Forums >General Running>Count a PR on a race which seemed to be measured too short?
I PRed by A LOT - but I was expecting to PR since I was taking advantage of my marathon training.
What do I do? Record this as a PR? Extrapolate the time for 6.2 miles based on my pace?
I wouldn't extrapolate. Personally, I wouldn't count a course that was obviously short... but really, it's up to you.
There's a 5k in the Seattle area (in Fremont) that I always completely demolished. It never seemed "right". Turns out it was really a 3 miler. Now they call it a 3 miler. I never counted that 5k in my list of times.
I ran a 10K this morning which seemed to be a bit short (my Garmin - which usually measures courses long measured this one at 6.01). I PRed by A LOT - but I was expecting to PR since I was taking advantage of my marathon training. What do I do? Record this as a PR? Extrapolate the time for 6.2 miles based on my pace?
Hey, I PRed in the same race.
troublemaker!
rectumdamnnearkilledem
Up to you. I've run 5k's on courses I knew were short (by about 300 meters) and I don't count them as 5k events. I mark them as 4.7 k races and leave it as a 4.7k PR.
Yep, I would do that. I've run a couple of races that were mis-marked. One was off by over a half-mile when an out-and-back section had us turn around WAY too early. I counted that race as a 5.45 instead of a 6, since nearly everyone with Garmins had 5.45 show up as the elapsed distance.
Getting the wind knocked out of you is the only way to
remind your lungs how much they like the taste of air.
~ Sarah Kay
PR's are what you want them to be. *I* would call it a PR for that course, but not for the announced distance.
I've only done trail races, and each course is considered separately. Many races might be "5k" - meaning they're somewhere between 4.5 and 5.5k, but likely not 10miles. While they are all different, I do try to compare similar courses sometimes, but use by garmin distance, if I had it with me. (some of my courses are surprises and just marked before start time, so those are obviously guesses when they announce the course and its distance at start line. That's why I started using my garmin for distances - for MY purposes)
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my garmin map for that race is visible in my log. on it, i see lots of corners cut off. i may manually plot out the course to see what i get. i believe that the striders have run this race on the same course for many years, but that doesn't mean its right. i can never compare one race to another anyway, so the idea of a 10K PR is a little meaningless if, for example, one is hilly in the summer and the other is flat in winter. i have to say that this particular race had some of the best post-race food i've seen in a long time.
It seemed that everyone with a Garmin measured the course short - and mostly in the first mile. They probably forgot to do some "bump-out" around the school to make the first mile and then the rest of the course ended up short.
I will likely call this a 6 mile race and live with the PR in a 6 miler. I'll just have to get another 10K to race soon.
BTW - I agree with you with the post-race food. Robeeks smoothies? Ample bagels with cream cheese or PB? Lots of "bake sale" style sweets! It was unbelievable!! I was also surprised that the race t-shirt was moisture wicking and not a cotton t-shirt. This race was a tremendous value at $18...I've run races more than twice the cost with half the amenities.
So I looked at the USATF map of the course and they totally skipped a loop based on the course description that would have added potentially 20 -35s or so ( at least ). So i knew, even with the course certification and chip timing that based on effort it wasn't a PR.
This issue comes up even more with HS cross country where almost none of the courses are exactly 5K anyway.
I heard that the lead bike missed a turn and left out part of the course for this race. I compared my garmin map from yesterday with the 2007 race map i found on mapmyrun, and it looks like they cut off about 0.16 miles of the race. I wonder if they will adjust it. Its still a PR for me even if they do, plus its the first time i've ever won an AG award (3rd in the 55-59 group). Lucky for me, they did not do 50-59, as there are some seriously fast guys in the 50-54 range.
MTA: yet again, bikes really annoy me sometimes.
After deep consideration, I've come up with a three-step solution to this dilemma:
1. Train some more.
2. Beat that time on a course that you trust.
3. Have fun!
Speed my steps along your path, according to your will.
I heard that the lead bike missed a turn and left out part of the course for this race. I compared my garmin map from yesterday with the 2007 race map i found on mapmyrun, and it looks like they cut off about 0.16 miles of the race. I wonder if they will adjust it. Its still a PR for me even if they do, plus its the first time i've ever won an AG award (3rd in the 55-59 group). Lucky for me, they did not do 50-59, as there are some seriously fast guys in the 50-54 range. MTA: yet again, bikes really annoy me sometimes.
Thanks for doing the research on that. This story makes total sense and is completely consistent with what I was seeing.
It looks like I have a new 6 mile PR!!!
I like Carl A's idea more. If I keep this as my 10K PR, well, nobody cares about that but me, it will be harder for me to beat it, and it will feel very good to beat it, especially because I can stop saying "...but the course was short" when I talk about it to people with their glazed over eyes (yawn).