True 5k wrote:
True 5k wrote:
Why do you think anyone is bitter?
What evidence suggest the course is "a true 5k"?
1. Wachtel and Hutchins ran 14:15 and 15:34 respectively on the track 2 weeks prior last year.
Yes, two weeks AFTER and a track should be faster than a CC Course.
2. The park is a dedicated XC venue wheeled and verified by RunningLane.
Great! The issue could be with the type of wheel and where they wheeled the course. But I hope it is spot on!
There are permanent markers.
That's a nice touch. How often and at what distance do they have these permanent markers?
I would encourage anyone who doubts the veracity of this to bring a wheel to John Hunt park and try for themselves.
I'm looking forward to doing do that sometime.
3. Almost every single GPS entry on Strava (look at the segment for yourself) has the course at around 3.13. While one GPS recording can be erroneous, there is strength in numbers.
"Almost" and "at around" don't give me much confidence and I have had bad luck with gps devices on CC Courses. I'm not a strava user - can you post what you are talking about?
4. PRs were logical given the athletes' track times. Sahlman ran 8:43 last spring.
Not really. Way too many fast times by the majority at a race in December, and track times from last spring are just that - track times from last spring.
5. PRs were logical given NP athletes' Woodbridge times which converted to roughly 14:10.
Not sure what that has to do with the course length? Maybe both are easy and short?
6. Course conditions were significantly better than any course run by any of these athletes with the exception of Woodbridge. Weren't there like thousands of kids that raced? You really think this was the best conditions ALL these kids have seen this season?
7. I think all of this has been said dozens of times on this thread, and you're a dunce for asking without simply reading the thread. Yes, and none of it verifies the course length.
8. I see no other reason to question the validity of a clearly valid course other than the bitterness that you/your child/your athletes did not get a chance to race. No bitterness , just would like concrete confirmation on the course length. I have seen situations like this in the past and all checked out as I expected. When a bunch of kids run fast there is a reason. When a bunch of kids run average there is a reason, and when a bunch of kids run slow there is a reason. The number one reason in my research, and past experiences, has been course length. It is really pretty simple.
9. Of the people I know, most PRs were between 0-25 seconds. Four boys on my team did not PR.
A quick look at results show many quality runners improved by over a minute as has been noted on this thread or others about this meet. Yes, if you have ran on "fast" or short courses during the regular season that could happen.