My appeal to the USATF

I was clearly getting nowhere with Liza Recto (race director for the Lower Potomac River Marathon), so I filed the following appeal directly with USA Track & Field. Below is the email I sent to Lyman Jordan, the Maryland course certifier for the USATF. 

Dear Lyman Jordan,

I would like to formally submit a complaint and file an appeal regarding the course certification of the Lower Potomac River Marathon, certified as MD04016JS.

In speaking with the race director, Liza Recto, she informed me that she measured the course to follow the "shortest possible distance" according to the method laid out by the USATF.  This included tangents across corners and the middles through curves.

However, before the race, we were instructed several times to stay on the left shoulder of the roadway at all times, due to the fact that none of the roads would be closed.  This instruction is still available on the race website here (under "Safety"): www.cbrcmd.org/lpr_marathon_2014.htm.

Thus, runners were not allowed to run the "shortest possible distance", and this added several seconds or even minutes to their times at the end.

Therefore, I humbly appeal to you to order a re-measuring of the course according to the instructions runners were given.  If, in fact, this added enough extra distance as to cause a discrepancy in finish times, I would like to see that the participants' official results be adjusted.

Thank you for your time.  I hope that you seriously consider this appeal.

Respectfully,
Daniel Galioto
Participant in the Lower Potomac River Marathon on March 9, 2014