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Yesterday I received notice that Kirkham Road is going to be repaved. This means that my 1000 foot calibration course will have to be remeasured when they are done with the paving. The course has been in place for 15 years, and has generated well over a hundred courses.

It has crossed my mind that this would be an opportunity to join the modern world and lay down 300 meters, or some other metric distance between fixed points in the roadway. I decided against it, mainly because other measurers have been using the calibration course, and I am certain that they will not notice if the end points change, and will go on using 1000 feet in their calculations. Of course I would catch this when I review the work for certification, but it seems a better idea to just lay down another familiar 1000 feet.

Any thoughts?
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Pete, I had the exact same situation recently. A Guido Brothers cal course that I use for most of my measurements in Fairfield was paved over, so I remeasured my own. While theirs was 1,000 ft., the one I laid out was 300m. It never occurred to me that other measurers might use it, thinking it was the original distance. When I file the paperwork for the new course, I'll make sure to note that it replaces the old one. I will notify Pete Volkmar, who might be the only other measurer who might use it, so it doesn't completely screw him up on a future measurement.
While I am not as "metric" as Bob B (is anyone?) I am very comfortable with metric measurements and calculations. However, most calibration courses in NC are 1,000' rather than 300 m so I would stick with 1,000'. I do use one 300 m cal course in Raleigh (originally laid out by AC Linnerud with his 100 m steel tape) and have on at least one occasion forgotten that it wasn't 1,000'. Fortunately I remembered while doing my post measurement calibration rides and had to go back and adjust the race course.

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