A Recent Thread of Messages
In the quest for instant gratification it seems some folks are wanting USATF to do the heavy lifting, when they are overlooking the prime source of information about road courses.
I refer to the race director. The race director is typically sent a copy of the certificate by the course measurer. The certificate asks the race director to refer to the course number in all publicity. The race director, not USATF, should be the source of all information concerning a race. We document measured courses, but we have no solid knowledge of which course is used for which race. Only the race organization knows this.
The race organization should be prepared to shoulder the burden of giving out information about their race, not USATF. I realize, of course, that most race organizations will not do this. This does not remove the responsibility.
There's a tendency to urge RRTC to rush to get course maps online. While a laudable goal, it's still necessary to allow time for map review by the vice-chairs and for the registrar to get the listing done. This cannot be done instantly.
Pete Riegel
In a message dated 1/12/2006 5:14:23 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, jkuo@usatfne.org writes:
Keith,
Your message is a good place to get started. I know several measurers
have used Google Maps and Google Earth as a tool for creating their
detailed course maps. The color satellite image is handy when measuring
over private roads and parking lots.
I'm just rambling here....
Certification numbers are not assigned until the certifier has had a
chance to review the maps and paperwork sent to him or her by the
measurer. Often, the certifer does not receive the application from the
measurer until after the race date.
The measurer, event director, or responsible person could create the map
in America's Running Routes (They can start that today.) The measurer
would note the ID number for that route. Then that ID could be submitted
to the certifier along with the rest to the application and detailed map.
The state or regional certifier could then login to a management area on
the web site and associate the newly assigned course number to the
America's Running Routes ID number. (This is the part of the process
that could bog down. We'll need some computer savey folks or maybe
assign the task to a volunteer.)
Then we can get creative and create a link between the America's Running
Routes, the course certification page, the events page, results,
calendar, etc.
Let me know what you think. Sorry for rambling. -- Justin
Keith Lively wrote:
> Justin,
> Links directly to maps, regardless of their certification status, is
> something the committee will need to think about. We don't currently
> provide direct links because we try to promote only active courses.
>
> There currently isn't any link between America's Running Routes and Course
> Certification. It's something we could talk about though. It might be a
> good way to bridge the time lag between when courses are measured/certified
> and when they appear in the course certification database, and consequently
> the online calendar. One way to do it might be to give measurers a login to
> a management area where they could map the course, override the distance
> calculation from the Google Maps (Google doesn't provide elevation data, so
> distances are off slightly in hilly areas), and input the certification
> number. We could then link to those maps from the calendar search results,
> which would provide visitors a more user-friendly map of the course with a
> level of detail appropriate to race participants. The official map (scanned
> image) that includes the exact location of turns, PK nails, and other
> layout-specific details would still be available to race directors via the
> course search once they made it through the normal process. Something to
> think about.
>
> Keith
Original Post