On 26 October 2013 Gene Newman wrote:
“As for removing the status code, does this mean all courses are Active? This shouldn't happen as it will be in direct conflict of a course expiring.” it will be in direct conflict of a course expiring.”
We say that a course expires because its route description is no longer accurate, and we arbitrarily chose ten years as a reasonable time period for a course to remain “active.” In reality, most courses will become inactive in less than ten years, mainly because the originally certified course was no longer run, and the race made changes in the route.
At the time we did this the course list existed as an annually-published book, and its size needed to be controlled. This is no longer the case.
Conversely, there are races that appear to be immortal. In 1983 I measured the UACA 5 Mile Run in my town of Upper Arlington, Ohio. The certificate was countersigned by Ted Corbitt and numbered “OH 8411 PR.” At the time I was a runner and wanted this yearly-run course to be certified. The route uses long-established suburban streets, is run every year, and has not changed a whit in the thirty years since I measured it. I believe Jim Gerweck has some similar experience with long-lived courses.
On the other hand, I measured the Columbus Marathon route from 1985 through 2012, and during that time the course underwent 17 changes – a change about every other year.
The course list shows a number of entries regarding the status of the course. It’s been replaced, expired and passed a validation in its various configurations.
The “active” status, in short, is no better than a guess, based on not much information.
The only course of interest to most people is the latest version of the course. This is easily identifiable by its course number. Records-keepers might wish to find a past version of the course, and they can already do so. The course “status” does not help them, as a now-expired race may not have been expired when the record was set.
The course map is where the rubber hits the road. It’s the definition of the course, not a word in a column in the course list.
In answer to Gene’s query above, removing the status code will NOT mean that all courses are active. It means that an individual course was certified, and may or may not be active depending on whether the measured route is current.
The status code adds work and contributes little to nothing of value. It is time to dump it.