurate and detailed and runners need to take responsibility to know where they are and for their own safety.

+1

Just one example more of when the course might have be changed last minute, or even during the race, as happened in 2019 during the Firenze (Italy) Marathon:

"Firenze Marathon would like to communicate that due to a gas leak at km 40 along the race route of today’s marathon, in order participants’ safety, in agreement with local police and firefighters it was necessary to make a slight change to the route. Exactly 600 meters were ‘cut’ near Via Lungarno Vespucci and was blocked after the first 60 runners therefore all qualifications at the national and international level will need to be approved by the Italian Athletics Federation."

I've had several races where I am either in the lead (really small races...) and/or in no man's land behind the leader and come to a turn where the course marshal is chit-chatting away with a spectator and I've literally had to yell at them "WHICH WAY!!!!!" Totally the RD's fault for not beating into their head that, as easy as the course seems to THEM, in the heat of a race it is not always clear to us. And that is after studying the course map before hand.

We had a 5k/10k race in our town years ago. They sent the 10k runners off about 15 minutes after the 5k. Well the top 10k guy was a division 3 NCAA champ and still fit as ever. Within minutes he had run up the backside of the walkers, strollers, etc and had to run up on to sidewalks and dodge 100's of walkers, etc. Near the 5-mile mark, the CM pointed him the wrong direction and this runner came into the finish line area the WRONG WAY. The look on the RD's face and the timers was classic. What a major FU. Needless to say, that race does not exist anymore...

otter wrote:

I agree. I was led off course by the lead vehicle once In a Marathon.

Even if I knew that turn was wrong why would I go a different way than the lead vehicle? Maybe an electrical line was down or some other hazard was in the way and they had to re-route? Anyway, I’m o we it now but it costed me a potential win.

Precisely. If you receive clear instruction from a legitimate official, you are placed in an awkward position where the best decision is to follow the instruction unless you are VERY sure it's wrong. And even then (with regards to courses anyways) it might not be a good idea to ignore it... there could have been an incident that requires a re-route.

It's not like it's rocket science to sign-post a route so that it's difficult to mess up unintentionally. Some cones, some rope, some signs, a few volunteers at major intersections. Depending on the nature of the area, it may not be possible for non-locals to know the route easily from the map. If there are lots of intersections close together, it might not be apparent until you're there which one is correct. Some road courses are also configured such that it is never possible or safe to run or drive the route as marked (eg. goes backwards on a freeway ramp).

It is totally the runners' responsibility to know the course. I say this because I was once far behind on the first run of a duathlon when the lead bike took everyone the wrong way, leaving me in first place. I kept waiting for them to turn around and come catch me, but they never did. I actually kind of thought I was in 1st place going into T1, but it turns out the lead bike had found a way to go around on other roads and they all got past me. I wuz robbed!

That's actually pretty hilarious.

Great insights. I was a RD for many years for smaller races and when you depend a lot on volunteers, despite your best efforts, things can and will go wrong. That said, you need to take responsibility for the errors and as you said "Make it right". That could be an apology, a refund for the race and a gift card to the local running store for a smaller local race where some one was denied a win because of a course monitor's error.

What CAN NOT happen (I've seen it done) is to place a runner who ran the wrong course into the official results. If others ran the correct course, the first runner who ran the correct course is the winner. Even if it is not their fault that they went off course, if they didn't run the correct distance, they are not the winner. I think that's where the rule really comes from. It isn't particularly fair to the runner who got misdirected and the RD needs to address that but they can't be given the place for a race they didn't run correctly.

The way that I've always seen it is this: if you're on the course, you're your own problem. Generally, running rules break down to about four different core principle components:

1) that you should not impede the other runners around you, and generally physical contact is disallowed beyond accident.

2) that you should not materially cheat, i.e. - everything from using a car (looking at you, 1904 olympic marathon if I remember correctly) to PEDs (hooligan booligan).

3) that you should not organizationally cheat, i.e. - gaming points systems in meets, start line placement, paid off officials that DQ other runners, etc.

4) that you should not systematically cheat, i.e. - handing off your bib to another runner who takes over for you, cutting major portions of the course, starting the race early, etc etc etc.

When regarding these four categories of rules, we have to operate under two base assumptions. First, that race directors will do everything they can ahead of time to prevent rules conflicts between the athletes running the race and the rules governing it. Second, that there will be a majority of runners acting in good faith and a minority of runners acting in bad faith (more on this in a moment).

Other runners aren't supposed to help me. Handing off a water bottle if someone looks thirsty falls under both the second and third above categories. Lifting someone to help them across the line? Again - that's a rules violation. While most people won't be mad at this, we're obligated to build-out that social contract. I am supposed to run the race as an individual entity in the context of a large number of other individual entities. The Race director (and the race-facilitating-organization, whether that be the same entity as the RD or a different entity) is not able to be in control of all of those individual entities. You corral them and hope for the best. This is not a consignment of the impossible, rather a natural limitation on the size of races and the human ability to control/manage the directed chaos that comes with that. Your obligation as an individual is to do your best to avoid violating those rules. The course and route themselves are one of the core elements to the social contract that is running a foot race.

We all agree that we're going to try to see which one of us can run from A-B the fastest, and we all agree we want as fair a shake at that as possible.

It's not my job to cover for your stupidity. It's not the RD's job on race day to make sure you don't take wrong turns. They're obligated by that same contract, as the facilitator of it, to provide you with the means to attempt the task that you're paying them for.

TLDR; It is not an RD's job to know the course for you. It is your job to stay on the course you agreed to run on.