Posted by ryan woerner on February 20, 2006 at 23:55:37:
With all these talk of injury strategies, I just had a quick off topic question. The NYRRC held two Community 5K's in conjunction with the USATF USA XC Championship. The result sheet listed 4 kilometers as 2.4 miles, and listed the mile paces as such. So someone who ran the 4K course in 14:10 was listed as running 5:54 per mile. What NYRRC did not relize was that 4 kiometers is equivilant to 2.48 miles, which is much closer to 2.5 then 2.4. Someone who ran 2.48 miles in 14:10 ran 5:42 per mile, and almost 12 second per mile difference then what was listed. I did some brainstorming, and figured out that if the USATF measured the course, then it was exactly 4,000 meters. I guess the NYRRC messed up pretty bad. The course was pretty fast though, as the Women Championship 4k time was more than a minute faster than last years winning time and the mens 4k time from this year was 47 seconds faster than last year. I find this pretty odd as Van Cortland is often dubbed the toughest course in the US. I do not believe the race toured the famous backhills however, as it was run European style with 2K loops including the Freshman loop and mostly flats. A glorified track meet, not Cross Country.