Skip to main content

Reply to "My weekend in Peoria"

John Tucker called me last night. I hadn't talked to him in at least a year.

He apparently has been lobbying the National High School Federation to adopt the USATF/NCAA path as the standard for cross-country course measurement.

When we measured the Detweiller Park course we found the course to be about 40 meters short if we measured along the USATF SPR. when we measured the course "down the center", assuming a 6 meter course width, we got it to be about 35 meters long. However when you average the two sets of measurements, you get the course to be exactly 3 miles, and the miles within a meter of 1609 and each other. So my hypothesis is that the IHSA must have told the Bradley U. engineers to measure a 10 foot wide course, and they did a good job of it.


If high school cross country courses were measured the same way road races, track races, and other cross country races are measured, it would be a big step toward ending the confusion that now exists. It's silly to be able to manipulate a course's length by changing its with, and it's silly to be able to legitimately run a course shorter than its measured distance.

I remain convinced that the only way to accurately measure a course on grass is with a steel tape. The surfaces are just too inconsistent.

All that being said, the length of the course is just one of the factors that contribute to the performances on the course. It's important, and should be accurately measured, but the way to compare performances on different courses is by analysis of large numbers of performances.
×
×
×
×