Organizers of Sunday’s Edmonton Marathon have issued an apology to race participants.

In a statement released Tuesday, race director Tom Keogh said organizers conducted a detailed review of the course measurement for the marathon and half marathon. The review determined additional distance caused by to a detour to avoid construction around the Wellington Bridge wasn’t fully offset by adjustments to the course, resulting in a net increase of 674.4 metres.

“The event owns this error, and we take full responsibility,” said Keogh.

“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 hosted the nation’s best athletes and their finishing times did not truly reflect their amazing performances. 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.”

With the event being a major qualifier for multiple high-level races, Keogh said marathon organizers will work with Athletics Canada and other relevant parties to determine how to recognize this year’s results.

The review was instigated by complaints from participants in the races. But how did the additional distance affect participants in the race, besides extra minutes added to their time?

Qualifiers

The Edmonton Marathon serves as a qualifier for multiple high-level races down the road. For example, two of the more prominent ones include the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark and the storied Boston Marathon. With the alleged extra distance adding seconds and even minutes to people’s times, many cuspers missed out on the Boston Marathon qualification times. Time qualifiers differ between age ranges, but for example, you can look at the 18-34 age group. For the men’s marathon, a qualifying time must be 2:55:00 or below, and for the women’s it must be 3:25:00 or below. With reports of the possible extra distance adding whole minutes to times, you can see what can happen. Those who may have been on pace to just make the cut have had their times exceed the limit.

A national record

Speaking of pace, a hot topic in the high-end running community after this race is that of the women’s half marathon winner Jadyn Keeler. Both Rory Linkletter, the winner of the men’s half marathon, and coach Simon Stewart, who trained 12 runners who participated across all the races, mentioned the fact that Keeler was on pace for a Canadian record.

“If the course was accurate, she may have been pretty close to the Canadian record,” said Linkletter. “Which is a huge, huge deal from a financial perspective, professional perspective, career perspective. It could have changed her life, honestly.”

Stewart said that if the distance was proper, she most likely would have gotten the record.

“So if this 800 metres, or whatever it is, is correct, then more than likely she was gonna become the new Canadian record holder, as a pro, that’s when all the contracts are different.”

Personal bests

Of course, all this high-end runner talk forgets the many ordinary Edmontonians who trained for months to participate in the marathon. Many participants were likely just shooting for their personal best, maybe to prove they could achieve a goal. Stewart went out of his way to recognize these runners.

“It’s disappointing, even for the regular runners who aren’t even trying for qualification times, but they’re maybe just trying to get a personal record. They’re putting months of hard work into this, and on the face of it, Edmonton should be a fast course,” said Stewart.

“To have something like this go wrong is just frustrating for a lot of people and a little disappointing.”

Despite winning the race, Linkletter wanted to talk about the athletes he coached, and how he believes the mismeasurement took away their opportunity to hit their time goals.

“I coached several athletes, and two of which were in this race that had very specific, concrete time goals. And when you hit a certain point in the race and you realize the course is mismeasured, it not only means you will not hit your time goal, but it also deflates all the motivation to dig as deep as you can and get every second out of yourself.”

In general, the alleged mismeasurement has made it so hundreds of runners have come away from this race dissatisfied. It’s yet to be seen how this will affect next year’s marathon.

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