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

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

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.

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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.”