Andy Wacker first realized something was wrong when he saw sunlight peeking through his bedroom window in Boulder, Colorado. He checked his clock. It read 5:35 a.m.
Wacker, 26, had intended to get up at 3:50 that morning to be at the Barr Mountain Trail Race, a 12.6-mile run in Manitou Springs, Colorado, 100 miles away, in time for the race’s 7 a.m. start.
Slight problem, though. He had set his alarm on his iPhone for p.m. instead of a.m.
“I was pretty panicked at that point, and I called my friend Peter Maksimow (the BMTR race director) to apologize and say I wasn’t going to be on time for the race,” Wacker told Runner’s World Newswire.
But Wacker skipped breakfast and hopped in his Subaru Outback with his girlfriend, Karley Rempel. They made the drive in record time.
“Luckily, there aren’t that many people on the road at 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning,” Wacker said. “I definitely drove a little faster than I should have.”
When Wacker pulled up to the starting line of the Barr Mountain race at 7:21, there were no other runners in sight. The race, though, had started about 15 minutes late due to a locked gate on the trail. So, by the time Wacker began running, he was only seven minutes behind the field.
“I wasn’t even thinking about placing in the top 10,” Wacker said. “I was just excited to be able to race. I planned to use it as a workout since I started so far behind.”
Those plans quickly changed. A half mile in, Wacker passed one runner. Then another. And another. At the three-mile mark, he learned he was in 55th place out of the field of 223. As he neared the six-mile point where the course turns around, Wacker caught sight of the race leader, Noah Chepngabit, running back down the trail.
Chepngabit was almost three quarters of a mile ahead.
“There’s no way I’m going to catch him,” Wacker thought.
He did.
With a half mile to go, Wacker and Chepngabit were running side by side. As they neared the finish, they approached a fork in the course. A volunteer signaled the wrong direction. Chepngabit and Wacker went that way. Wacker realized the mistake first. He turned around and crossed the finish line in 1:39:30. Chepngabit followed eight seconds later.
Chepngabit was not penalized for the confusion.
“Andy did have the fastest time of the day, but the prize awards are based on gun time and not chip time,” Maksimow, the race director, told Newswire via email. “Since our volunteer made the mistake and Noah was leading, we felt it wasn't fair that Noah didn't have to chance to win, so we identified them as co-race winners.”
Wacker and Chepngabit also both received the $250 first place prize money.
Wacker has grown accustomed to running behind. Last October at the Rock ’n’ Roll Denver Half Marathon, he thought the race started at 8 a.m. instead of 7:15 a.m. He realized the mistake once he saw the rest of the runners gathering around.
“It was pretty embarrassing,” Wacker said.
With no warmup and with only about one minute to spare, he made it to the start. The lack of preparation didn’t hurt his result. He went on to win the race in 1:05.42.
Wacker, who described himself as a “race addict,” will make his next start on July 25 at the USA Mountain Running National Championships in Bend, Oregon.
“I’ll make sure to wake up on time for that one,” he said. “Hopefully, I got this out of my system for life.”
