On the morning of March 2, Joe Darda began his quest for a sub-2:30 finish at the Atlanta Marathon.
The 37-year-old college professor from East Lansing, Michigan, was no stranger to long-distance races, having participated in nearly 50 marathons, including six runs at the Boston Marathon.
His personal best of 2:24:13 was achieved at the California International Marathon in 2021.
Darda chose the Atlanta Marathon not only for the race but also to visit friends welcoming a newborn baby.
Despite his rigorous training, which included several 100-mile weeks leading up to the event, he admitted overlooking the course map before the race began.
Once Darda took the lead after the 5-mile mark, he focused solely on following the lead vehicle.
“I didn’t even examine the course very closely before the race,” he shared.
“I was actually surprised when we hit the halfway point because I thought it was a double-loop course,” said Darda.
He later realized he would be directed in a completely different direction after the halfway mark due to a lack of preparation on his end.
Despite this oversight, Darda managed impressive results, averaging a mile pace of about 5:42 to finish the race in 2:29:05—a remarkable achievement that marked the eighth time he surpassed the 2:30 threshold since 2022.
However, his victory was soon overshadowed by a significant error.
About six weeks later, Darda received an email from the Atlanta Track Club (ATC) followed by a phone call from executive director Rich Kenah.
He learned that the marathon course was actually 554 feet, or 168 meters, short of the official 26.2 miles.
In a public statement issued on April 13, the ATC acknowledged that misplacement of cones near the 20-mile mark led to this issue.
The marathon route had initially received USATF certification prior to the race, but unexpected construction forced ATC officials to alter parts of the course at the last minute.
ATC senior event operations manager Brantley Sherrer and his team were required to reconfigure sections of the marathon just days before it took place.
Despite their confidence in the new course layout, problems arose during the setup process.
The misplacement of cones was discovered when one of ATC’s pace team volunteers noticed a discrepancy with GPS measurements after mile 20.
Following this revelation, the ATC held off submitting the final course for certification until they completed an investigation.
Once they confirmed the course was short, the ATC refrained from submitting it for certification knowing that this would impact all runners, including those with fast finishing times.
As a result, Darda’s time was officially recorded, but it was deemed unofficial in terms of qualifying for the Boston Marathon.
The ATC estimated that the course error affected finishing times between 36 to 87 seconds across the board.
While Darda’s time comfortably surpassed the Boston Marathon qualifying requirement for his age group, he considered the situation less important since he already had a qualifying time from an earlier race this year.
He was not planning to apply for next year’s Boston Marathon, preferring instead to focus on the Chicago Marathon scheduled for October 12.
Darda conveyed, “In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t a big deal to me.
I definitely appreciate the gesture, but I know that it impacts others who were hoping to qualify for Boston.”
The Boston Athletic Association specifies that all qualifying times must come from officially certified 26.2-mile races to be valid for entry into the Boston Marathon.
Notably, 20 of the 80 runners who achieved Boston qualifying times during the Atlanta Marathon lacked alternative qualifying races for the upcoming registration.
Gracie Griffith, a 26-year-old Atlanta runner who won the women’s race in 2:57:07, was part of this group.
Following a serious injury earlier in the year, Griffith had chosen the Atlanta race as a lead-up to the Boston Marathon, which she completed in 3:01:52.
Though this was well within the qualifying time for her age group, she indicated she would likely not register for Boston next year.
Griffith, a lawyer for the Georgia Office of the Attorney General, has a long history with ATC events, including numerous runs in the Peachtree Road Race 10K.
Recalling the necessary component of the course that was mishandled, she mentioned the hairpin turn near mile 20 where the errors originated, but she held a more relaxed view of the situation.
“Honestly, for me, I didn’t mind that much, but obviously from Atlanta Track Club’s point of view, you can’t have that, and it’s probably a little embarrassing,” Griffith remarked.
Darda and Griffith were not alone in their feelings.
Cory Golden, a 38-year-old construction consultant from Savannah, Georgia, also experienced a whirlwind of emotions following the race.
Golden finished 17th overall and secured first place in his age group with a time of 2:46:38, which he intended to use to apply for Boston Marathon registration.
While pleased with his performance, the message from the ATC regarding the course discrepancy left him feeling disheartened.
“I ran an unbelievable race.
I didn’t think I was going to run that well, so I was thrilled with how it worked out,” Golden said.
However, upon receiving the disappointing information about the course length, he expressed how taken aback he felt.
“It just, I was pretty soured,” he admitted.
Golden noted his disappointment over the delay in communication from the ATC, as it took six weeks to inform runners about the cut-off distance.
Nonetheless, he channeled that frustration into his subsequent performance at the 2023 Boston Marathon, where he completed the course in 2:50:09, surpassing the requirement for the next registration cycle.
The mishap at the Atlanta Marathon highlights an unfortunate reality within the racing community: mistakes sometimes lead to courses being inaccurately marked or run short.
Rare instances of such events have occurred in the past, leaving runners disappointed when their times were not counted.
In 2014, Bernard Lagat saw an American record slip through his fingers when the course at the Carlsbad 5000 was found to be 13.5 feet short following an improper cone placement.
Similarly, attendees of the 2022 USATF 100 Mile Championship at the Jackpot Ultra Running Festival were left in a predicament when the measured distance was confirmed as less than 100 miles, nullifying Camille Herron’s world-record claim.
The Transylvania 10K in Brașov also faced scrutiny after Agnes Ngetich’s splits were invalidated when the course was discovered to be 25 meters short.
Responding to the challenges faced, Kenah stressed the importance of effectively measuring and marking courses for official certification.
He added that the ATC would ensure a USATF-certified course measurer would be onsite during future high-profile events to mitigate any similar issues.
Ultimately, Joe Darda accepted the situation gracefully, recognizing the overall efficiency of the marathon’s organization despite its flaws.
Reflecting on the race, he remarked, “My impression was that it was really well organized and run like a carefully oiled machine, so it did sort of surprise me to hear the news that the course was short.”
Darda’s story, alongside those of other affected runners, brings to light the complexities surrounding marathon logistics, further emphasizing the need for meticulous attention to detail in race organization.
image source from：https://www.runnersworld.com/races-places/a64653826/atlanta-marathon-short-course/
