After making a wrong turn during his 5K, 9-year-old runner accidentally wins adult 10K

People running in a race. — (Image credit: iStock)

Kade Lovell didn't set out to win a 10K for adults, but that's exactly what the 9-year-old did last month.

The St. Cloud, Minnesota, resident loves to run, and his mom, Heather Lovell, entered him in the St. Francis Franny Flyer 5K in nearby Sartell. She kept waiting for Kade to run by her, and started to get concerned when she saw kids she knew were slower than him pass. Lovell became even more panicked after she drove along the course and couldn't find him, and got other people involved in the search.

It turns out, Kade had listened to someone who told him to go straight when he should have turned, and he wound up running on the 10K course. As soon as he reached the finish line, he was greeted by his relieved mother, who thought her son came in last place because no one else was around. It turns out, he actually was the first person to finish, running the 10K in a little over 48 minutes — a minute faster than the 40-year-old man who came in second. "I was scared out of my wits," Lovell told the St. Cloud Times, "but now, we laugh about it. ... It's one we'll never let him forget: Remember that time you accidentally won a 10K?'"

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.