The marathon half-marathon

AN ERROR by race organisers meant that runners ended up taking part in what is thought to be the world’s longest half-marathon.

Competitors in the annual race in Bangkok on Sunday ran nearly 17 miles instead of the typical distance of just over 13 miles.

Surapong Ariyamongkol, of the Athletic Association of Thailand, said race organisers had admitted that officials responsible for pointing runners in the right direction inadvertently told them to make a turn at the wrong place. ‘It added more than three kilometres to each lap, therefore more than six kilometres (3.7 miles) were added to the whole halfmarathon,’ he said.

Runners complained on the halfmarathon’s Facebook page that this was ‘incredibly dangerous’ for those who had trained to run 13 miles. But others joked that it should be renamed the ‘Super Half-Marathon’.