I didn't run this race but a bunch of my friends did. According to everyone's Strava, the Oaktown Half in Oakland was about a half mile short, only 12.6-12.7 miles instead of 13.1. This wasn't just one or two people, it was everyone I've seen. It would be huge PRs for my friends, so they're thinking the course distances were just wrong. It's not the extra zig-zagging from running the race because that would increase the Strava distance, not decrease it. Has anyone gotten to the bottom of this?
The website links to three race maps and one of them is different from the others.
1. The first is this:
2. the "interactive strava map" gives a slightly different route (it removes the top left corner but gives an extra loop at the finish):
https://www.strava.com/clubs/331632/group_events/256449
3. I found a link somewhere to this route, as well:
https://ridewithgps.com/routes/27706858
4. Compare this with the Strava map from actual runners (I don't want to link to someone's Strava account, but I'll help you out and say that the 3rd place finisher is the fastest person with an open Strava account). Map 1&3 seem to agree with the course they actually ran, but the mile markers are just totally different. It's like everything is stretched out. There's no one spot where they made a wrong turn or anything.
I also did my best to try mapping it out with google maps, and google maps seems to agree with the race website.
So what do the rest of you letsrunners think, is the mapping software wrong or is Strava? I know you shouldn't trust Strava too much (it definitely adds distance when I run at the track), but I've never heard of it subtracting so much mileage, and I don't trust the mapping software any more than Strava, and I also think it's odd that so many people would run PRs.
Has anyone gotten in touch with the race director?
It seems ridiculous that race directors ask for >$100 for race entries and their race distances are off by several minutes of running time.