{"id":864706,"date":"2026-08-20T07:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/864706\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T07:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T07:12:09","slug":"edmonton-marathons-650-metre-mistake-leaves-runners-gasping-for-breath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/864706\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Marathon\u2019s 650-metre mistake leaves runners gasping for breath"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Mitch Walz, 42, finished this year’s Edmonton Marathon in three hours, three minutes and eight seconds, but he says he was convinced he ran the perfect race. This year, he had to run an extra 647.7 metres that were accidentally added to the course.Supplied<\/p>\n

Mitch Walz felt it in his bones \u2013 and his pounding heart, depleted mind and battered legs \u2013 when he walked away from the finish line on Sunday at the Edmonton Marathon.<\/p>\n

Something was off. He had run his race with precision, meeting the kilometre-by-kilometre plan he knew by memory, except for the start where he said he \u201ccame out like a bat out of hell.\u201d <\/p>\n

To him, there was only one explanation for how he missed his sub-three-hour marathon goal by three minutes and eight seconds: The course wasn\u2019t properly measured.<\/p>\n

Mr. Walz, 42, was among the scores of runners who left the Edmonton Marathon wondering if they had run too long.<\/p>\n

It turns out they were right.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, Edmonton Marathon race director Tom Keogh said in a statement that the half marathon and marathon courses were longer than the organizers thought, accidentally adding an extra 647.7 metres to both races. <\/p>\n

The marathon boom is straining the sport \u2013 and reshaping its future<\/a><\/p>\n

The day before, Mr. Keogh and Athletics Canada, the governing body for the sport, had rebuffed racers contesting the course measurements, leading a handful of competitors to threaten to remeasure it themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Edmonton Marathon\u2019s previous statement detailing confidence in the course certification process was issued with the best information it had at the time,\u201d Mr. Keogh wrote on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The error, he wrote, happened at a detour on this year\u2019s route that was partially, but not fully, offset by changes to the turnaround point for the course. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe event owns this error, and we take full responsibility,\u201d Mr. Keogh wrote.<\/p>\n

Athletics Canada did not comment on the issue on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The error had sparked a furor among recreational and professional runners. For many amateurs, the race \u2013 a rare mid-August marathon \u2013 was their last shot at qualifying for the Boston Marathon, for which runners often have to slip under the time standard by several minutes to nab a spot in the historic race, owing to its popularity.<\/p>\n

Why you shouldn\u2019t only race marathons<\/a><\/p>\n

Professional racers said the 647-metre mistake added between 90 seconds and two minutes to their final time, and amateurs may have gained in excess of three to four minutes.<\/p>\n

The Boston Athletic Association, the organization overseeing the Boston Marathon, said in a statement to The Globe and Mail that it can\u2019t accept adjusted results if the race distance was more or less than 42.2 kilometres, the standard marathon distance.<\/p>\n

The mistake also cast a cloud over the half marathon, the national championship race, which brought out swaths of Canada\u2019s fastest all-time distance runners.<\/p>\n

Jadyn Keeler, 23, won the women\u2019s half marathon in one hour, 12 minutes and 12 seconds \u2013 her debut in the distance. On a regulation-length course, Ms. Keeler would have likely been in spitting distance of Andrea Seccafien\u2019s national record of one hour, nine minutes and 38 seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely within that ballpark of being close to it, at least, and I was for sure at least under 70 minutes,\u201d said Ms. Keller, whose time was more than two minutes over that mark. <\/p>\n

The runner, a native of Barrie, Ont., said she eased up when she realized in the final kilometre that the course was likely long.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was definitely bummed about that whole situation. But at the same time, I do also realize that it was a mistake,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Two small words of encouragement helped my depleted legs cross the finish line<\/a><\/p>\n

The men\u2019s winner, Rory Linkletter \u2013 the first Canadian man to run a half marathon in less than an hour \u2013 figured just past the halfway point that there was an error. <\/p>\n

Mr. Linkletter said he built a hefty lead over the top men in the competition between the ninth and 16th km, where GPS data showed him reaching a pace well below three minutes a kilometre. <\/p>\n

And yet, the official race time showed Mr. Linkletter slowing down around what was believed to be the 15-km mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cCommon sense prevails, right? I know I\u2019m not running that slow. Like, I just know,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Mr. Linkletter said he \u201cdisengaged,\u201d knowing he likely had the national championship locked down.<\/p>\n

The distance mishap also scuppered some athletes\u2019 goals of pulling into the top-five national rankings that would qualify them for September\u2019s World Athletics Road Running Championships. Men can only qualify if they run faster than one hour, three minutes and 49 seconds. None, including Mr. Linkletter, hit the mark, though many of those top men have run the qualifying time in races earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt basically made the race useless,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The Calgary-born runner said he was preparing to have locals remeasure the course before officials conceded the error. <\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the furor, many runners have offered forgiveness to marathon organizers \u2013 but are frustrated the race didn\u2019t acknowledge the flub sooner. Some, like Mr. Walz, are still feeling the sting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was convinced I ran the perfect race, but that time wasn\u2019t there, and it was dejecting and, I don\u2019t know \u2013 morale crushing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just such an odd feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Mitch Walz, 42, finished this year’s Edmonton Marathon in three hours, three minutes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-864706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}