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Colby Cosh: How Edmonton Marathon organizers botched the course

The race distance was nearly 700 metres too long, a mistake so great that the results can't be used to qualify for the Boston Marathon

Edmonton, as occasionally happens, became a laughingstock of the world last week. Normally I would pause here to flip a coin and decide whether to defend or prosecute, but I’m afraid this is a hopeless case. On Sunday the city closed Jasper Avenue and other important streets — roads already badly strangled by ill-planned summertime construction — for the annual Edmonton Marathon. The event is an important late-season opportunity for ambitious runners to record qualifying times for major international events, particularly the springtime Boston Marathon, and it incorporated a half-marathon that doubled as the Canadian national championship for that distance. What could go wrong?

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The answer is “math.” Ain’t it always? As soon as the race was over, elite competitors began complaining that the course definitely seemed a touch too long given their race time and effort. Experienced local observers........

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