Go to your local high school track and run a lap in 69.9 seconds.

Soon they will be under my mile PR for average pace. The only solace is that I did it 100% drug-free.

Malmo, I don't consider it a disagreement if you provide an answer to something I phrased as a question. While I stand behind the mathematical conversions (well just the ones without errors), I wasn't sure which distance was considered official by whom, and therefore phrased that initial assumption as a question.If it's officially metric, and not Imperial, well, uh, then never-mind.

malmo wrote:

I hate to disagree with you rekrunner, but you don't use the imperial measure (26m385y) and convert it to metric. Metric is the official marathon measure. The nominal marathon distance according to the IAAF is 42.195 km. (plus the short course prevention addon)

Well I guess that makes you the only interested reader. Meter, km, what's the difference but a couple of missing 0's -- that's nothing.

Bad Wigins wrote:

rekrunner wrote:

I did find another huge error though

which is that 12 thousands of a meter is not more than 7 thousandths of a mile. maybe this time the mods will not be offended.

I tried and could only get to 75 seconds. Should I try again without the water jump next time?

steeple chaser wrote:

I tried and could only get to 75 seconds. Should I try again without the water jump next time?

Yes, you're supposed to go 400 full meters you cheater.

Bad Wigins wrote:

steeple chaser wrote:

I tried and could only get to 75 seconds. Should I try again without the water jump next time?

Yes, you're supposed to go 400 full meters you cheater.

What if the water jump was on the outside??

malmo wrote:

rekrunner wrote:

Sorry for you, but yes it is.

I did find another huge error though -- I'll leave it as an exercise for the interested reader.

I hate to disagree with you rekrunner, but you don't use the imperial measure (26m385y) and convert it to metric. Metric is the official marathon measure. The nominal marathon distance according to the IAAF is 42.195 km. (plus the short course prevention addon)

I don't hate or love to disagree with you malmo, I just have to point out that the original distance of 26 miles 385 yards was the distance of the 1908 Olympic Marathon from Windsor Castle to the White City stadium. Imperial measurement was imperative, the race had to finish in front of the Royal box.

Imperious wrote:

I don't hate or love to disagree with you malmo, I just have to point out that the original distance of 26 miles 385 yards was the distance of the 1908 Olympic Marathon from Windsor Castle to the White City stadium. Imperial measurement was imperative, the race had to finish in front of the Royal box.

We all know that.

The official marathon distance was set by the IAAF in May of 1921 is 42.195 kilometers. It hasn't changed since.

malmo wrote:

We all know that.

The official marathon distance was set by the IAAF in May of 1921 is 42.195 kilometers. It hasn't changed since.

Except for a small period of time in the 70s when the distance was accidentally thought to be 42195 kilometres. It created a big problem for people trying to route marathon courses so it was changed back before any race started.

Math Manly wrote:

rekrunner wrote:

This makes the marathon distance exactly 42.194988 km

No rounding errors yet.

Sorry, that's not exact.

+1

malmo wrote:

Imperious wrote:

I don't hate or love to disagree with you malmo, I just have to point out that the original distance of 26 miles 385 yards was the distance of the 1908 Olympic Marathon from Windsor Castle to the White City stadium. Imperial measurement was imperative, the race had to finish in front of the Royal box.

We all know that.

The official marathon distance was set by the IAAF in May of 1921 is 42.195 kilometers. It hasn't changed since.

Don't forget the 42 meters added by the course measurers. Most of the statmen don't seem to know this.

I see now that 5 minutes of Wikipedia research would have eliminated this discussion. Still I just looked at 12mm on a metric ruler. That's almost half an inch. (dare I say 0.47244094488189"?).

malmo wrote:

rekrunner wrote:

Isn't the "exact" marathon distance 26 miles 385 yds?

In other words, exactly 26.21875 miles?

No the exact marathon distance isn't expressed in imperial measure.

rekrunner wrote:

The popular metric approximation of 42.195 km is exactly 12mm too long.

42.195km isn't a metric approximation, it IS the definition of the marathon distance by the IAAF for almost 100 years.

Calculation was exact. No rounding, truncation, or miscalculation. Just pure infinite precision by definition.

Futry wrote:

Math Manly wrote:

Sorry, that's not exact.

+1

If you are willing to show me your calculations (work), I will be happy to show you where you erred.

Imperious wrote:

I don't hate or love to disagree with you malmo, I just have to point out that the original distance of 26 miles 385 yards was the distance of the 1908 Olympic Marathon from Windsor Castle to the White City stadium. Imperial measurement was imperative, the race had to finish in front of the Royal box.

malmo wrote:

We all know that.

The official marathon distance was set by the IAAF in May of 1921 is 42.195 kilometers. It hasn't changed since.

imperious wrote:

Don't forget the 42 meters added by the course measurers. Most of the statmen don't seem to know this.

That was stated in an earlier post.

But the short course prevention factor doesn't change the NOMINAL distance of 42.195 km. Just as the curb/line doesn't change the nominal 400m measurement of a lap on a track.

A marathon is still 42.195km. A track is still 400m.

The short course prevention factor is added to protect the measured distance from being found short if a record is set and a verification measurement is made.

The reality is that the course only needs to be 42195 meters.

This has always gone against my DNA. When I did the London Olympic Measurement I was joined by Hugh Jones who I believe is the top measurer in the world. Once we were finished with measuring and the number crunching our measurements for the full 42195m was within 1.6 meters of each other! The rules allow that a post measurement (verification measurement) is not required if two IAAF Level "A" measurers did the initial measurement.

The extra distance was incorporated because we allow anyone to measure road courses and yes errors can be made even with the best measurer.

To this day I still don't know why we need to add the extra distance if you have a team of top measurers doing the original measurements.

Wasn't there a video feature of you measuring the Olympic marathon course? I wanted to post it earlier but couldn't find it.

No video.

A few articles, one in the WSJ. Must have been a slow news day. Much more press then any nerd deserves!

Calculations:26 miles 385 yds = 26 miles + 385 yds * 1 mile/1760 yds = 26.21875 miles26.21875 miles * 1.609344 km/mile = 42.194988 kms

Math Manly wrote:

If you are willing to show me your calculations (work), I will be happy to show you where you erred.