Woman wins full marathon by mistake after taking wrong turn in half-marathon

A 34-year-old Canadian woman, who entered a half-marathon in Amherstburg, Ontario over the weekend, accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up winning the full marathon.

Meredith Fitzmaurice told CBC that she had entered the Sunday’s Run for Heroes Marathon to qualify for the Boston Marathon, but at some point she realized that she had been running much too long.

"As I was looking at my watch, I was thinking something’s wrong. Where’s the finish line?" Fitzmaurice explained to Metro News.

She finally realized her mistake and didn't want to turn around because she knew her time for the half-marathon would be ruined. So Fitzmaurice spoke to a race director who was riding along the route on a bike.

"The guy was awesome," she recalled. "And once he said I was good to go, my adrenaline just kicked in."

With a time of 3:11:48, Fitzmaurice was the first woman to cross the finish line and the tenth person overall.

"I didn’t even realize I was the first female until people started yelling at me and high-fiving me," she told Metro News. “Once I crossed the finish line and realized the magnitude of what I had done, I started crying.”

Fitzmaurice said that she planned to run the Boston Marathon next year.

Listen to the audio below from CBC's As It Happens, broadcast Sept. 26, 2013