Cavedog Running

Are running race courses really the length they are supposed to be? Courses are certified by the USATF to ensure paticipants that the course is the length it should be. Seems that every so-called "certified" course usually shows as .1 mile longer on my Garmin 305 watch that uses GPS. I have also mapped out many courses at www.mapmyrun.com to verify. I know Map My Run is accurate because you can map a high school track and it comes out to exactly .25 miles (everybody knows that 4 laps of the track equals one mile).

Usually this is not a big deal since everybody runs the same distance. But, it was a big deal as far as the Gasparilla Marathon is concerned where I missed the Boston Marathon qualifying time by just 9 measly seconds.

Here's the rub, a marathon is 26 miles 385 yards or 26.2 miles. My Garmin measured the Gasparilla course at 26.31 miles. I verified this on Map My Run which measured 26.35. At the end of the race, .1 miles is about 35 seconds for me.

So, my Gasparilla finishing time was 3:16:08 based on a "Certified" course of 26.2 miles. Two sources tell me the course was really about 26.3. That means that if my Garmin and Map My Run are correct, I actually did run a Boston Qualifying time. According to my Garmin, my time at 26.24 miles was 3:15:35!!

Note: I emailed and received a quick reply from Susan Harmeling who is the Gasparilla Distance Classic Race Director. She stated that the course is measured using the shortest possible path to complete the distance and that it is possible I could have run farther due to not taking that shortest path.

Entirely possible even though I try to cut as much of each corner as possible. It is hard to tell since you don't know what the measured line is unlike in the largest marathons that have the course marked with a line on the road. Hard to believe could add up to running 200 yards extra, but anything is possible!

Thank-you to Susan to replying to my email so quickly!!