PCRF-Guy wrote:
This is all the information anyone needed. It’s measured, certified and sanctioned. Who cares what GPS says. Congrats on the win and good luck at the trials!
AnonymousRun wrote:
Hey Zach, first of all great run last weekend and congrats on the win. Secondly, I was looking at your Strava and saw you got 26.06 for this race last year as well. That - combined with several others indicating GPS measurements < 26.2 for this race over the years - is one of the main reasons I’m inclined to believe this is a GPS issue rather than anything else, as if that’s not the explanation than this course has been short for several years running or the runners have always incorrectly run on the wrong side of the road. This, I’m curious if this has been brought up you before/whether you know if the race directors have ever discussed it.
I'm confused by these responses. Quick recap of where we are landing:
1. The course certification is based on running the right side of the road for most of the race (miles 5-21)
2. We know the leaders did not run on the right side of the road. We have pictures of them running on the left side of the road, plus Zach admitting it above
Based on this I don't understand how anyone can say it was short just because of GPS issues or that the distance run was legitimate because of the certification. Like another poster said - if a track is 400 meters but you cut through the grass, it's no longer 400 meters.
There can be the separate discussion of if they should have known to stay on the left side, if it made the difference in qualifying, etc., but don't think there's any debate anymore that they didn't run the full course.