"An error by race organisers has turned Bangkok into the home of the world’s longest half-marathon.

Instead of a 13-mile run through Thailand’s capital, the Standard Chartered Bangkok marathon on Sunday accidentally extended its annual half-marathon to almost 17 miles.

The bonus miles came as a surprise to runners, who unleashed a tirade of complaints on social media after the event.

The Jogging Association of Thailand, one of two organisers of the race, admitted to the error on Monday.

“The association apologises for the mistake,” Songrakm Kraison, its vice-president, told the Associated Press. “It will not happen again in the future.”
The Athletic Association of Thailand, which oversees athletic events in the country, said it discussed the mistake with the organisers, who “admitted that a technical error happened during the half-marathon event”, said Surapong Ariyamongkol, AAT secretary general.

He said race officials responsible for pointing runners in the right direction inadvertently directed them to make a U-turn at the wrong place.
“It added more than 3km [1.8 miles] to each lap, therefore more than 6km were added to the whole half-marathon,” Surapong said. “We have rebuked the association but we could not do anything else.”

The marathon’s Facebook page filled with comments on Sunday and Monday from runners who described the error as “ridiculous”, a “massive miscalculation” and “incredibly dangerous” for runners who had trained to run just 13 miles.

Others joked that it should be renamed the “super half-marathon”, or as one Facebook comment noted, it could be seen as a byproduct of race inflation: “Hey, they increased the price this year, so you get more kilometres for your money" . http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/n ... b-gdnworld

And not the first time.

I did the Full Marathon a couple of years back. Apart from being the most boring run ever, out on a Highway and back, they ran out of water and food, screwed up the Mile markers, and added 2 kilometers. Doesn't sound much but trust me: an extra 2k on top of 42k really hurt. Unless you are Kenyan.

Absolutely, you pace yourself to run a certain distance and to have nothing left at the finish.

I did two Marathons in one day , but now they are called Snickers .

The first Siem reap full marathon was also about 2km too long. Total school boy error, so easily avoided.

rick_o'shea wrote:The first Siem reap full marathon was also about 2km too long. Total school boy error, so easily avoided.

I ran that one and it was a shit Marathon all around.

Yeah I had everything go wrong. A bad night's sleep, sore feet, bad guts, set out too fast, and then the extra distance made me hate everything about running.

That's extremely poor planning. In this day and age of GPS how can mistakes like this happen (by accident)?

Easy. Let completely inexperienced dudes run sporting events. The kind of people who bought their roles, or got promoted through family. Then, give them a lump of cash to organize the event, ensuring that only the bare minimum of funds and time are spent on the actual needs of participants, to maximize the amount creamed off. Throw in a charity name benefactor or two to raise publicity. Do not consult anybody with prior experience. Add a cheesy tag line to all event advertising, like "for environment and healths awareness", and forgot to pick up trash caused by the event. Show up to the awards ceremony an hour late so that everybody stands around waiting, thus elevating your importance. Give yourself and your colleagues a very firm pat on the back for a job well done. Totally inflate the number of participants for the press reports.

rick_o'shea wrote:Easy. Let completely inexperienced dudes run sporting events. The kind of people who bought their roles, or got promoted through family. Then, give them a lump of cash to organize the event, ensuring that only the bare minimum of funds and time are spent on the actual needs of participants, to maximize the amount creamed off. Throw in a charity name benefactor or two to raise publicity. Do not consult anybody with prior experience. Add a cheesy tag line to all event advertising, like "for environment and healths awareness", and forgot to pick up trash caused by the event. Show up to the awards ceremony an hour late so that everybody stands around waiting, thus elevating your importance. Give yourself and your colleagues a very firm pat on the back for a job well done. Totally inflate the number of participants for the press reports.

That sounds very much like the Siem Reap Marathon.. Or FIFA. Or IOC.....