For German Silva, 26 miles and 385 yards wasn't enough Sunday. He took a wrong turn into Central Park with less than a mile to go - then came from behind to win despite running an extra 35 yards.
"It was, ah, a mistake," he said after his brilliant and bizarre two-second victory Sunday in the New York City Marathon.Silva, who ran most of the last four miles elbow-to-elbow with Mexican teammate Benjamin Paredes, never heard of Roy Riegels, who ran the length of the field toward his own end zone in the 1929 Rose Bowl and caused California to lose to Georgia Tech. He didn't know about Jim Marshall of the Minnesota Vikings, who recovered a fumble only to run 66 yards the wrong way against San Francisco in 1964.
But after one of the most boneheaded moves in track and field history, Silva will be linked forever with those confused competitors. The shocked looks on Central Park South won't soon be forgotten.
Silva never even heard the shouts of police, who tried to steer him back on course. It was the eerie expressions that convinced him he had taken a road to ruin.
"It was very easy to see," Silva said. "You don't have to ask anybody. ... I did not see any more people."
He had been to Central Park before, but never to Central Park South, where much of the final mile is run.
"Only about the lake," he said, referring to an area where boating is more common than running.
Silva and Paredes train together in the Mexican forest. And it seemed like they were on a training run during Sunday's stretch, Paredes on the left and Silva on the right. Their bodies moved in tandem, like bodies on a bicycle built for two.
As they passed the Guggenheim Museum with about three miles to go, Paredes grabbed a cup of water from a volunteer, drank half and passed the rest of Silva. About a mile later, as they passed the Metropolitan Museum of Art, they did it again.
They churned along, past the great landmarks, popping out of the park near Fifth Avenue, by the Plaza Hotel, then turning west. On past Mickey Mantle's restaurant, past the Hampshire House, they still were side by side.
Then, at Seventh Avenue, with seven-tenths of a mile to go, Silva veered to the right, like a sailboat tacking away for clean air. One cop cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted. Another, this one in a raincoat, pointed back toward Central Park South, like a referee signaling a change of possession.
Silva took a dozen steps into the park, then stopped. He wasn't even sure why he had turned.
"I think I followed something or somebody, but I don't remember what I followed," he said. "Maybe it was a truck, because normally you follow a truck."
He didn't panic. He just reversed course and tried to catch up.
"I was thinking I have to fight. The most difficult part of the race is already made," he said.
Paredes was wobbling a bit over the last three miles, his elbows swinging out in a sign of fatigue. Silva's gaffe, he thought, had given him a chance.
"He said he was a little confused," said Silva, who served as Paredes' translator. "He said he decided to push a little bit more."
But at 2:10:42, less than a minute from the finish line, Silva overtook him. Paredes raised his left hand and patted his friend on the back as Silva sped by.
"When I passed him, he said, well, he couldn't any more fight me," Silva said.
He finished in 2:11:21, his victory margin the closest in a quarter century of New York marathons.
A strange turn of events, for sure.
"Here in New York," he said, "only the winner will be remembered, not second or third."
Especially a winner who took an amazing turn for the worse.