When you run a 5K, 10K, 1/2 marathon…whatever, sometimes you’ll see that the course is “USATF Certified” meaning that the course distance is accurate.
When a race is “sanctioned” by USA Triathlon, shouldn’t the accuracy of race course be certified as well? I think it should be, but I don’t think it is. Anyone know?
I have no personal knowledge, but using my super-human powers of deduction, I would say that the accuracy of distances is most certainly not certified by USAT. If it is, they are using the same faulty equipment that so many RDs are using. I just did an Oly this weekend, and either I swam a 1:15 pace or the course was short by 300 meters (and since I haven’t been capable of anything close to 1:15 since my collegiate days, I’d wager it was the latter).
The advertised 5 mile run in the Ann Arbor Tri was actually something like 17 yards longer than 5 miles last year, at least according to what the race director posted on slowtwitch. I think that the level of accuracy varies a great deal with the race and that this just seems to be part of triathlons. It takes a great deal of work to get a USATF certification for a road race and it often isn’t possible to do something similar with the more limited resources of triathlons, especially for a swim course that is set up in a lake on the morning of a race.
Personally, I don’t care too much as long as it’s reasonably accurate. I would probably worry about it more if I were doing longer races.
I’ve been advocating that USAT consider adopting certification procedures/strategies for courses. I’ve certified the run courses I create with US Track and Fied. I use the exact same certification procedures for both the run and bike the Grand Columbian, and have used USBR engineers and GPS to accurately establish and anchor the swim course. I was inspired last year by an article Dan wrote about “Ever hear of a measuring wheel?” I think its part of a commitment to a quality race to be able to assure the distances advertised are accurate.
no. too difficult a process to justify for every event.
now for regional championships and the nats i would agree that those should be on the mark. otherwise the main thing is everyone is doing the same distance. i think you’ll find the greatest variances on swim courses however, compared to the run or bike distances.