How flat is the course at the Bill Dellinger invitational?

The course was short dummy! :-P

300+ meters short- aka 50+ seconds

It's most likely short

no way in hell that's a 6k. the course record was 19:24 and 11 girls went under that. Clearly the course is short.

Wouldn't the course be the same every year?

terague wrote:

Wouldn't the course be the same every year?

it should be but it probably isn't

James Handcock wrote:

It's most likely short

-every cross country runner who wishes they were as fast as the person who ran

Was present at the course. The grass was fairly compact, temperatures were ideal with light on and off rain, and it was quite flat. Couple girls in the race had garmins and their mile splits seemed reasonable enough, but I'd say the course was just short by a bit so both men and women would end up at the same finishing line.

Looking at the course map, the women's 3 mile mark on the inner loop seems way too close to the finish, but that could just be an error. The length description seems a bit off too.

"The Springfield Golf Club, one of Oregon’s premier golf courses, will be the site of the Bill Dellinger Invitational. Athletes will race entirely on grass and mostly on fairways. The course consists of two relatively flat loops—an outer loop, and a finish loop. The outer loop is approximately 2320 meters in length, and the finishing loop is approximately 1350 meters in length. Spikes are recommended for competition. Men will run 8,000m, women 6,000m."

Now the description does note that the lengths of the loops are approximated, but some quick math would say that the girls (two outer loops, one finishing loop) would hit 5,990 meters, but the guys (three outer loops, one finishing loop) would run 8,310 meters. Running tangents and whatnot will obviously not yield the same distance for everyone but by that alone, that would mean the women's race was correct but the men's race was long, which I have doubts.

The competition was fairly deep given the small field, so it would make sense that everyone ran pretty quick, but if I had to really give consideration to the time, I'd add about 25-35 seconds or so give or take for what they really ran, or what the equivalent to a full 6k would be. The best course of action would be to remeasure or compare how they measured it last year since it was held at the same venue last year, but it's not that concerning to me. Rainsberger had an incredible front-running race regardless along with the rest of the women of Oregon, establishing themselves as a strong contender to defend their national title.

The times are off, but their depth sure isn't.

Here's a link to the course map for reference. Forgot to put that in.

The oregon coach confirms that it's short