Our local club does a trail 10K/30K and a 50K on basically the same course. We've gotten numerous requests over the years to have the courses certified. Some have insisted that since USATF certifies XC courses we can certify this one.
Now some years back in measurement news I remember a discussion about NOT certifying XC courses due the the difficulty of actually reproducing accurately the course as measured. Maybe I was hallucinating or misinterpreted that discussion.
I've measures the courses in question and feel they're accurate and practical but don't feel it's appropriate to submit them for certification because if someone else rode the course I doubt they'd get the same results unless they did it very near (in calendar terms) the same time I did. Trail grading, erosion, etc, would change the measurement over time.
Maybe I'm being to anal about this but I've always assumed that courses submitted for measurement should be accurate and reproducible over time.
Getting two measurements within tolerance on long stretches of unstable ground is a skill I haven't mastered. I add in extra to make sure it's at least the advertised distance but never claim or submit these for certification.
What the general opinion of the masters on this?
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