Course error forces runners to go extra half-mile, dashing some Boston Marathon hopes

— -- Some marathon runners went the extra half-mile — involuntarily, after a race guide mistakenly instructed them to make a turn that led to a dead end, costing some their shot at qualifying for the Boston Marathon.

At the Shipyard Maine Coast Marathon in Biddeford and Kennebunk on Sunday, organizers explained in an online statement, at mile 12 "a course marshal instructed runners to make an incorrect right hand turn off the intended certified course and down a dead-end road."

The mistake was corrected as soon as the problem was discovered, but some runners ran nearly 26.7 miles, half a mile more than the certified course.

Race director Charles Melton issued an apology and assured the race is "still considered a Boston qualifier, even with the added mileage, and those who ran a qualifying time are still valid results."

In an attempt to remedy the mistake for those runners, marathon organizers asked the Boston Athletic Association if they could submit results with time adjustments for Boston Marathon qualification, but the BAA declined, citing "scoring and timing rules."