Asia distance runners deal with wrong turn, smog

This was not a good weekend to be a long-distance runner in Asia.

On a half-marathon course in Bangalore, India, several of the leaders were led astray by an official race car that missed a U-turn. They continued for more than two miles before realizing the mistake and subsequently took a train back to the finish line.

“We had to beg for 20 rupees as we didn’t have any money with us,” runner Soji Mathew told the Times of India.

At the Beijing International Marathon, participants dealt with not only the grueling 26.2 miles but heavy smog that obscured the city’s tall buildings along the course.

Thousands of racers wore masks. One told the Associated Press that “on a normal day, nobody would run in such conditions.”