Ok so in 1981 Al covers the NYC course in 2:08:13, it was later found to be 27 sec short, which would have put him behind Clayton's 2:08:33 still from 1969.
Whats the story, I can't seem to find out. When was the record ruled ineligible? Everything you read or hear as late as 1984 seems to cite that as the record? How long did it take b/f they realized it was short?
Several years
how long wrote:
Several years
They found out right away. The course was legit the very next year.
I may be off on this, but the rules for course measurement have changed since they were initially formulated. At first the course was measured the way runners would PROBABLY run, but then it was agreed this required measurers to be mind readers too so the current Shortest Possible Course was instituted. However, I believe what did in Al Sal's WR was that the offset from the road edge was reduced from 1 meter to 30 cm (1 ft) to bring it in line w/ the way a track is measured. With all the turns in the NYCM course that made it short.
Of course, that's always seemed to me the same as moving the fences in or out at a ballpark, and adjusting a player's HR total accordingly.
There was a bit of confusion caused by the fact that even after the course was found to be short, Fred Lebow and the NYRR listed it as a world record for many years after anyway.
Yeah, I blame Lebow and company for not being forthright about this. Mistakes happen, and this was a bad one, but Lebow shouldn't have tried to sweep it under the rug.
Allison Roe's time from that race is still listed as a women's world record, so I'm wondering if the measurement held up for the women's race (which used to be run on a slightly different course in the early miles, before it merged with the men's course).
We have been down this road many times before.
It is much more complicated and there is a great deal of evidence on both sides of the issue. I write my observations in more detail when I have a few hours!
I believe there was many questions about the Clayton course as well...
Basically as I understand it... they measured the course along a blue line that Salazar followed closely - 26.2 miles.
However, regardless of how closely he followed the line and may in fact have run 26.2 miles, it wasn't the correct way to measure.