NON-PAVEMENT COURSES – AN EXCHANGE OF MESSAGES
Rodolfo Eichler writes:
Dear Pete,
How are you?
Thanks to your support and lessons learned years ago, now, we have many measured races in all parts of South America, measured by our old group of "B" measurers ( Gabriel, Fernando, Suzana and Ivan ) and by a group of 12 very dedicated new "C" measurers (through 3 seminars conducted by myself and Suzana, 2 in Brazil and one in Santiago del Chile).
Few weeks ago, an IAAF manager asked me if I had read anytime about a possible % limit of the total distance in a diferent surface (not paved) in a measured course,
I remember I could not find any "quantification" about this, because as we always calibrate in paved surfaces, we would be introducing some error in the total distance. Have you defined something about this for the Entities of the Sport?
Regards
Rodolfo
from my readings:
the best I found was from "IAAF Measurement of Road Race Courses" manual (You and Disley on the cover) refered to the old IAAF rule 165 paragraph 3 in the "IAAF Handbook"
“”- are there any places where the course crosses a Grass or gravel área?”
todays` 240 rule in the "IAAF Competition Rules"
“the course dully marked may be on a bike path or footh alonside the Road, but not on soft as grass verges or the like”
NOTE: sometimes when I have to cross a turning point over the grass or something unpaved, I use to measured it with the steel tape ( Pi x r formula)
Pete Replies:
Dear Rodolfo,
It's wonderful to hear from you again, and to see how far you have advanced course measurement in Brasil and South America. I remember with pleasure working with you and the others, and your fine hospitality.
Course measurement in the US was set up before IAAF became interested. It was set up so that ordinary runners would have credible courses on which to run. Later, records became important, but the basic motivation remained the same - make accurate courses available to everybody.
We have quite a few certified courses in the US that have dirt, gravel, grass as part of the course. I suspect that they are not as accurate as those that are entirely on pavement.
Limiting the amount of non-pavement has been discussed here, but no conclusion has been reached. I hope things do not change, as each course has its own character, and sometimes a bit of off-pavement is included.
I have always thought that going off the pavement makes the course slower. I could be wrong, as I know of no tests that have been made.
I would prefer to let any sort of course be certified, and let the records and federation people worry about whether it is allowed or not.
Best regards, Pete
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