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As part of my measurement I've provided RDs with photo description of course start, intermediate split, and finish locations, approaching "Alice's Restaurant" quality.

(For those of you playing the home game, "...circles and arrows and a paragraph...explaining what each one was...")

The RD still couldn't figure out where the splits were. Sent me an e-mail asking if I was going to put down paint. So, I went out to paint. Darned if all three of my intermediate marks (bright yellow duct tape!) weren't still out on the course, right where I put them, in varying degrees of visibility.

"A typical case of...blind justice..." The kind of stuff that turns otherwise sane, rational men to strong drink.

After chatting with a RD friend, I recently learned the local powers-that-be frown upon spray-painted course markings.

Has anyone ever tried some sort of marker, using an adhesive (like what gets used to secure reflectors to road surfaces)?

I'll resort to carrying a hammer and PK/washers if need be, but past hammer episodes have never been, er, pretty.
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Snow plows get those nails pretty fast.

Other tactics seen here:
1. Make large, neat stencils. Most frequently course arrows are the paint objection. There are certain parts of town I do this in now in self defense. If the town has approved the race, this need should have been mentioned in the City Council meeting.
2. Someone else here does a Word document with labeled pictures of all splits. I started doing that and now have fewer calls early Saturdays.
3. Sometimes there is no place to hide like when Bob Thurston got the $600 bill from the National Park Service for graffiti removal.
Oscar
In the EARLIEST days I used 4" (number) stencils. Gave 'em up after a particularly-breezy day out on a remote, fairly-empty stretch of beach.
My friends in NOLA tend to use shapes, like a fleur-de-lis, to mark their splits. However, they marvel at my PowerPoint prowess and photo/graphic manipulation skills...so perhaps I'll just continue to stay the course and realize that Ron White was correct...
"You can't fix..."

And...what is this vehicle you speak of; this "snowplow...?" Confused

For temp marks that last a few weeks, spray chalk. 
Can looks like spray paint, applies like spray paint, and will last through a few rains, but in a month or two will be gone.  
I have used it to mark start line where city did not want me to spray one across the street. Blue seems to be bright for a few days then fade well into the tarmac.

Perhaps it depends on the brand of spray chalk, but whatever the spray that others have used around here isn't much different than paint. There was one race in our local park where the organizers put down huge, obnoxious,  course markings all over the park including on some decorative stamped concrete road crossings. The marks were still visible after a year! If you decide to use this stuff you might want to do a few test marks to check that the particular brand you are using will actually disappear after a short time.

Oscar - your mention of the NPS billing Bob Thurston leaped out to me reading through this thread again:

One of my other "lives" is that of a competitive rules official for another national (sport) governing body. The NPS apparently doesn't take too kindly to any sort of encroachment, or at least not without getting their fair share of the "pound of flesh."

A particular event organizer was informed that they would NOT be able to have their triathlon bike leg go out onto a stretch of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, forcing them to double back on a three-mile stretch of their bicycle leg. Two-lane road...1,200 athletes...what could possibly go wrong?

While the flora and fauna were most likely not irritated by the incursion of human triathletes onto their front yard, it placed some major safety/fairness concerns in the hands of the CRO's working the event.

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