Runner knew marathon leaders were running off course, doesn't stop them: "I’m not going to shout. It’s not my job.’’

You should donate, rojo, since you see this for the affront it is and are so passionate.

thoughts and prayers wrote:

How the hell does the lead bike not know the course?

No wonder the RD is paying them $2k each.

The "winner" was aware of the screw-up, could have shouted "Hey, you're going off course!", but chose to keep silent to benefit himself. He shouldn't feel good about the win or the way he acted.

We have seen this many times before; lead runners being directed or led of course.

In bigger events, some RDs add prizing for those clearly "robbed". It's the right thing to do - and a pragmatic PR move.

As to the DQs, while insult to injury, rules of road racing are clear - if you diverge from the prescribed course -for whatever reason - you must re-enter at the point you left it. Stupid and frustrating if you've already run over-distance through no fault of your own, but it is what it is...

I was sharing the lead in a 5K with another runner, and we were misdirected by a race volunteer, which resulted in us doing an extra 50 meters or so before we were turned back around. I was not mad at the person behind us who ran the correct route. I was mad at the race volunteer who botched the turn.

The third place guy did nothing wrong, and its on the race for what happened to these two runners, and making good on it, which they seem to have done.

It’s really not the runners responsibility. It’s up to the bike pacer and race organizers.

Classic D2 mentality. Knew this guy was D2 bum the second I read the title. D3 guy is going to be honored to run with Kenyans, and get them back on course. D1 guy would know there is no honor in a cheap win against guys with stronger abilities. Just ugly stuff here. Yuck.

why would a contest exhaust himself yelling to the chaps ahead?

cherry van der torp wrote:

why would a contest exhaust himself yelling to the chaps ahead?

You can’t seriously think that would exhaust him.

poster xyz wrote:

cherry van der torp wrote:

why would a contest exhaust himself yelling to the chaps ahead?

You can’t seriously think that would exhaust him.

I have asthma. That's the lens I looked through when I wrote that post. For me, it would be exhausting screaming to someone 100m ahead that they'd made a mistake.

That's life. Volunteers make mistakes on courses sometimes. Runners should be paying attention to course markings as I would guess there would be arrows in the direction if they were turning.

This is so incredibly ridiculous. LRC coming in hot with the cancel culture.

The dude was 20 seconds back running, he literally had nothing to do with what happened.

Jerry Maguire wrote:

This is so incredibly ridiculous. LRC coming in hot with the cancel culture.

The dude was 20 seconds back running, he literally had nothing to do with what happened.

Coming in hot with cancel culture? I have gone out of my way to make sure his name isn't mentioned. It's the opposite of cancel culture. I want the focus to be on the morality - or lack thereof - of the actions. I don't care who actually did it.

What bothers me is his quote. If he'd been 5 meters behind them, it sounds like he wouldn't have helped. As I said before, my runners could hear me yelling splits to the 200 meter mark when I was coaching.

Things I'm not buying:

1) That it's impossible to hear someone yelling 100m away during a race.

2) That it's exhausting for a 2:15 guy to yell "HEY!" a couple times.

3) Most of all, that his response to what happened was anything less than being a prick.

I'm glad someone posted the finish of the 1994 NYC Marathon. German Silva went off course with less than a mile to go and Paredes was right next to him and said nothing. Furthermore, at the time everyone felt Paredes did the right thing in not only not yelling at Silva but in throwing in a surge to try to win. In the end Silva discovered his mistake very quickly and won the race so it didn't matter but I don't recall anyone back then saying Paredes had some moral duty to his competitor here. Maybe it's different as all the leaders of a big city marathon should be expected to know the course and Silva followed a police bike and not the lead truck (or the lead bike)? In this race, a representative of the race screwed up and so the RD was correct to compensate the two runners. I don't see how the guy who won can do anything 100 yards back so he seems blameless. Had he been running right next to the two guys maybe then you can say he morally should alert them and I'd like to think that's what I would do in that situation but that is not what occurred.

I think this was clear virtue-signaling too, but to be fair to rojo he probably didn't read the article which clearly has his name in it. Incredibly dumb move by him though lol.

rojo wrote:

Jerry Maguire wrote:

This is so incredibly ridiculous. LRC coming in hot with the cancel culture.

The dude was 20 seconds back running, he literally had nothing to do with what happened.

Coming in hot with cancel culture? I have gone out of my way to make sure his name isn't mentioned. It's the opposite of cancel culture. I want the focus to be on the morality - or lack thereof - of the actions. I don't care who actually did it.

What bothers me is his quote. If he'd been 5 meters behind them, it sounds like he wouldn't have helped. As I said before, my runners could hear me yelling splits to the 200 meter mark when I was coaching.

The BIG QUESTION: You're leading a race. You know the course well. You're following the lead bike. You come to a turn you're familiar with. You're thinking, "We're about to turn right, here" and the lead bike goes left.

Do you follow the lead bike, assuming they must have changed the course without you knowing, or maybe you're remembering wrong since you're exhausted?

Or do you veer away from the lead bike, go on your own assuming you know the course better than the course staff, and let the lead bike go the other way?

Tough question!

ph wrote:

That's life. Volunteers make mistakes on courses sometimes. Runners should be paying attention to course markings as I would guess there would be arrows in the direction if they were turning.

Used to be that races had Course Marshals. This probably wouldn't have happened had they had one.

Mike Rossi asked me WTF is the problem?