Sorry if this has been posted before, not sure how to search threads for “train” in the definition I need it to be!
The Portlandathon (temporary replacement for the official and now defunct Portland Marathon) had a poorly designed course that crossed train tracks 4 times (2 separate crossings on an out and back course) and while it seemed everyone was fine going out, several fast marathoners (anyone on track to finish between 2:40-3:05) and every half finisher behind the top 3 got stopped either less than a mile from the finish line or 2.5 miles from the finish. It definitely messed up the women’s podium in the full & half and men under 40 stuck around 2.5 from the finish probably lost out on their BQs (I know BAA has no mercy on the train question)
So my question is, is there a kind of protocol for timing when races get interrupted by freight trains? I guess there is no official USATF way of dealing with it but I wonder what the practice has been at other races, if any?
It’s happened in Portland before as well as other places Pennsylannia & Georgia. Trains seem to have precedent & goes way back to like 1800’s. When Rock & Roll half marathon was in Portland it was a problem. Portland the city beginning last year due to not enough police has made most of the downtown Portland courses uses similar routes so it really isn’t the fault of the course design but with what the city permits will allow. PDX marathon had issues last yr. I can remember in earlier PDX Marathon yrs struggles by RD to get trains to delay.
The trains have their schedules & if they run into delays & backups too bad for everybody else. Trains seem to have precedent & goes way back to like 1800’s.When I was riding my bike down for the 5 mile from east side at ~ 53rd around 8 am I noticed the very long train sitting then on the tracks & wondered about that as that was unusual. Don’t know if they had worked it out to delay it for the start of the half to get by initially & then never got it going.
Augusta 70.3 had several RR crossings on the bike. They coordinated with the the railroads to determine risk of a crossing. And, they placed timing mats on either side of the the tracks with at-risk crossings. If you were an unlucky rider who was stopped by a train, the mats captured the impact, and that was deducted from your bike time.
I like that as well… feel like that should be a standard. The race I did today had well, no other timing mats on any part of the course at all! Aside from start/finish of course.