For the 5K I cited that is 60 feet long, I just left "5K" on the map. No one who ran the race complained, as far as I heard. I will enter "5.0183 K" on the certificate. I see no purpose to calling it anything but a 5K in public. To label the map differently would open a can 'o worms that is best left closed, IMO.
As Brandon and Mark and others have expressed, were my 5K 60 meters long instead of 60 feet, would we be OK to do the same - that is, still call it a 5K on the map as long as we enter "5,060 meters" on the certificate?
Taking this the next step to bracket the numbers: suppose this 5K were 600 feet long? Would "5K" on the map/"5,183 meters" on the certificate be OK?
I have no idea how often this comes up in the measuring world. My recent example is the first time ever for me. I, too feel certain that there must be some % over the advertised distance where we would not want the USATF imprimatur on the certificate of the race. If it is named or advertised as a substantially different distance than we measure, what should the threshold be before we do not allow it to be named a standard distance on the map?
While there are historical "odd-distance" events in New England and in other parts of the country, I do not see an interest or tolerance for anything other than standard distance events in my region, at least as far as those races that would ever bother with certification.
A measurer I know who once did a validation measurement came up .0028% long for that course. The record was validated. For a 10K, just for example,.0028% long would amount to 28 meters (or 92 feet)long. Obviously the record would have been validated at anything longer than the nominal distance after removal of the SCCF. This example begs the question of how this record would stand or fall when a new 10K record is subsequently set by 1 or 2 seconds, as records often are, when the validation showed this new record course to be only 5 feet long. In our system, the slightly faster runner would have to concede his/her record.
I do not agree with Brandon that a 6K race course can be advertised as 5K with no squawk from us. I would not create a map of a 6K that says 5K on it because I do not want my name associated with an inaccurate statement of the distance if it is way long any more than I want to put out a product that is inaccurate on the short side. I just want to know where "acceptably long" ends and "way long" begins..