Course not marked properly, runner says
On pace to finish second, Kipkoech ran wrong route and was disqualified
An elite runner disqualified from the Scotiabank Calgary Marathon for unintentionally cutting the course disagrees with the marathon director that the course was well- marked.
Wearing bib 79, Daniel Kipkoech of Kenya cut the course shortly after the 24 km mark, where he was supposed to turn east from 14th Street SW onto Prospect Ave SW.
Kipkoech and another elite runner wearing bib 91 instead ran straight north on 14th Street, soon after merging with the correct route at the intersection of 17 Ave SW and 14th Street.
Thereafter, each runner finished the race using the correct route.
Marathon executive director Kirsten- Ellen Fleming said the course was well- marked, that there was a sign that “said ' Marathon'” at the intersection.
She added that an aide station at the intersection should have made the correct route apparent.
Kipkoech said he and runner 91 didn't see any signs directing them on the correct route: “Like there's nothing there.”
He saw a traffic control officer directing vehicles at the intersection.
“I decided to ask the traffic officer. I don't know if he knows, because he was showing the hands, because I was like ‘ should I go this direction or should I go that direction?' I was very confused,” he said.
Kipkoech said he understood the officer's hand signals to mean he should continue north up 14th Street.
Even prior to that intersection, Kipkoech was confused several times about what route to run.
“I was worried from maybe around 15 K. I was worried because sometimes I kept asking spectators like ‘ where?' like showing the action ( with my) hands,” he said.
He said the course's lack of large, visible signage and its “sharp, sharp, sharp” turns made the route unclear for him. Kipkoech and runner 91 weren't the only runners to mistakenly run off course on Sunday.
Mosoti Lamech, wearing bib 83, and a fourth runner — both in the elite runner category — went the wrong direction at intersection of 17 Avenue SW and 14 Street SW.
The pair were running westbound on 17 Avenue. They continued westbound down that street, past the intersection where they were supposed to turn north onto 14 Street, Fleming confirmed.
She said there was also a traffic officer at that intersection, controlling traffic.
Lamech was listed as DNF — did not finish.
Based on discussions he had with elite runners and their host- families, billet Chad Parr said the other runner did cross the finish line; he too was disqualified.
An eight- year marathon vet, Kipkoech said races in other cites in Europe and the U. S. have clearer direction and signage.
“In Vancouver, they mark the road clearly ... they mark on the road so you can see with a big sign,” he said.
“And also there's a lot of big signs that you can see close to the road. They put a lot of big signs you can see from even far away,” he said. Kipkoech finished second in this year's Vancouver marathon on May 3.
He also suggested more lead cyclists to stay with each runner in the top three or top five positions.
When running at a fast pace and under heavy fatigue, a runner's focus is only on the road ahead and not on smaller signs off to the side, he said.
Fleming said “a lot of key learnings” came out of these incidents.
“I have suggested multiple times to paint the course. The City of Calgary has always come back to me saying it's a resource issue,” she said.
She and marathon directors are discussing ways to improve next year's course, including signage that's “number- based” and using “translators,” she said.
It's the runners' responsibility to know the course, she said. But conceded that “in these cases” the course was “not 100 per cent” wellmarked and easy to follow.
“I know nobody's 100 per cent. Sometimes we make some errors,” Kipkoech said.