We may or may not have all of the relevant facts to trace the provenance of all of the failures with the Jackpot Ultra 100 Miler, Rob. But I feel we already have more than enough evidence of recurring gaps between USATF course certification and course management for record-eligible courses to justify questioning our procedures and to set about devising some fool-proof process that will validate legitimate record performances.
I do not believe anyone here feels we should award any participation trophies to anyone who might have run a record on a short course if there had not been some screwup. But, imagine you are Camille Herron, a 40-year old woman who selects a USATF Championship race specifically because it seems to have everything in place to support her effort to break her own record. She runs for 12 hours and 41 minutes for a whisker shy of 100 miles, thinking she is cracking one of the most difficult world records to beat, only to be told USATF won't recognize her feat. Does anyone think this masters runner will just try again? She is already in an age category in which distance running performances historically stop improving for all participants in this age group.
At the very least, shouldn't we in RRTC find a way to do better?