Reykjavik Marathon Times Don’t Count, As The Course Was Too Short

If you took part in this year’s Reykjavík Marathon and were competing for time, we have some bad news for you.

Fréttablaðið reports that due to the unfortunate placement of the barriers blocking traffic from the course, it was shortened by some 213 metres. As such, no one who participated in the Reykjavík Marathon ran an actual marathon, which is 42.195 kilometres long.

It was not a total wash, however. The awards for placing in both the marathon and half marathon will still stand, as these runners were still first, second, third and so forth in the race, regardless of the length of the course.

However, all results of running times for a “marathon” are invalidated, as these times do not reflect how long it took the runner to run a marathon, as opposed to running the course that was used in Reykjavík.

Organisers say they will take extra precautions next year in order to prevent such a mistake from happening again.