Miscellaneous wrote:
JamesTheAmateur wrote:
Dude, yes. If it's on the track, it's X000. If it's on the road, then it's Xk. It drives me nuts when people say they ran a 5k when it was a track race. Um, no, no it wasn't. It was a 5000
This is the most arbitrary load of bull#@+& I have ever heard. 5k = 5000, 10k = 10,000. There is no agreement that one applies to track and one to off-road. Most track runners that run these events just refer to them as " the 5" and " the 10". As in, " I'm running the 5 this Saturday and the 10 next week"
This has been the general convention for a while, actually.
In fact, check out the usatf calendar every year. 5000m and 10000m races are only on track schedules. 5k and 10k races are only listed as road events.
Also check out the IAAF profile for any athlete who has run both roads and track, you will notice that they follow this same convention, listing separate 10k and 10000m PRs for the athlete.
In fact, here is a link to one such athlete's profile on IAAF website:
https://www.iaaf.org/athletes/united-states/weldon-johnson-172755