Half-marathon runners in Wrexham sent the wrong way by pranksters

This story has appeared on some of the UK papers in the last few days. In the Wrexham Half-Marathon last Sunday, some 40 half-marathon runners were sent in the wrong direction when pranksters changed the direction signs on the 13.1 mile race.

The organisers issued the following statement...."Wrexham AAC apologies for the disappointing events at the 2012 Wrexham half marathon: Peter Norman, as he always does on race day, was up at first light checking and marking out the course for the event. You can imagine his surprise when driving the lead car he saw one of his signs pointing the wrong way!  Peter at this point corrected the sign. You can further imagine his horror when further around the course he caught up with runners who he knew should be behind him.  It is evident that immediately after Peter had corrected the direction sign someone with malicious intent had for a second time changed it. "

Needless to say, this has caused a bit of a furore on various forums and rightly so. Someone interfering with signs just to spoil an event for others has to be condemned. However, when I saw this story, the first thing that I thought was how was it even possible? In a properly organised race, runners should not need to be dependent on arrows or signs to tell them which way to go. There should be properly informed race stewards at every possible junction to stop people going the wrong way with a lead car / bike at the front. If this wasn't the case then the organisers are partly to blame.