I'm here in Moscow working with the IAAF and have had the opportunity to work with the "IAAF Appointed Road Course Measurer - Tadeusz Dziekonski of Poland.
He's an excellent measurer and thank goodness he speaks english and Russian.
The race walk course originally started at the 1500m starting line on the track but we had to make an adjustment which resulted in the line being shifted back another 7.6 meters.
We measured and marked (with tiny black dots) and very neat looking waterfall start with hopes of laying out a 5 cm wide white tape for the races. The accepted practice is to affix the tape just prior to the race then remove it immediately after the start. Leaving it down will result in residue from the adhesive.
The first time we did it we had beautiful weather but today it was raining heavily just prior to the race.
We had the track crew clean the water off as much as possible but there was no way the tape would stay affixed with it's own adhesive.
The officials were very worried, I said now problem, just get a staple gun! So we stapled the tape to the ground (about 30-40 staples). the race started without any incidents and now one every knew.
fyi- the impact on the track from the staples is less then that made by runner's spikes.
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