Short Marathons of the 70s

jimgerweckMember

There's a thread on Letsrun.com hypothesizing that the reason US marathoners ran such good times back in the day was the courses were short.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=641550

Among the responders is Benji Durden, one of the top American marathoners of the early 80s (he was 2nd in the Boycott Games Trials). I knew he was doing race management these days; according to the post he's measuring courses as well. I seem to recall that he was the measurer for Bolder Boulder.

With Benji and Hugh Jones in the measurers' fold, we've got some pretty fast company.

11/20/044:47 PM

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bobthurstonMember

I looked at the web site Jim referred to. A lot of misunderstandings about measuring! But it reminds me that before RRTC came up with the "plus 0.001" method, Ted Corbitt was recommending something very similar. AJ Vanderwal, who was my mentor, told me that Ted Corbitt recommended adding 3 feet per mile of race distance, for much the same reason that we add 1 meter per kilometer. I would be interested to know which of the "old time" races were measured according to Ted Corbitt's specs.

11/22/047:17 PM

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