What’s an extra half mile? Edmonton Marathon apologizes after miscalculating length of race

It took a while, but the Edmonton Marathon admits it was too long. The race was 674 meters longer than the event’s 26.2-mile distance, organizers admitted Tuesday in a statement and apologized for miscalculating the length of its marathon and half-marathon races.

“The review has identified an error in how this year’s detour-related course adjustments were calculated, and for that we sincerely apologize,” race director Tom Keogh said in the statement. “The event owns this error, and we take full responsibility. We appreciate the many participants who have emailed and the ones that we have followed up with to have additional conversations.”

After receiving complaints from runners, the organization initially defended its course and measurements, but Keogh said later that the certification process was done “with the best information it had at the time,” as additional distance had been added due to a bridge detour. According to Keogh, the original distance was “partially offset with adjustments made to the course’s west end turnaround point.”

Upon further review, the organization determined that the turnaround point didn’t fully offset the additional detour, resulting in an extra distance of 674.4 meters (approximately 0.42 miles) for the half-marathon and marathon courses.

The half marathon, which served as the Canadian Half Marathon Championships, was won by Rory Linkletter and Jadyn Keeler. After the race, Linkletter was among the most vocal critics to speak out about the length of the course and the difference between the GPS and map data change from 2025 to 2026.

“This makes no sense,” Linkletter said in a video posted to Instagram before Tuesday’s statement. “The right thing to do here is to re-measure the course, admit that this was a long course and let people have the satisfaction that, ‘Hey, for 21.85k I ran 64.30 something.’ … That would make everyone feel better. Instead, you’re telling us, ‘You actually ran slow.’”

Some participants ran qualifying times for future races such as the Boston Marathon, and the organization said it is working with Athletics Canada and relevant partners to determine how this year’s results can be recognized.

This event marked the 35th edition of the marathon race in Edmonton, which is often called the Friendly Marathon.