BREAKING: L.A. Marathon Organizers Wondering Whether It Too Late to Claim Website Was Hacked
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Organizers of the Los Angeles Marathon called an emergency meeting today to discuss whether it’s too late for them to plausibly claim someone hacked into their website, Dumb Runner has learned, following their decision to give finisher’s medals to runners who complete just 18 miles of this weekend’s 26.2-mile race.
That decision, as reported by “Runner’s World,” came in response to Sunday’s weather forecast, which calls for temperatures reaching the low 80s. On the marathon’s Weather Overview page, under the heading, “Having a Tough Day?”, organizers write:
If you're having a tough day and want to end your race before 26.2, you can choose to take the turn at Mile 18 and head into the finish line early. … You will still receive your finisher medal and any challenge medal you’ve earned. ... There is no shame in making a smart decision for your body.
News of that option, which applies only to this year’s race, unleashed a torrent of disbelief and ridicule across social media, prompting the hastily called meeting
“Guys, what the fuck?” said one staffer as the meeting kicked off, according to a source that requested anonymity. “How are we gonna fix this?”
Several ideas were floated during the closed-door session, the source said, from claiming the whole thing was an early April Fool’s gag to simply admitting the decision was a mistake and reversing it.
“It was wild,” they said. “Nobody wanted to take the blame for this cluster, but nobody had any good ideas for how to undo the damage, either.”
Eventually, the source told Dumb Runner, someone suggested claiming that a malicious actor had hacked into the marathon’s website and quietly added the language about finisher’s medals for those running 18 miles.
“I mean, not an actor actor, like a Hollywood actor,” the source said. “They meant just a bad person.”
That idea quickly caught on, according to the source, as it offered a neat explanation that would let race organizers backtrack without losing face.
“The only thing is, they made this decision some time ago,” the source said. “If they were really hacked, why would they wait this long to say so?”
Efforts to reach L.A. Marathon organizers were unsuccessful, which is unfortunate, because Dumb Runner had a great joke ready to go, about how their wariness about hot weather had gotten them into hot water.
