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Had an interesting conversation yesterday. While my wife was buying a pair of running, I started talking to a store employee. He appeared to be a runner, so I asked if that was the case. He replied yes and then I asked him his thoughts on the GPS units this store was selling. He said he finds them to measure a course long in most cases. I asked him if understood why. His response was shocking as he stated he knows that courses he runs that are USATF Certified have a built in safety factor of .1%. I stated other factors that cause them to measure long and he agreed.
After further conversation, I found he was no ordinary runner as he ran the Olympic Marathon trials in Houston as a sub 2:19 marathoner. I wonder if elite athletes like this young man know about the SCPF.
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Why do so many people, some measurers included, think that every certified course is .1% long?

The SCPF helps ensure that the course is not short due to wobble and inaccurate riding. That means that most courses are not .1% long, but somewhere between stated distance and stated distance plus .1%. Swerve to avoid a massive pothole, or a storm drain, and you use up some of that SCPF. Wander off the perfect straight-line ride, and more is scrubbed off.

A 5k course may only be 5003 meters, or 5002, but almost certainly is not 5005 meters. We need to do a better job of explaining what SCPF is, especially to someone like the runner you spoke with, who is aware of the SCPF, but is not knowledgeable about it. Besides, a GPS has more error potential than the SCPF, as you explained to him (not to mention him not running SPR).

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