2,000 Utrecht Marathon runners sent on wrong route
The Utrecht Marathon turned somewhat chaotic on Sunday when quarter-marathon runners were accidentally sent on the half-marathon route. Runners ended up among traffic on Bleekstraat, while they actually should have run over the Westerdkade. According to the organization, some 2 thousand runners were affected, NOS reports.
The error was quickly discovered by traffic controllers, who expected to only direct cars but suddenly came face to face with marathon runners. "Chaos, and not completely safe. What is also annoying is that they ran a long detour", reporter Steven Dalebout said to NOS.
The organization regrets the situation and apologized to the runners. This happened through human error, but exactly how it was caused is not yet clear. "As soon as the organization received this report, action was immediately taken to safely send the runners to the finish line via an alternative route."
According to the police, all runners were safe. "If traffic controllers get problems from the organization, we of course come into the picture, but we actually had nothing to do. The problem was solved in half an hour", a police spokesperson said to the broadcaster.
