Regarding short courses, do any of you feel frustrated by the fact that some courses are not measured correctly? How do you treat your PR's when you suspect that one may have come from a course that was measured too short? For example, Lostinthenet and I ran the Worcester Firefighters 6k yesterday. When I saw the results and my pace of 8:08, I suspected that the course was short, as I actually walked for a minute or 2 during the race, and lately, my normal pace has been about 8:40. Sure enough, Lostinthenet's Garmin showed the race at 3:56 miles, when a 6k should be 3.73 miles.
Any thoughts?
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If it was a road race (and it is a loop, or the start and finish line locations can be accurately identified) you can map it here and see what google mapping says.
Other than that, just make sure you weren't short on your beer count.
E.J.Greater Lowell Road RunnersCry havoc and let slip the dawgs of war!May the road rise to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your SPF30, may the rains fall soft upon your sweat-wicking hat, and until you hit the finish line may The Flying Spaghetti Monster hold you in the hollow of His Noodly Appendage.
OK, it looks like it was a loop. And maybe not as short as you thought, I mapped it pretty carefully by following the little red ball on the race's website. I came up with 3.65 miles, the map is at http://www.runningahead.com/maps/9e1e7ae4a0084d47a07e8290cf76f924
So, maybe I had a good day? If so, it sure didn't feel like it.
Plus, a dead giveway to me is when a lot of people express surpirse at how good their times were.
I once ran a 5k that was 2.8 miles. That's unacceptable to me.
My 8k PR is on a short course. Pisses me off only because even if had been a regulation 8k it would have been a PR. I'm pretty sure the course was between 100 and 150m short. I ran 27:12 and so likely still would have been safely under 28 mins if it were the full distance.
Alas.
I check that little "exclude from PR" checkbox on that one.
Runners run
I'm not sure of the length of the course - but I know it wasn't a case of too many beers- there were no beers to be had at the race unless you were a firefighter (they had a keg and a bunch of the red cups but they were not sharing :-(
Plenty of Vitamin Water ( I've never seen the quart sized bottles before) and all kinds of soda and water, but no beer and lots of food at the BBQ