Course short; qualifiers in jeopardy

For the second year in a row, the distance for the PNC Milwaukee Marathon has been wrong.

Last year, the marathon course was measured too long by the technical race organizers and some cones were kicked off the course, so all runners went beyond the standard 26.2mile distance by at least a half a mile and in a about a dozen cases, even more.

This year, the marathon course just fell short.

Although the race is under new ownership — ROC Productions bought the event from its creator, Chris Ponteri — the same experts were used to measure out the course, which changed from last year.

The result was a shortcoming of about eighttenths of a mile.

And that will likely mean those with Boston Marathon qualifying times Sunday may not in fact be able to use those times.

In an email sent to marathon or 10K specific race participants Sunday, Joe Zimmerman, president of ROC Productions, said that the full marathon turnaround and 10K turnaround were set short of the USATF Certification markings by Race Day Events and the technical race director Chad Antcliff.

“Though we were assured that the course was checked and then rechecked to verify that all cones were in the proper place, our post-race investigation confirms that they were in fact set short,” wrote Zimmerman. “We deeply regret that this human error by experienced professionals happened and are notifying all concerned.”

Antcliff measured both the 2016 and 2017 courses. In the same email, he said there was a misinterpretation of the route certification map that caused the turnaround on the Hank Aaron State Trail to be set in the incorrect spot, causing the route to be approximately 4,200 feet short.

Eeven if the PNC Marathon made some kind of appeal to Boston Marathon officials to adjust the times, it isn’t likely those adjusted times would be accepted.

Zimmerman did not return phone calls from the Journal Sentinel.