I had no trouble with the course in Mason City this past weekend, and the indifference of several high school-age volunteers near the end of the race had no effect on the runners who passed them by, but not every marathon is so lucky. Take the 2006 Ottawa Marathon, for instance, in which Amos Tirop Matui thought he not only won the race but set a new record:
Matui was part of a group of 14 runners who missed a turn in a narrow, twisting portion of the route, which shaved 400 metres off the course and more than a minute off their times.
A pack of runners spotted the errant group turning on to Sussex Drive from another road 100 metres ahead of them.
Marathon organizers said the confusion occurred when a group of high school students left their post at a barricade to talk to some friends at the next corner. While the volunteers were gone, a motorist moved the barricade.
An embarrassing turn of events for race organizers to be sure. To make things right, runners in the group of 14 who would have earned cash prizes were compensated by the organizers, and their times were not disqualified entirely, but rather they were marked with an asterisk indicating their status as “non-ratified results”.
Oh man, I would have been more then a little angry at the high school kids for leaving if I was one of the 14 runners.
Yeah, I doubt the compensation was as much as the actual prize money.
I guess in this case it literally paid to know the course.