How Accurate are Public Tracks in Distance? Buying Wheel Necessary?

If a track is marked for events, relays etc, its almost certainly accurate.

Some older tracks are yards (440) so they would be slightly longer but are usually (if still in use) marked accurately for meters races.

In the case of E McColgan, the course was correctly measured. However, on the day, every runner took a wrong turn. Whether the fault lay with the Marshalls, or someone marked the course incorrectly on the day, I can’t remember.

Maybe it's uphill?

Some of the latest watches have a track activity setting. The actual lane can be input. No idea if they measure more accurately!

The measurement of a track should be at 20cm from the inside line for a track designed with no curb/kerb, or 30cm for a standard track...also are you actually using an imperial wheel and converting? You give measurements in feet for all your talk.

> The inner edge of the track is 398.116m in length (36.50m x 2 x π + 84.39m x 2) where π = 3.1416. This length for the inner edge gives a length of 400.001m (36.8m x 2 x π + 84.39m x 2) for the theoretical line of running (measurement line) at a distance of 0.30m from the kerb.

I was involved in the construction of three tracks. They were all thoroughly measured for accuracy. Two tracks were measured to have a curb and one without. The differences were negligible but even that was calculated perfectly.

Which road? race was this?

You can't measure anything precisely by rolling a wheel on it! Does your wheel never move side to side? Roll over a rock?

Suppose you manage to hold your side to side movement to only 1cm back and forth per meter. Draw a straight zigzagging line like that and every 100m gets marked 100.02m, each lap is 400.08m, and 5000m is measured 5001m.

Waver back and forth by 2cm per meter and you add 8cm per 100m, 32cm per lap, 4 extra meters over 5000. That's if you somehow manage to go side to side in straight lines; the real squiggly motion is farther than that.

Long story short, a precise track is measured by construction grade steel tape, and only within a legal temperature range. Specs are in the WA facilities manual, very detailed

why would you trust a source that can't tell you within 5m to be accurate?