Benjamin Enowitz thought he had just run the race of his life.
The 36-year-old from Los Angeles crossed the finish line at Sunday’s Modesto Marathon ahead of every other runner. He collected his finisher’s medal, made it back to his hotel, and started reading congratulations messages from friends who had been tracking him online. Then his name disappeared from the results.
“The next thing you know, I got removed from the results and then I saw someone else announced the winner, and I’m in my hotel room confused,” Enowitz said.
He didn’t find out he had been given a DNF — did not finish — until he got back home to Los Angeles.
What Went Wrong
The problem came down to a matter of yards. The lead bike responsible for guiding the first marathon runner turned Enowitz around at the 13-mile mark, rather than at the actual turnaround point, which sits just past mile 13.
“The lead bike took the first full marathon runner and turned him around at mile 13 instead of at the correct spot,” race director Bree Fitzpatrick told The Modesto Bee.
According to Enowitz’s Strava data, he ran 24.64 miles at a 5:41 per mile pace, finishing in roughly 2 hours and 20 minutes. A legitimate completion at that pace would have put him close to 2:30:00 for the full 26.2 miles — a time that would almost certainly have earned him a spot at the Boston Marathon.
Because he ran short of the full distance, he cannot be reinstated as the winner. Fitzpatrick confirmed he will be offered free entry into next year’s race.
The official champion is Lupe Palalia, 39, of San Jose, who finished in 2:35:49 — a significant improvement on his sixth-place finish last year when he ran 2:42:58.
Modesto has been here before. In 2022, Fresno native CJ Albertson was initially disqualified after a police motorcycle led him 400 meters beyond the finish. Because he’d run more than 26.2 miles, officials were able to reinstate him. Enowitz’s situation doesn’t allow for the same fix.
For more than a decade, Modesto police officers served as lead bikes. Fitzpatrick confirmed they stopped volunteering in the role after 2024, and the past two races have used civilian volunteers instead. Last year’s event went off without incident.
Sunday’s race also set a milestone: 2,714 runners across the marathon, half marathon, 10K, and 5K — the biggest field since before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Part of a Bigger Problem
Modesto’s error is the latest in a string of race organization failures that have marred the 2026 season — and course errors affecting runners are nothing new.
On March 1, the US Half Marathon Championships in Atlanta saw the lead pack of women — including race leader Jess McClain — guided off course with under two miles to go. All three misdirected athletes finished outside the automatic qualifying positions, standing to lose their spots on the US team for the World Road Running Championships. After weeks of protests and an emergency petition to World Athletics, USATF named McClain a co-champion, and World Athletics agreed to expand the US women’s team from four to seven athletes for the Copenhagen event in September.
Eight days later, the LA Marathon ended in one of the sport’s stranger finishes. Michael Kimani Kamau, running in the lead with 300 meters to go, was cut off by a spectator and briefly followed the lead vehicle as it exited the course at a fork near the finish chute. He stopped, turned back, and sprinted to the line — losing to Nathan Martin by just 0.01 seconds.
Then on March 16, a race official in Chongqing, China, physically stopped marathon leader Sheng Xueli just meters from the finish line, pushing him sideways into the half-marathon finishing lane. The official later said his glasses had fogged in the rain. Sheng was eventually directed to the correct finish and recorded as the winner, but sustained a muscle strain. The official received a one-year ban.
Four incidents, four different races, four different types of failure. For the runners at the front of all of them, the result was the same.
boston marathon is great race but yes there is a but i think those charity runners re doing great . b ut if your going too run boston you must bq too get in this the on ly grand dddy you bq and i think with charity runner you should lso bq too get in its only fair too us who have too qulify too if we have too run a special time than you chairity runner should also
Um… What?!?
Hahaha!
I have seen the same at other races (good example is Niagara Falls). One of the easiest fixes is better signage and barricades. It’s impossible for runners to truly “know the course” when it is run on what are usually live roads. Environmental design principles: a massive pylon with a “turn here” sign; or when the lead cyclist is turning off, advance cycle and runner signs pointing in the correct directions. And barricades to stop over-enthusiastic fans and families from getting on the course at all. It’s cute when kids run in with a parent, but when a group is coming through it’s hazardous – I almost ran over a toddler that I didn’t see as a group tried to navigate to the finish line. It doesn’t just happen to the winners – for some who are trying for a BQ, seconds can matter.
“Because he ran short of the full distance, he cannot be reinstated as the winner. Fitzpatrick confirmed he will be offered free entry into next year’s race.”
Oh great like that makes everything okay. Runners are going to have to start filing lawsuits or boycotting these incompetently managed races
For real! He lost his place because someone at the event failed to help him reach the full miles goal? Isn’t it the events duty to help these runners with where the track/route goes or are they just obligated to guess where the heck they’re so supposed to go.
“Free race for next year” wtf is going to pay for all his time, training, travel, stress, etc. A free entry is a slap in the face when the organization caused the error. Boycott and lawsuits is in order.
He should get more than just a free entry for next year because it’s not really free since he paid for this year’s entry and didn’t get a legal result. Of course, they can’t really reimburse him for training or stress because he can compete in other marathons this year so the training can go toward those but the travel should definitely be reimbursed.
Unbelievable, so based on his pace he clocked on strava he was still quicker by 5 mins than the winner, surely common sense has to come into play here, its not the runners fault and even he had been turned around at the right point he still would of won…absolute ludicrous. Also have they never heard of the strava tax.
Ready fix, Use paint and arrows for the turn around, turns and finish. They always had the courses marked when I ran in the 80s. Everyone know where to go.
This is nothing new, we had issues with courses and runners going the wrong way in the 80s too. I remember one local 10k I was in about 4th place at around mile 4.5. Could see the leaders up ahead. We were supposed to turn left, they continued straight. Lime on the ground marking the course, no Course Monitor there. Me and the guy I was running with yelled ahead and fortunately the leaders heard us and figured out where we were pointing the right way.
And then there’s the 1986 NCAA D2 XC East Regional which will always go down in infamy with my teammates and I. Fairmount Park in Philly. Around mile 5 we were supposed to turn right to run the final mile around the open field. There was a barricade there for earlier in the race when we were supposed to go straight at that point. The volunteer never moved the barricade, top 40 or so runners went straight to start another loop. A guy in around 40th place knew the course and went around the barricade to start the real last mile, and the rest of us scrubs behind him followed. I knew we had an issue when I was in the finish chute and our top runner was behind me because I was our #6 guy that day the whole race. The NCAA committee threw those results out, and that was a real lousy way to end my senior XC season.