Forgive me if I am unknowingly resurrecting an old discussion topic or if I am asking about something I should already know - but here goes anyway...
Recently reading a discussion about a road running record being disallowed after validation measurement made me think about the parked cars I sometimes encounter while measuring. Occasionally, parked cars prevent me from tracking the SPR, and I have no way of knowing whether cars will be parked in these spaces during the race. Most of the courses I measure are "Mom & Pop" - type races, but I do a few big ones, including some in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol in D.C. Some of these courses are relatively flat and are used by races with modest prize money at stake.
Therefore, if I measure wide on a street or two in a 5K or a 10K due to parked cars, and then there are no parked cars in these spaces on race day, and runners are consequently able to traverse a shorter distance than I measured due to the SPR being available to them, is it likely that I have I measured a course that would fail validation?
I realize that this question may be unanswerable without specific data on the length of the street in question, how much is blocked by cars, etc. I have consoled myself by assuming the SCCF would cover the difference in most if not all cases I have encountered. Further, most of the courses I have measured are for events that are not able to clear the streets of parked cars for race day except in limited portions of the course. For some courses, I know that it is a near certainty that cars will be parked all along the route during the race. It is the other eventuality that concerns me.
Lyman Jordan
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