Whoops: Iowa Man Runs 10K Before Marathon

Dennis Lee completes Fargo Marathon after quite a warmup.

A runner at the Fargo Marathon over the weekend ran a bit more than 26.2 miles.

He ran 32.4

That’s because Dennis Lee mistakenly ran the 10K before tackling the marathon Saturday morning.

Saying he could not hear event organizers on the loudspeaker because he was fiddling with his MP3 player, the 47-year-old lined up at what he thought was the starting line for the 10K, half-marathon and marathons.

Forty-four minutes and 28 seconds later, Lee crossed the finish line of what ended up being quite a long marathon warmup ahead of the 8:15 start to his race.

“I saw people going to the starting line, and once I heard the gun, I took off,” Lee told the Grand Forks Herald. “I ran pretty hard to catch the pacers, but there were no pacers. And when I returned to the dome, I thought I made a wrong turn.”

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa resident then went out and completed the marathon in 3:25 — a mere five minutes shy of the Boston Marathon qualifying mark.

“I clearly would’ve qualified had I not run the 10K,” said Lee, who did not know the races had different start times.

But there was a bonus: Lee earned two finisher medals.