Girl, 12, runs half-marathon by mistake

New York girl realised halfway through she was on wrong course but decided to finish anyway

A 12-year-old girl in New York has mistakenly run a half-marathon after she confused the start of the race with a five kilometre course she was supposed to be running.

LeeAdianez Rodriguez had registered for the 5km race that was part of last Sunday’s Rochester Regional Health Flower City Challenge. She thought she was arriving late at the starting line when the race started, so she began running with the rest of the runners.

She was supposed to run the Wegmans Family 5km, which starts on the same bridge 15 minutes after the distance runners set off.

It turned out she was running with the half-marathoners on the 13.1-mile course and not in the 5km, or 3.1 miles. Rodriguez says she realized about halfway through that she was in the wrong race but decided to finish.
She completed the half-marathon in 2:43:31.

Her mother became worried when she wasn’t among the finishers of the 5K and alerted the police, who found LeeAdianez on the half-marathon course.

“She just wanted to finish the race,” her mother Brendalee Espada told the Democrat & Chronicle. “Two hours after I started looking for her, I see that one of the officers found her. And I see she has a medal.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/apr/27/girl-12-runs-half-marathon-by-mistake



Obviously a very athletic young lady!   Video of her on the link

Good for her.
I admire anyone who can run marathons...half marathons or any other race where you need to practice and work hard at.
She probably got caught up in the excitement of it all.

**BRAVO** I've always envied those cross country/long distance runners...not what I was able to do. Good for her. She'll be ready for her track STAR times!

The girl that won the London marathon last week was a real heroine. She was tripped up, banged her head quite badly, got up, carried on....and won the race.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2016/04/24/kenyas-jemima-sumgong-survives-fall-bloodied-head-and-near-colli/

Always bow my head to these people; brilliant.