Aug. 19, 2026
Marathon Officials Finally Admit They Forced Runners To Race An Extra Half Mile!
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RSS Feed Ok, some of you may be thinking, what’s an extra half mile when you already ran 26.2…. we’re here to tell you it’s HUGE. Even a few extra feet can feel soul crushing, but for the 10 thousand runners at the Edmonton marathon, that extra distance could be the difference between qualifying for the next race or not. After thousands of runners complained their GPS didn’t match with the official race distance, officials pushed back for days, but ultimately re-traced the route and admitted their mistake. The big question now, how will race organizers adjust run times to make it right?
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Wednesday, August nineteenth, and a major oops from the organizers of a major marathon. Turns out those thousands of runners who thought they were running twenty six point two miles, well it turns out they ran a little farther than that. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Amy and TJ, who happened to be some pretty hardcore serious runners, marathoners we can call ourselves robes. The idea that you train for five or six months for a marathon and then you go run that marathon and it's longer than twenty six point two miles.
00:00:45
Speaker 2: Look, I actually will say this, I'm sure for anyone, even if you're a runner, if you haven't run a marathon. And I will say this, I was not a marathoner until I was forty six years old, and I would have been in this camp seeing this headline.
00:00:59
Speaker 3: I would have been like, like, what's.
00:01:00
Speaker 2: The big deal? You already ran twenty six point two miles. What's a few extra I don't know. It basically amounts to just shy of another half mile, So that seems like pennies in a bucket, right, No, a few.
00:01:17
Speaker 3: Extra feet.
00:01:20
Speaker 2: Will actually make you unravel, just to imagine towards the end of a marathon. And you know this and anyone who's run this type of a race, nos just an extra like when you see four hundred meters left, when you see two hundred meters left, you actually think you can't do it, like you barely are making it to think that you had to run an extra half mile pulleys.
00:01:46
Speaker 1: So this has been here, we are we're recording this on Wednesday, Robes. But this has been a significant controversy in the running world. This week. The Edmonton, Yes, the Edmonton Marathon, it's thirty fifth anniversary, happened on Sunday, Robes. And this is one where they have a marathon and half marathon on the same days. New York doesn't do it like that, they have to do it on separate days, but this is one. So you got ten thousand runners, Robes, biggest year they've ever had, thirty fifth anniversary. Immediately immediately after the race, people started complaining Robes that it was too long and the course race was wrong. Now, some if you're not a runner, you might go, how would they know that? And be so sure? Well, Robes turns out we have pretty good ways to track this.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Yes, most everyone now has a GPS monitor of some kind, and look for those of us who are just running for the fun of it, maybe to try and get a personal best a set of pr Some people are doing this a to win it for a significant time that actually goes down in the record books. And a lot of folks run these types of races to qualify for other races. Time matters, and if you have to run an extra half mile that absolutely messes up your.
00:03:07
Speaker 3: Run time, your pace, and your qualifying time.
00:03:11
Speaker 1: So put people in this race. The runners even at the halfway point, knew something was wrong because robes we as runners. And again, you don't have to be a marathon or even a half marathon. If you go out and run two miles, three miles, four miles, five miles, you get obsessed with keeping up with your times and your pace. You can have your air pods on and as you're running, the app Strava in particular that we use, will tell you half mile your pace is blah blah blah, blah blah blah, and then the net when you get to a mile, it'll tell you completed a mile, your pace is blah blah blah blah. So these folks are running robes in the race, and at some point the times are all off, Like, wait a minute, the marker says on the street that I'm at this particular mile, but my and my GPS is telling me I'm somewhere else that's way behind. What the hell is going on? So it was happening during the race. Afterwards everybody starts complaining. The race organizers decide they have to respond, Robes, it gets big enough, Yes, so they give them what has now been deemed one gas lighting statement that she just won't believe.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were trying to double down and say that no, I'm sorry, folks, We're right, we measured this, we know what we're doing, and so they this was their official response. Based on this process and the fact that the route was also confirmed on race day by a World Athletics AMS Grade A course measurer, we are confident in the accuracy of the certified course distances.
00:04:53
Speaker 3: And the validity of the race results. End of story.
00:04:57
Speaker 1: So let us just say we have no idea what a World Athletics AMS Grade A course measurer is, but robes it sounds.
00:05:04
Speaker 2: Official, sounds important sounds like they know what they're talking about.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: And Grade A you can't get higher than grade A.
00:05:09
Speaker 3: No, it's not grade B, it's not Grade C, it's Grade A.
00:05:12
Speaker 1: So the point is this person knew what they were doing. Y'all need to pipe down, shut up. Your GPS is off. They even put out something kind of explaining, you know, GPS from the satellite, so you have to account for going around buildings and things, and sometimes your routes you take around other runners can and look.
00:05:30
Speaker 2: I might have bought that because I don't know about you, babe, But when I run marathons or half marathons all the time, my Strava is slightly off from what I see because when you're running a race, they have signs posted and so.
00:05:46
Speaker 3: And it is a mind f is what I like to call it.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: Because if my GPS or my Strava tells me that I just crossed mile thirteen and I don't even see mile thirteen marker for another couple hundred feet, it messes with me. It starts to sometimes when I've run marathons, my Strava will tell me that I didn't run twenty six point two miles. I ran twenty seven miles or I ran twenty six point eight miles. And I'm telling you, once you already hear the mile marker, it really messes with your psyche when you're running. So but I always, I always toss it up to the fact that, yeah, satellites are messed up. You've got that many people running with that many folks trying to access satellites down to their phones or their Apple watches. So I would have believed this. I would never have pushed backed. I would have just thought, yep, I guess I ran slower than I thought.
00:06:37
Speaker 1: Okay, So there are, of course, robes discrepancies that do take place that you're speaking of. We've all experienced you and I run together all the time. You and I be standing in the exact same place, get the Strava buttons to start at the exact same time, run the exact same route, and come back, and our distances are all off. Correct, So that happens robes. It's not off by half mile.
00:07:01
Speaker 2: No, it's off by much much, much shorter than that. But even the smallest difference is annoying. Like you and I to the point, like say we're running up we're doing a training when we're doing six miles and I finish because my Strava says I just hit six miles. Your Strava says you are at five point nine miles. You won't just stop because my Stravi says six miles. Oh hell no, you got to keep going until yours hit six miles.
00:07:29
Speaker 1: Even though I was with you and I know we ran the exact same step for step, So why am I having to now required to run farther?
00:07:38
Speaker 3: Mental thing?
00:07:39
Speaker 1: It is absolutely this is a weird thing we do and we have, but it's just any runner listening knows this is nuts. So for two days, robes two days they push back against a lot of runners who are being very vocal robes about their experience.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were a record U said, a record number of runners, ten thousand runners at this race, and we're talking like a huge amount of them. We're all saying the same thing. That's the difference. I think all of us understand there's some discrepancy here and there, But when you have that many runners, and some of the elite runners whose times mattered, like they know how fast, I'm not sure it depends on how much I ate the night before. It depends on how my stomach feels. It depends on the wind, the weather, whatever. But some of these elite athletes, they know their bodies, they know their pace, and they know when it's off and robes.
00:08:33
Speaker 1: You know, if you're running and your last mile takes you twelve minutes and fifty four seconds, you're gonna go, what the.
00:08:48
Speaker 3: Hell you're like, that's not correct, possible.
00:08:50
Speaker 1: So folks were seeing things that were so ridiculous. So we're talking about six hundred to nine hundred meters to translate that, we're talking about to half a mile off is what people were talking about. So for two days they get pushed back on from the event organizers, and then they finally robes after two days, yesterday last night they finally had to respond and Robes they had to make an admission.
00:09:15
Speaker 2: Yes they did, so here I love the way they worded this next statement. The Edmonton Marathon's previous statement detailing confidence in the core certification process was issued with the best information it had at the time. The review identified an error in how this year's detour related course adjustments were calculated, and for that we sincerely apologize.
00:09:45
Speaker 1: What happened was for two days they made they were pissing people off, and they spoke, they used the word they were being gas lit. We are not crazy, We know this stuff. Robes, all of us are not crazy till this statement comes out. So how much are we talking about? Was added? Forty two point two kilometers is what a marathon is. In the metric system, forty two point two became forty two point nine. So in our language, robes of miles, twenty six point two miles is what a marathon is. They ran twenty six point six.
00:10:22
Speaker 3: So almost a full half mile more ropes.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: A half mile at that point will take somebody in extra if you're hauling ass, even it's four minutes.
00:10:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, But for me at that point at the end of the race, you could be talking about an extra five six minutes.
00:10:37
Speaker 1: Bro. If someone you're an extra five minutes at the end of twenty six point two miles is too much to task.
00:10:44
Speaker 3: As an extra five steps sometimes is too.
00:10:47
Speaker 1: Much more, And it's crazy. I know some people are listening. You just ran four hours, Run another five minutes and shut up. It's no such a mine.
00:10:54
Speaker 3: I'm telling you.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: I remember my because my dad had run three marathons, and I used to say, oh, I could never run a marathon.
00:11:01
Speaker 3: And you started to explain about the twenty mile wall.
00:11:04
Speaker 2: When you hit twenty miles, all the glycogen reserves in your body are gone and your body actually has to start going into muscle mass to just produce any kind of fuel or energy to push you into that last six point two miles. So when you think you are depleted and done and you have nothing left in the tank, you got to run a ten k. Now you add another half mile on top of an already empty tank.
00:11:31
Speaker 3: It is excruciating.
00:11:33
Speaker 2: People's legs are seizing, some people are gasping for air. Some people just start walking and giving up. I mean, it's the last the last six miles of a marathon.
00:11:47
Speaker 3: It is the people.
00:11:48
Speaker 2: That's when the people, like at least at the New York uh, the New York Marathon in Central Park, are probably like, oh hell no. That's when you see the signs you paid for this, like you did this for a banana or a free banana or a free bagel.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: You know, it's it is questionable.
00:12:04
Speaker 2: And if I imagine anyone who's just watching marathons, if you see the last few miles, if you're on the fence, you're thinking, oh, I'm never gonna Why would anyone put themselves through this? Crossing the finish line is another story, But yeah, you can't do that to people. I actually think about how angry it would be that I had to run an extra half mile and didn't even realize it was happening, or maybe when you did.
00:12:29
Speaker 3: Realize it, you're told you're crazy.
00:12:31
Speaker 1: Okay, see there it is. You just hit the part that's most frustrating and frustrating for them when you find this out mid race. Robes you talk about when you run out of everything at the end, you have nothing left in the tank.
00:12:44
Speaker 3: Literally nothing physically or emotionally you.
00:12:47
Speaker 1: But that's when mentally you have to be your strongest. You have to have it. You have to carry yourself for six miles mentally because your body cannot do it. You have to do that. And Robes to think that you're in that moment and to have to calculate some way I now need to find a way to get another half miles or five minutes out of this. Bodys, the training runs we do, I'm worse about it than you are. I am like, nope, baby, I will not start this run with you. Unless you tell me where our turnaround point is.
00:13:20
Speaker 3: You are very meticulous.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: I have to know my goal. I have to know when it ends, when we're turning around. When something happened, Robes, I will lose my mind.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: Oh, I know, even if we're not even doing a training run, we're just going out for run.
00:13:34
Speaker 3: How much far do you want to go? I'm like, I don't know. Three? Four? You're like, no, pick one? Is it three? Or is it four? I'm like, I don't know.
00:13:40
Speaker 2: Because I'm I'm kind of like, well, let's just see what my body feels like.
00:13:44
Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
00:13:45
Speaker 2: I must know what we're where, how far we're going, and where the turnaround.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Is that we're in saying like that. So that's what runners do, what marathoners do. So here they come Robes. Of course they have to issue this apology and the question is how in the hell does something like this happened. This is how they do explain. I'm trying to pull it up here. If you have an in front of ship, I got it. They said, how it happens.
00:14:06
Speaker 2: This is the explanation given to runners from the Edmonton Marathon.
00:14:10
Speaker 3: Folks.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: The additional distance added for the Wellington Bridge detour was partially offset with adjustments made at the course's west end turnaround point. Upon review, it was determined that the turnaround point did not fully offset the addition of the detour.
00:14:26
Speaker 1: See the idea there. It's the same route they usually use year and year out, but apparently there's construction going so they had to adjust for that and make a detour, and they didn't make up for the proper way somewhere else.
00:14:40
Speaker 3: Exactly, so they sat.
00:14:41
Speaker 2: Upon review, it was determined that the turnaround point did not fully offset the addition of the detour, which resulted in a net increase to the distance of the half marathon and marathon courses of six hundred and seventy four points seven meters. And to your point, this happened early on in the race. Half marathons and marathonors were all affected by the additional I guess length of the course.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: This is maddening the idea that something like this could happen. And I'm always curious. I think we've talked about it before. How do they get this right exactly every time?
00:15:18
Speaker 2: I know, because I always question it a little bit because my Strava never the race ever course, not once ever. I just trust that the New York City Marathon knows what it's doing. But collectively, if I heard a bunch of other folks, I'd be like, oh, yeah, I ran faster than that. That couldn't possibly be my face. So now they're going to have to fix races most times, I bet they will.
00:15:41
Speaker 1: Now. Also, races around the world will pay closer attention to this. You cannot have this happen at these elite races. And why does this matter? Just a few folks bitching and moaning about the times. No, folks, it's much deeper than that. We will explain why this is so important, what happened in this race, how it could affect other marathons around the world. Also, we'll let you hear the official apology to runners that the organization had.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: They here welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. I don't know how much this helps after days of complaining, days of insisting that the Edmonton Marathon folks had an extended race course that cost runners precious time, precious energy and really was a mind f Like to be honest with you, like, just mentally that is that's going to mess up any runner, And then it's frustrating to know that this can't be right. I know, I wasn't that slow, and yet you're being told by race officials, Nope, you you actually were that slow.
00:16:54
Speaker 3: Nope, it wasn't our fault.
00:16:55
Speaker 2: You just must have had an off day, only to find out that, in fact, yeah, they did kind of mess things up, and after clarifying that they yes, miss measured the race course because of construction, they issued this apology to runners. The event owns this error, and we take full responsibility. We do not take this lightly. We understand that every participant arrives at the start line having invested months of dedicated training, hard work, courage, and deeply held goals. We also understand we host the nation's best athletes, and their finishing times did not truly reflect.
00:17:34
Speaker 3: Their amazing performances.
00:17:35
Speaker 2: We also understand the connection this event has with our city and its pride in delivering exceptional, world class events. Moving ahead, we will review our certification processes with our partners and ensure this error does not happen again.
00:17:50
Speaker 1: Would you write it again?
00:17:52
Speaker 3: I guess maybe you know.
00:17:53
Speaker 2: It's one of those moments where you say, the safest place to be is where some attack just happened. When the folks, is on an error, you probably have the best shot of it being done correctly the next time around.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think I would.
00:18:10
Speaker 1: I'm going to question all the races now, and look, that's no small thing. And look, this is it is important. There are a lot of people who had goals that they wanted to reach, prs that they wanted to make that they missed by a few minutes, that this would have actually made a difference. I know, folks, it might not sound like a big deal, but running a marathon in four minutes and four seconds versus three minutes and fifty nine seconds is the world. Oh my, it's the world. Okay, yes, so I.
00:18:48
Speaker 2: Mean the difference between my best and my worst marathon is I believe, nine minutes. But it's devastating when your even a couple minutes slower than your last race. And that's just when you're comparing yourself to yourself. Some of these folks are comparing themselves to others and are using their race times to compete in other races, and they need those best race times to make it into those races.
00:19:14
Speaker 1: So that's the question. Still, robes these are going to be used as possible qualifying times to get into other races around the.
00:19:21
Speaker 3: World, Boston Marathon, et cetera.
00:19:22
Speaker 1: If your time is off by five minutes, potentially is that going to make an impact? So they say they are working on some type of solution to try to make these race results count, because how can they right now? Rose, how can any of them.
00:19:37
Speaker 2: Get I don't know if there's a mathematic equation you can assign to taking out that distance based on your I don't know how. I'm you forready establish math and I are not friends.
00:19:51
Speaker 1: But you were going on the right path, rogues because you have to figure out everybody's pace and some kind of algorithm that how do you figure that out? Well, you were running at this for the average of the marathon. To apply that to minus the last how do you do that? You cannot do that?
00:20:07
Speaker 3: Could you just take the race results and like.
00:20:11
Speaker 1: Put an asterisk?
00:20:14
Speaker 3: I'm trying to.
00:20:17
Speaker 1: I don't Yeah, how do you do it?
00:20:18
Speaker 3: Bab I don't know how you do it?
00:20:19
Speaker 1: Because you cannot count. Deal, it can't count. You just spent six months in your life training for a marathon and it doesn't count.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: And your and your and your actual run time does not reflect the effort you put into it and your actual performance of that day. That is demoralizing in a lot of ways for a lot of folks.
00:20:37
Speaker 1: It absolutely is. We'll see what they end up doing with this. Hope they get something work out. For the runners, don't know what they can, but I hope they get something worked out.
00:20:46
Speaker 2: And look, they've been doing this for thirty five years. I mean that is that is shocking that it happened. Look, we have run, We've been running more half marathons around the country, around the world, And it is true each race is very distinctive from the other, and not all races are run as well as some.
00:21:05
Speaker 3: And you do.
00:21:06
Speaker 2: Notice when organizations have their shit together and when they don't, And it absolutely makes a difference in your experience and in your run time.
00:21:15
Speaker 1: And to go back to that city to bring back your dollars, to rent out a hotel, to spend money in the restaurants broke. This is why it is a big deal. This is an embarrassment at a time you want to bring people and expose people to your city. I didn't know Edmonton did a marathon. We've been looking. We go through Sabine just gave me a book with the hundred best runs around the world. We're always looking for places to go. Edmonton's off the list.
00:21:39
Speaker 2: Baby, Yeah, I don't think I would want to go there. I mean, look, we have even we won't name the city, but it was a large city and we happened to be in this city while a marathon was taking place, and we just happened to have a hotel room that overlooked the race route. We watched such disorganization and chaos Asparis. You and I would have absolutely considered running this marathon. And we had a bird's eye view, and we looked at each other and we said, oh, hell no, would we run this race? Yeah, oh hell no, would we run this race? And maybe we're used to the gold standard because the New York City Marathon. Shout out to the New York City road Runners, then yr R and the New York City Marathon.
00:22:19
Speaker 3: They do it better than anyone.
00:22:22
Speaker 1: And we know this because we have experience all over the world and running races. So Edmonton, good luck. Look, mistakes happened. Human errors, they do happen. It's a shame that it happened. There was no mouse here, of course, but it's it's a damn shame harm was done though harm was done, But happy running out there to all of you all. We always appreciate you spending some time with us. I'm TJ. That's Ropes. We'll talk soon.
Speaker 1: Hey, the folks, it is Wednesday, August nineteenth, and a major oops from the organizers of a major marathon. Turns out those thousands of runners who thought they were running twenty six point two miles, well it turns out they ran a little farther than that. And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. Amy and TJ, who happened to be some pretty hardcore serious runners, marathoners we can call ourselves robes. The idea that you train for five or six months for a marathon and then you go run that marathon and it's longer than twenty six point two miles.
00:00:45
Speaker 2: Look, I actually will say this, I'm sure for anyone, even if you're a runner, if you haven't run a marathon. And I will say this, I was not a marathoner until I was forty six years old, and I would have been in this camp seeing this headline.
00:00:59
Speaker 3: I would have been like, like, what's.
00:01:00
Speaker 2: The big deal? You already ran twenty six point two miles. What's a few extra I don't know. It basically amounts to just shy of another half mile, So that seems like pennies in a bucket, right, No, a few.
00:01:17
Speaker 3: Extra feet.
00:01:20
Speaker 2: Will actually make you unravel, just to imagine towards the end of a marathon. And you know this and anyone who's run this type of a race, nos just an extra like when you see four hundred meters left, when you see two hundred meters left, you actually think you can't do it, like you barely are making it to think that you had to run an extra half mile pulleys.
00:01:46
Speaker 1: So this has been here, we are we're recording this on Wednesday, Robes. But this has been a significant controversy in the running world. This week. The Edmonton, Yes, the Edmonton Marathon, it's thirty fifth anniversary, happened on Sunday, Robes. And this is one where they have a marathon and half marathon on the same days. New York doesn't do it like that, they have to do it on separate days, but this is one. So you got ten thousand runners, Robes, biggest year they've ever had, thirty fifth anniversary. Immediately immediately after the race, people started complaining Robes that it was too long and the course race was wrong. Now, some if you're not a runner, you might go, how would they know that? And be so sure? Well, Robes turns out we have pretty good ways to track this.
00:02:36
Speaker 2: Yes, most everyone now has a GPS monitor of some kind, and look for those of us who are just running for the fun of it, maybe to try and get a personal best a set of pr Some people are doing this a to win it for a significant time that actually goes down in the record books. And a lot of folks run these types of races to qualify for other races. Time matters, and if you have to run an extra half mile that absolutely messes up your.
00:03:07
Speaker 3: Run time, your pace, and your qualifying time.
00:03:11
Speaker 1: So put people in this race. The runners even at the halfway point, knew something was wrong because robes we as runners. And again, you don't have to be a marathon or even a half marathon. If you go out and run two miles, three miles, four miles, five miles, you get obsessed with keeping up with your times and your pace. You can have your air pods on and as you're running, the app Strava in particular that we use, will tell you half mile your pace is blah blah blah, blah blah blah, and then the net when you get to a mile, it'll tell you completed a mile, your pace is blah blah blah blah. So these folks are running robes in the race, and at some point the times are all off, Like, wait a minute, the marker says on the street that I'm at this particular mile, but my and my GPS is telling me I'm somewhere else that's way behind. What the hell is going on? So it was happening during the race. Afterwards everybody starts complaining. The race organizers decide they have to respond, Robes, it gets big enough, Yes, so they give them what has now been deemed one gas lighting statement that she just won't believe.
00:04:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were trying to double down and say that no, I'm sorry, folks, We're right, we measured this, we know what we're doing, and so they this was their official response. Based on this process and the fact that the route was also confirmed on race day by a World Athletics AMS Grade A course measurer, we are confident in the accuracy of the certified course distances.
00:04:53
Speaker 3: And the validity of the race results. End of story.
00:04:57
Speaker 1: So let us just say we have no idea what a World Athletics AMS Grade A course measurer is, but robes it sounds.
00:05:04
Speaker 2: Official, sounds important sounds like they know what they're talking about.
00:05:07
Speaker 1: And Grade A you can't get higher than grade A.
00:05:09
Speaker 3: No, it's not grade B, it's not Grade C, it's Grade A.
00:05:12
Speaker 1: So the point is this person knew what they were doing. Y'all need to pipe down, shut up. Your GPS is off. They even put out something kind of explaining, you know, GPS from the satellite, so you have to account for going around buildings and things, and sometimes your routes you take around other runners can and look.
00:05:30
Speaker 2: I might have bought that because I don't know about you, babe, But when I run marathons or half marathons all the time, my Strava is slightly off from what I see because when you're running a race, they have signs posted and so.
00:05:46
Speaker 3: And it is a mind f is what I like to call it.
00:05:49
Speaker 2: Because if my GPS or my Strava tells me that I just crossed mile thirteen and I don't even see mile thirteen marker for another couple hundred feet, it messes with me. It starts to sometimes when I've run marathons, my Strava will tell me that I didn't run twenty six point two miles. I ran twenty seven miles or I ran twenty six point eight miles. And I'm telling you, once you already hear the mile marker, it really messes with your psyche when you're running. So but I always, I always toss it up to the fact that, yeah, satellites are messed up. You've got that many people running with that many folks trying to access satellites down to their phones or their Apple watches. So I would have believed this. I would never have pushed backed. I would have just thought, yep, I guess I ran slower than I thought.
00:06:37
Speaker 1: Okay, So there are, of course, robes discrepancies that do take place that you're speaking of. We've all experienced you and I run together all the time. You and I be standing in the exact same place, get the Strava buttons to start at the exact same time, run the exact same route, and come back, and our distances are all off. Correct, So that happens robes. It's not off by half mile.
00:07:01
Speaker 2: No, it's off by much much, much shorter than that. But even the smallest difference is annoying. Like you and I to the point, like say we're running up we're doing a training when we're doing six miles and I finish because my Strava says I just hit six miles. Your Strava says you are at five point nine miles. You won't just stop because my Stravi says six miles. Oh hell no, you got to keep going until yours hit six miles.
00:07:29
Speaker 1: Even though I was with you and I know we ran the exact same step for step, So why am I having to now required to run farther?
00:07:38
Speaker 3: Mental thing?
00:07:39
Speaker 1: It is absolutely this is a weird thing we do and we have, but it's just any runner listening knows this is nuts. So for two days, robes two days they push back against a lot of runners who are being very vocal robes about their experience.
00:07:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, there were a record U said, a record number of runners, ten thousand runners at this race, and we're talking like a huge amount of them. We're all saying the same thing. That's the difference. I think all of us understand there's some discrepancy here and there, But when you have that many runners, and some of the elite runners whose times mattered, like they know how fast, I'm not sure it depends on how much I ate the night before. It depends on how my stomach feels. It depends on the wind, the weather, whatever. But some of these elite athletes, they know their bodies, they know their pace, and they know when it's off and robes.
00:08:33
Speaker 1: You know, if you're running and your last mile takes you twelve minutes and fifty four seconds, you're gonna go, what the.
00:08:48
Speaker 3: Hell you're like, that's not correct, possible.
00:08:50
Speaker 1: So folks were seeing things that were so ridiculous. So we're talking about six hundred to nine hundred meters to translate that, we're talking about to half a mile off is what people were talking about. So for two days they get pushed back on from the event organizers, and then they finally robes after two days, yesterday last night they finally had to respond and Robes they had to make an admission.
00:09:15
Speaker 2: Yes they did, so here I love the way they worded this next statement. The Edmonton Marathon's previous statement detailing confidence in the core certification process was issued with the best information it had at the time. The review identified an error in how this year's detour related course adjustments were calculated, and for that we sincerely apologize.
00:09:45
Speaker 1: What happened was for two days they made they were pissing people off, and they spoke, they used the word they were being gas lit. We are not crazy, We know this stuff. Robes, all of us are not crazy till this statement comes out. So how much are we talking about? Was added? Forty two point two kilometers is what a marathon is. In the metric system, forty two point two became forty two point nine. So in our language, robes of miles, twenty six point two miles is what a marathon is. They ran twenty six point six.
00:10:22
Speaker 3: So almost a full half mile more ropes.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: A half mile at that point will take somebody in extra if you're hauling ass, even it's four minutes.
00:10:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, But for me at that point at the end of the race, you could be talking about an extra five six minutes.
00:10:37
Speaker 1: Bro. If someone you're an extra five minutes at the end of twenty six point two miles is too much to task.
00:10:44
Speaker 3: As an extra five steps sometimes is too.
00:10:47
Speaker 1: Much more, And it's crazy. I know some people are listening. You just ran four hours, Run another five minutes and shut up. It's no such a mine.
00:10:54
Speaker 3: I'm telling you.
00:10:55
Speaker 2: I remember my because my dad had run three marathons, and I used to say, oh, I could never run a marathon.
00:11:01
Speaker 3: And you started to explain about the twenty mile wall.
00:11:04
Speaker 2: When you hit twenty miles, all the glycogen reserves in your body are gone and your body actually has to start going into muscle mass to just produce any kind of fuel or energy to push you into that last six point two miles. So when you think you are depleted and done and you have nothing left in the tank, you got to run a ten k. Now you add another half mile on top of an already empty tank.
00:11:31
Speaker 3: It is excruciating.
00:11:33
Speaker 2: People's legs are seizing, some people are gasping for air. Some people just start walking and giving up. I mean, it's the last the last six miles of a marathon.
00:11:47
Speaker 3: It is the people.
00:11:48
Speaker 2: That's when the people, like at least at the New York uh, the New York Marathon in Central Park, are probably like, oh hell no. That's when you see the signs you paid for this, like you did this for a banana or a free banana or a free bagel.
00:12:02
Speaker 3: You know, it's it is questionable.
00:12:04
Speaker 2: And if I imagine anyone who's just watching marathons, if you see the last few miles, if you're on the fence, you're thinking, oh, I'm never gonna Why would anyone put themselves through this? Crossing the finish line is another story, But yeah, you can't do that to people. I actually think about how angry it would be that I had to run an extra half mile and didn't even realize it was happening, or maybe when you did.
00:12:29
Speaker 3: Realize it, you're told you're crazy.
00:12:31
Speaker 1: Okay, see there it is. You just hit the part that's most frustrating and frustrating for them when you find this out mid race. Robes you talk about when you run out of everything at the end, you have nothing left in the tank.
00:12:44
Speaker 3: Literally nothing physically or emotionally you.
00:12:47
Speaker 1: But that's when mentally you have to be your strongest. You have to have it. You have to carry yourself for six miles mentally because your body cannot do it. You have to do that. And Robes to think that you're in that moment and to have to calculate some way I now need to find a way to get another half miles or five minutes out of this. Bodys, the training runs we do, I'm worse about it than you are. I am like, nope, baby, I will not start this run with you. Unless you tell me where our turnaround point is.
00:13:20
Speaker 3: You are very meticulous.
00:13:21
Speaker 1: I have to know my goal. I have to know when it ends, when we're turning around. When something happened, Robes, I will lose my mind.
00:13:31
Speaker 2: Oh, I know, even if we're not even doing a training run, we're just going out for run.
00:13:34
Speaker 3: How much far do you want to go? I'm like, I don't know. Three? Four? You're like, no, pick one? Is it three? Or is it four? I'm like, I don't know.
00:13:40
Speaker 2: Because I'm I'm kind of like, well, let's just see what my body feels like.
00:13:44
Speaker 3: Absolutely not.
00:13:45
Speaker 2: I must know what we're where, how far we're going, and where the turnaround.
00:13:49
Speaker 1: Is that we're in saying like that. So that's what runners do, what marathoners do. So here they come Robes. Of course they have to issue this apology and the question is how in the hell does something like this happened. This is how they do explain. I'm trying to pull it up here. If you have an in front of ship, I got it. They said, how it happens.
00:14:06
Speaker 2: This is the explanation given to runners from the Edmonton Marathon.
00:14:10
Speaker 3: Folks.
00:14:11
Speaker 2: The additional distance added for the Wellington Bridge detour was partially offset with adjustments made at the course's west end turnaround point. Upon review, it was determined that the turnaround point did not fully offset the addition of the detour.
00:14:26
Speaker 1: See the idea there. It's the same route they usually use year and year out, but apparently there's construction going so they had to adjust for that and make a detour, and they didn't make up for the proper way somewhere else.
00:14:40
Speaker 3: Exactly, so they sat.
00:14:41
Speaker 2: Upon review, it was determined that the turnaround point did not fully offset the addition of the detour, which resulted in a net increase to the distance of the half marathon and marathon courses of six hundred and seventy four points seven meters. And to your point, this happened early on in the race. Half marathons and marathonors were all affected by the additional I guess length of the course.
00:15:09
Speaker 1: This is maddening the idea that something like this could happen. And I'm always curious. I think we've talked about it before. How do they get this right exactly every time?
00:15:18
Speaker 2: I know, because I always question it a little bit because my Strava never the race ever course, not once ever. I just trust that the New York City Marathon knows what it's doing. But collectively, if I heard a bunch of other folks, I'd be like, oh, yeah, I ran faster than that. That couldn't possibly be my face. So now they're going to have to fix races most times, I bet they will.
00:15:41
Speaker 1: Now. Also, races around the world will pay closer attention to this. You cannot have this happen at these elite races. And why does this matter? Just a few folks bitching and moaning about the times. No, folks, it's much deeper than that. We will explain why this is so important, what happened in this race, how it could affect other marathons around the world. Also, we'll let you hear the official apology to runners that the organization had.
00:16:09
Speaker 2: They here welcome back everyone to Amy and TJ. I don't know how much this helps after days of complaining, days of insisting that the Edmonton Marathon folks had an extended race course that cost runners precious time, precious energy and really was a mind f Like to be honest with you, like, just mentally that is that's going to mess up any runner, And then it's frustrating to know that this can't be right. I know, I wasn't that slow, and yet you're being told by race officials, Nope, you you actually were that slow.
00:16:54
Speaker 3: Nope, it wasn't our fault.
00:16:55
Speaker 2: You just must have had an off day, only to find out that, in fact, yeah, they did kind of mess things up, and after clarifying that they yes, miss measured the race course because of construction, they issued this apology to runners. The event owns this error, and we take full responsibility. We do not take this lightly. We understand that every participant arrives at the start line having invested months of dedicated training, hard work, courage, and deeply held goals. We also understand we host the nation's best athletes, and their finishing times did not truly reflect.
00:17:34
Speaker 3: Their amazing performances.
00:17:35
Speaker 2: We also understand the connection this event has with our city and its pride in delivering exceptional, world class events. Moving ahead, we will review our certification processes with our partners and ensure this error does not happen again.
00:17:50
Speaker 1: Would you write it again?
00:17:52
Speaker 3: I guess maybe you know.
00:17:53
Speaker 2: It's one of those moments where you say, the safest place to be is where some attack just happened. When the folks, is on an error, you probably have the best shot of it being done correctly the next time around.
00:18:06
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think I would.
00:18:10
Speaker 1: I'm going to question all the races now, and look, that's no small thing. And look, this is it is important. There are a lot of people who had goals that they wanted to reach, prs that they wanted to make that they missed by a few minutes, that this would have actually made a difference. I know, folks, it might not sound like a big deal, but running a marathon in four minutes and four seconds versus three minutes and fifty nine seconds is the world. Oh my, it's the world. Okay, yes, so I.
00:18:48
Speaker 2: Mean the difference between my best and my worst marathon is I believe, nine minutes. But it's devastating when your even a couple minutes slower than your last race. And that's just when you're comparing yourself to yourself. Some of these folks are comparing themselves to others and are using their race times to compete in other races, and they need those best race times to make it into those races.
00:19:14
Speaker 1: So that's the question. Still, robes these are going to be used as possible qualifying times to get into other races around the.
00:19:21
Speaker 3: World, Boston Marathon, et cetera.
00:19:22
Speaker 1: If your time is off by five minutes, potentially is that going to make an impact? So they say they are working on some type of solution to try to make these race results count, because how can they right now? Rose, how can any of them.
00:19:37
Speaker 2: Get I don't know if there's a mathematic equation you can assign to taking out that distance based on your I don't know how. I'm you forready establish math and I are not friends.
00:19:51
Speaker 1: But you were going on the right path, rogues because you have to figure out everybody's pace and some kind of algorithm that how do you figure that out? Well, you were running at this for the average of the marathon. To apply that to minus the last how do you do that? You cannot do that?
00:20:07
Speaker 3: Could you just take the race results and like.
00:20:11
Speaker 1: Put an asterisk?
00:20:14
Speaker 3: I'm trying to.
00:20:17
Speaker 1: I don't Yeah, how do you do it?
00:20:18
Speaker 3: Bab I don't know how you do it?
00:20:19
Speaker 1: Because you cannot count. Deal, it can't count. You just spent six months in your life training for a marathon and it doesn't count.
00:20:26
Speaker 2: And your and your and your actual run time does not reflect the effort you put into it and your actual performance of that day. That is demoralizing in a lot of ways for a lot of folks.
00:20:37
Speaker 1: It absolutely is. We'll see what they end up doing with this. Hope they get something work out. For the runners, don't know what they can, but I hope they get something worked out.
00:20:46
Speaker 2: And look, they've been doing this for thirty five years. I mean that is that is shocking that it happened. Look, we have run, We've been running more half marathons around the country, around the world, And it is true each race is very distinctive from the other, and not all races are run as well as some.
00:21:05
Speaker 3: And you do.
00:21:06
Speaker 2: Notice when organizations have their shit together and when they don't, And it absolutely makes a difference in your experience and in your run time.
00:21:15
Speaker 1: And to go back to that city to bring back your dollars, to rent out a hotel, to spend money in the restaurants broke. This is why it is a big deal. This is an embarrassment at a time you want to bring people and expose people to your city. I didn't know Edmonton did a marathon. We've been looking. We go through Sabine just gave me a book with the hundred best runs around the world. We're always looking for places to go. Edmonton's off the list.
00:21:39
Speaker 2: Baby, Yeah, I don't think I would want to go there. I mean, look, we have even we won't name the city, but it was a large city and we happened to be in this city while a marathon was taking place, and we just happened to have a hotel room that overlooked the race route. We watched such disorganization and chaos Asparis. You and I would have absolutely considered running this marathon. And we had a bird's eye view, and we looked at each other and we said, oh, hell no, would we run this race? Yeah, oh hell no, would we run this race? And maybe we're used to the gold standard because the New York City Marathon. Shout out to the New York City road Runners, then yr R and the New York City Marathon.
00:22:19
Speaker 3: They do it better than anyone.
00:22:22
Speaker 1: And we know this because we have experience all over the world and running races. So Edmonton, good luck. Look, mistakes happened. Human errors, they do happen. It's a shame that it happened. There was no mouse here, of course, but it's it's a damn shame harm was done though harm was done, But happy running out there to all of you all. We always appreciate you spending some time with us. I'm TJ. That's Ropes. We'll talk soon.