Calibrate your wheel by using it on your school’s track, to see if it measures one lap as 400m. Walk in lane one, with the wheel 6-8 inches off of the inside line. If the wheel does not measure lane 1 as 400 meters, then note how far it is off. Note: 1 meter = 3.2808399 feet. Keep in mind how many meters/feet your wheel is off, so you can accurately measure your race course. For example, if your wheel only measured a lap as 390 meters, then it would measure an accurate 5k course as being 120.5 meters short, so you would have to mark the finish line at the 5,120.5 meter mark for your wheel.
Aug 14, 2017 · That is impressively close to 5000 meters (16,404 feet). On a side note, hopefully by now, we have all thrown out the idea (and use) of GPS watches in course measurement. Steel Tape Measurement IS THE MOST ACCURATE means to measure a cross country course. But it is time consuming and generally takes a minimum of 2-3 people and 3-4 hours of time ...
how many meters/ feet your wheel is off, so you can accurately measure your race course. For example, if your wheel only measured a lap as 390 meters, then it would measure an accurate 5k course as being 120.5 meters short, so you would have to mark the finish line at the 5,120.5 meter mark for your wheel. • Do not use GPS as a way to measure a course. There is a margin of error …
Aug 30, 2010 · Step 1: Jog the course you want to set up splits or total distance for. Step 2: Run this course at a decent effort. Make note of specific …
Sep 01, 2017 · Most high school cross country races are races of attrition. You go out stupid fast, and then the person who dies the least wins. Three examples. a) Resident Citius Good Boy, Paul Snyder, ran his best high school 5k in a time of 15:22. He remembers his splits as 4:30-9:30-15:22. “No one passed me after the first 400m,” he said.
Level | Meter distance | Base spread |
---|---|---|
Preliminary (USA) | 2200-3200 | 2.10 m (6'11") |
Intermediate | 2600-3600 | 2.40 m (7'11") |
Advanced | 3000-4000 | 2.70 m (8'10") |
Runners measure the size of their accomplishments by the obstacles they had to overcome to reach their goals. Don’t sell them short!– they had Line.
MapMyRun is not accurate to the precision of proper measurement, so we need about a 100 yard window for where the Start or Finish may land, if we don’t have an adjustment spur.
The preferred method of measuring a course is with the "Jones-Oerth"counter attached to the front wheel of a bicycle. The counter is then calibrated over a surveyed or steel-taped 1000' calibration course. My bike and counter registers over 18,000 "counts" per mile (a counter registers different totals depending on tire size). That is just over 3 inches per "count", producing pretty good accuracy. (Website for purchasing at bottom of page).
For a novice doing a basic 5K with a good estimate of where the start and finish will be, the whole process (excluding setting up the calibration course) will take about three hours. As one gets experienced, riders will be able to do this more quickly and more accurately.
When a course is measured for certification, it is done along the Shortest Possible Route(SPR) that a runner can take. That is, the route is measured along the line of sight a runner has, cutting all tagents and crossing corner to corner. If a course is to be restricted in any way in meauring (such as staying to the right of the road or going wide around a turn, there will need to be monitors, fences, or cones to do so. Anyone reading this article has probably seen that you can't rely on runners to stay in the breakdown lane, or to run where they should if it is not monitored.
A car's odometer might be within 0.1 or 0.2 miles of the stated distance simply because that is as accurate as such a device can be. Bicycle computers get even better precision, now down to 1/100's of miles.
How accurate are road race courses? If a course is not certified, less accurate than one might think. Believe it or not, some race directors just don't care. Other courses are accurate to a director's own standards and "close enough". One race director said his course was "pretty accurate" based on comparing the winner's time to a previous week's race time. Another comment - "I figure 40 or 50 yards either way is pretty accurate".
Because a rider follows the SPR, measuring is best done early on a weekend or holiday morning to avoid traffic so all tangents can be cut . The assistance of a vehicle driving behind the measurer is comforting.
It does not take a paid expert to measure a road course; anyone with a sense of precision and ability to follow directions can do the measurement. It simply takes a bicycle, a "Jones Oerth" counter (available on loan from the USATF New England office) and a few hours of time to ride the course and complete several pages of forms.