Shortest possible route. When run/race courses are USATF Certified, they are measured using this well defined and easily understood method. If the course is laid out and submitted to the Regional Certifier without demonstrating they have used the SPR, the work is rejected and returned to the measruer with instructions on how to correct the errors before resubmitting for approval.
I’ve measured nearly 50 courses for certification over the last 24 years and this gives me a keen eye on how to best approach each course I’m running. Those of you that saw me running on Saturday may have wondered why I didn’t “follow the leader” and seemed to pick my own line through the curves. If the LC10K had been USATF Certified, that is how it would have been measured. If you run anything other than the tangents you are running further than a qualified course measurer laid out the route.
33:55, 33:33, 16:19. Three races from the spring of 1990. I ran the Rodeo Run 10K in Houston in 33:55. A couple weeks later I ran the Sylvan Beach 10K in 33:33. The following weekend was the St. Patricks Day 5K in Lake Charles Louisiana, I ran my 5K pr in 16:19. The Rodeo Run and St. Pats 5K were contested on USATF Certified courses, alas the Sylvan Beach 10K was not. I can only count my 10K pr as 33:55 because that is the time turned in on an officially recognized, certified course. That little voice in my head just won’t let me count a 33:33 that occurred on a non record eligible course. No way of knowing how far the actual distance really was at Sylvan Beach. It might have even been long.
Lord knows I’ve been villified in Omaha for insisting that prs only occur on USATF Certified courses. But that is a fight I’ll take up every time. Everything else should be considered a “course best for a particular race”. Good race times on non-certified courses can only be compared against times on that same course and nothing else. Don’t even get me started on races with huge net elevation drops.
It is Very Easy to find out which races in Nebraska are USATF Certified. Just follow this link and it will let you get the skinny on those that are (including data detailing net elevation drop and degree of separation between start/finish, 2 criteria that impact the record eligibility of the performance for the course). http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/search/index.asp Just type in Nebraska and you’ll be able to find our certified courses.
Be sure to check our Photos page. Jordan has done a great job of indexing just about every event we’ve administered/contested over the last 4 years. And as always, those are FREE for you to download for personal use, you earned them!
Our Aaron Carrizales is dialing in on the Lincoln Marathon. 6 X 1 Mile yesterday like this: 5:06, 5:06, 5:05, 4:59, 5:10, 5:08. In the winds of Western Nebraska, that is tough.
Rebecca Topham of Iowa won the USA Junior Indoor National Championships at 3000M and 800M this past weekend. She ran the 2009 Omaha Mile in the Elite Field as a 12 year old. Not for naught.
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