Jersey Shore Marathon

I have no record of these being certified this year. Bob, you could contact Larry Baldasri and Jane Parks to see if they have any information on these races.

As for a race director making statements, we have no control here. If you find that these have not been certified, then you could contact the race director. I hope the race director isn't misleading the runners.

If you want to pursue this, then I hoe all turns out ok.

Since the article was published April 11, the paperwork likely has not been completed. The map may take 6 hours to make, and they have two maps.

Plenty of time, it appears.

We are checking this out with the possible Certifiers.

Question is now answered. See email from Dan Brannen below.


Folks,

I can shed light on this. I have been the measurer/certifier of record for this event ever since its inception, about 15 years ago. In recent years the course has changed every year, requiring annual recertification. No different this year, especially since hurricane Sandy has literally wiped out portions of last year's course. Race Director Joe Gigas has been negotiating his way through the various municipalities, only about a week ago finally getting permission to access alternate routes to get around all the hurricane Sandy damage (the race is May 5).

I recruited Jane Parks to join forces with me on this year's measurement. We did the measurement on Thursday. I called Gigas when we had finished, to confirm that he now had a certified course, and that it had come out as he wished it to. At that time he informed me that he had been having numerous conversations with a reporter from the New York Times, who kept asking him about the certification status. Joe said he was going to call the reporter and tell him the certification measurement was now finally complete, and informed me that there would probably be a story on it in the next morning's Times. Sure enough, there was. At first I was puzzled at the "haggle with USA Track & Field" phrase, wondering whom he had haggled with and why. Then I figured it out: Joe uses MapMyRun.com to create a course map that he then sends to me. I then study his map, then I re-map and measure it on Google Earth at high resolution. I've found I can get remarkably close to the final certification measurement with Google Earth. After doing the Google Earth measurement, I told Joe that his course seemed to be approximately 275' short, and he should think about where we could add the distance. He settled on a combination of moving both the Start & Finish lines. Jane and I went to the course and measured, and it came out almost exactly as Google Earth predicted it would. We're in the process of making up the maps now.

My guess is that "USA Track & Field" is me, and the "haggling" was my emails and phone discussions with Joe explaining the need to add more distance. The reporter's "200 meters short" was his way (or Joe's) of getting my "approximately 275' short" wrong. I know Joe and I know that he did not view our discussions about the Google Earth measurement as "haggling." He understands the process and there was no "haggling" between us. The reporter never spoke to me, and the first (and only) indication of a NYT story in the works was when Joe told me about it when I called him to report that the measurement was complete.

So, the New York Times gets something wrong.... Imagine that. Whoever would have thought such a thing possible....

I wonder if the same reporter is going to interview all the people who run the race and then tell him (and Joe, and me, and Jane) that their GPS units they wore during the race prove that the course is long. I sense a major scandal brewing....

-Best to all....

-Dan

Dan Brannen
danbrannen@earthlink.net