Course Length and Measurement
The Murfreesboro Half Marathon is a USATF-certified race… USATF, the national governing body for the sport of running, defines an accurate course as one that is not short. So how do we go about measuring the course? It’s a process… that basically goes like this:
A USATF measurer uses several tools and a basic protocol. First, a bicycle with a counter is mounted to the front wheel hub, which provides a fixed count for each turn of the front wheel. The counter is accurate to within three inches, more accurate than the GPS receivers used by many runners when training! Once the count, (wheel revolutions), per mile is determined, the measurer adds a 1/1000 factor to the count to help prevent a course from being shorter than the actual 13.1 mile distance.
The measurer, once on the course, begins to act like a runner. He or she rides the shortest possible distance on the course from start to finish… (so if you take wide angles around corners, you’re adding additional length to your race). The course is ridden twice, and the total counts between the first and second rides are divided to ensure the difference between the two rides is no more than .08 percent.
The measurer then draws up a map, showing detailed location of start, turn points, and finish. All of the course information and an application for course certification is sent to the USATF state course certifier – where it is put in a database available to all through the USATF.
As a note, we advise that you be wary before you take a GPS receiver-wearing runner’s opinion of the course measurement as fact. Although GPS devices can provide high accuracy – a few wide turns will skew the device’s final reported distance!
The measuring for our course certification will take place this weekend. If you can, go and check out the route during your training over the next few months!
