Measuring Course on a University Campus

Apparently only people who you have explicitly given permission to can view your courses on that site.  Maybe there's an option on there to give everyone permission to view?

You might want to check who will be paying you. If it's the university they may require you to provide proof of liability insurance before you do work on their campus. Good thing to check on before you do any work. I have run into this a couple times.

My apologies. I just updated the link to a Google map. Should work now.

Good idea to ask about their requirements of me with regard to liability insurance. Thanks.

Two observations from me:

Where is your adjustment spur?  If you have the Start and Finish at the same point, unless you measure the course once, then go to an area where you can measure different radii of turns, you likely won't hit the correct length. I normally have a spot that is used for a turnaround, so I can adjust the length of the spur accordingly.

Second, at 1st and Oak, I would come off the corner and go directly to the painted edge of the parking spot to the west (assuming a counter-clockwise route), instead of rounding the corner and making the turn at some non-defined point on the road.  All turns/curves should be bound by physical objects or painted stripes that will likely always be repainted at the same spot.

Good luck!  

I don't have a spur yet. I figured I would wait and decide best where to add one after visiting the site myself. I agree, it needs one.

I should have specified that it is a clockwise route, but I'll take your suggestion anyways and begin my angle towards that corner as I come off the end of that parking spot. 

Thanks!

We measured a course on a college campus a couple years ago (CT16048JHP).  The RD assured us that there would be plenty of volunteers.  The map of the course included the location of 34 monitors.  These locations could have been cones (although a much more precise location for each would be required).  The RD reported great success and no problem with volunteers.  That may be something you can do to ease runner confusion on race day.

As for a turnaround spur, maybe one of the wheelchair ramps that connects to a sidewalk?  I have found that it is way better to get the course as close to 5K as possible on Google Earth before measuring.  On-site course design is highly inefficient.  I recommend you put your turnaround spur into the map before measuring the course.

Thanks for the help. That ended up being a lot of work to map. Lots of turns and transitions from rd to pedestrian area to rd, etc. It took me a while, but here's the final product.

Gary, the map looks great!  I wonder, though, how you got the course to be the right length, if the Start and Finish are the same spot, and there is no turnaround point. Did you ride some of the curves multiple times, to get the correct route to get to the right length?  Lots of work, that way, but a much more runner-friendly course.

duanerussell posted:

Gary, the map looks great!  I wonder, though, how you got the course to be the right length, if the Start and Finish are the same spot, and there is no turnaround point. Did you ride some of the curves multiple times, to get the correct route to get to the right length?  Lots of work, that way, but a much more runner-friendly course.

The turnaround point is easy to miss on this complicated course. It's within the first mile at the end of the first ramp on the E side of Cooper St. On my two rides, I measured the turnaround right at the base of the ramp but then adjusted it 35'  away from the base of the ramp to adjust for correct length. There was a tree basin in the way preventing so my spur actually ended up being about a 1.5' too long. 

As far as curves go - this course has way too many turns (I don't envy the runner who tries to run this course fast). I realized quickly the potential for a lot of error so I really focused in on taking the shortest possible route around all corners. I was thrilled after my second ride to discover that my variance between the two was only 0.00011.

I think you may find yourself encouraging course designers to not put a turn so close to the Start, and also to put the spur closer to the Finish, so runners are more spread out at those points.  I have seen too many races where runners get bunched-up at points like those described above.

Glad you got your two measurements to be so close to each other!  Way to go!

Good tip. Thanks. 

I  I hate measuring on college campuses and have done a pretty good bit of it.  The measuring process is best done early in the day on a Sunday morning when everyone is in bed. Besides that maps are a pain because a lot of sidewalks are unnnamed in maps. Mostly you can’t  find names for roads and sidewalks on Google earth or other mapping programs, you can only find them by riding around on your bike and riding down the road and paths names. Campus maps (found from google searches) can help 

Yeah, that map was a pain. The final product is TX18100LAB. 

Gary:  We make up names for roads where they are needed for the route description or mile split locations.  Made up road names (Park Entrance Road) don't use the "Rd." abbreviation.  For sidewalks, we do just what you did, dashed lines.  Some examples are CT16048JHP and CT18026JHP.