Pre-teen completes first half marathon -- by accident

Pre-teen completes first half marathon -- by accident

Subscribe to FloTrack and watch the legendary Penn Relays beginning April 28! By Marc RaimondiIt went from a near Amber Alert to a shiny medal.LeeAdianez Ro

Apr 27, 2016 by Jeremy Botter
Pre-teen completes first half marathon -- by accident

Subscribe to FloTrack and watch the legendary Penn Relays beginning April 28!




By Marc Raimondi


It went from a near Amber Alert to a shiny medal.

LeeAdianez Rodriguez was running while the police were looking for her. Just not in the way you might think.

The 12-year-old girl ran her first half marathon this weekend completely by accident, according to a report in the Democrat and Chronicle. Rodriguez was supposed to run in her second 5K in her hometown of Rochester on Sunday morning, but went to the wrong starting line. She took off instead with those running in a half marathon.

We'll do the math for you -- that's more than 13 miles compared to just over 3 miles.

Rodriguez completed the half marathon and was one of the youngest runners in the group. She knew part of the way through that she was in the wrong race, but persevered anyway, because it was the longest she's ever run. Rodriguez got a medal for finishing.

It's a funny story, but the entire thing put a terrible fright into Rodriguez's mom. Brendalee Espada was waiting for her daughter near the 5K finish line and even conducted a search with police officers involved after seeing everyone else had finished the race.

The two finally reunited when Rodriguez completed the half marathon.

"She just wanted to finish the race," Espada told the Democrat and Chronicle. "Two hours after I started looking for her, I see that one of the officers found her. And I see she has a medal."

Rodriguez finished the half marathon in 2:43:31. That's a long time for Espada to be worried.

"It was such a scary moment, but rewarding for her in the end," Espada said. "I don't even know how she did it. I'm so proud of her."

As it turns out, it wasn't that difficult for Rodriguez to make the mistake. The 5K and the half marathon took off on the same bridge 15 minutes apart from each other.

"She just saw people running and thought it was her race," said Ellen Brenner, co-owner of the organization that organized the races, Fleet Feet Sports Rochester and YellowJacket Racing.

Despite the uneasy hours, this ended up being a positive thing for Rodriguez and her future career. Now she knows she can complete a half marathon without a problem. The next time, though, Rodriguez probably won't have cops looking for her while she's doing it.

Espada said the next time her daughter takes part in a race it'll be The Color Run in May. And she'll have her mom by her side. No questions asked.

"But this one?" Espada said. "We'll run it together at the same pace. Even if she wants to run ahead, she's staying with me."