Just a tad short

The granddaddy of all marathons is held in Boston every Patriots' Day. To be an official participant, a runner must "qualify" by running another marathon in a specified time depending on age and sex. A few participants in Saturday's Kansas City Marathon are bound to be a bit disappointed.

To the 440 of you who trained hard, tested your endurance and thought you ran a marathon in Kansas City Saturday:

You didn't.

The hilly course that stretched from downtown to Swope Park and back was about .4 mile short of regulation length because of a mix-up at the loop in front of the Liberty Memorial.

The Kansas City Marathon is certain to be thrown out as a qualifying marathon for Boston because of the foul-up. Oops.