Interesting Marathon Story

Not so fast: Marathon mixup changes most men's placesThird-place finisher didn't run marathon, he ran half-marathonRon Newberry The Olympian
Mark Edin arrived at his son's elementary school Monday to the applause of a teacher. Friends called to offer their congratulations.
"It's been an interesting day," Edin said.
Edin spent most of his day Monday trying to set the record straight about his performance at the Capital City Marathon on Sunday.
Official results listed Edin, 46, of Olympia, as the third-place finisher in the 26.2-mile marathon with a time of 2 hours, 43 minutes and 58 seconds.
Trouble was, Edin didn't run the marathon - he ran the half-marathon.
"We don't know what happened," race director Lesley Roberts said.
Edin figures the mistake occurred because he registered for the marathon but changed his mind and ran the half-marathon instead. He said he informed race officials that he was planning to switch races Saturday and was told to let them know on race day. In the chaos of race day, however, he failed to do so.
"I told them when I picked up the packet that I probably would be running the half-marathon," Edin said. "They said, 'Let us know' that next morning. Of course, the next morning hundreds of people are in the middle of a pack. I had a purple number. I noticed everyone else had green numbers. Maybe, somehow, a glitch happened."
Edin, who recently participated in the Capitol Peak ultramarathon, is puzzled by his time. Runners' times are kept by computer chips on their shoelaces with scans at the start and finish of the race.
How Edin wound up with a time of 2:43:58, he doesn't know.
"I know my time was under two hours," he said. "I asked the guy in front of me. I'm pretty sure it was 1:50 something."
It wasn't long after the race that marathon runners questioned the "mystery" third-place finisher. Roberts said some of the top finishers such as Phil Jasperson (fourth place, 2:47.19) and Miguel Galeana (fifth place, 2:49.55) came to her and said they never saw Edin.
Another race official in charge of the timing system raised a concern.
"When it gets called into question like that I do an automatic disqualification," Roberts said.
Although the mistake was identified, the official results accidently were released with Edin still the third-place finisher. They weren't changed on the Capital City Marathon's Web site until Monday afternoon.
For the record, Paul Abdalla of Duvall (2:50.10) moved into the top five at No. 5.
"These kind of things can happen at any event," Roberts said. "Especially when you have a marathon and half-marathon running together."
Although he was amused by the glitch, Edin said he felt bad about the mixup.
"I was more concerned about the people who got the accolades," he said.
"The proper people should be recognized."