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Last Sunday I held a measurement clinic for some members of the Oregon Road Runners Club. We discussed calibration courses and I mentioned that they should be on fairly level ground. One of the participants then asked "well if the race course is hilly shouldn't the calibration course be hilly too"? I thought that was a very good questions for which I had no answer.

Do you?
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If you looked at a calibration course that had a 2 meter rise and fall over its 300 meter distance, you would probably perceive it as being almost flat. That equates to a 5k with 50 meters of total climb, which most people would consider to be moderately hilly.
A 5k with a rise and fall of 100 meters would be considered very hilly, and yet a cal course with a rise and fall of 4 meters would be perceived as having only a slight rise in the middle.
My point is that you don't have to deviate much from flat in a calibration course to be equivalent to a "very hilly" race course. And that many "flat" calibration courses probably already have a rise and fall of a meter or two.

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