Letter to the director

This is the letter I have sent to Liza Recto, the race director for the Lower Potomac River Marathon.  As for the part about her car being in a ditch, it really is true.  Her car rolled into a ditch while she was out placing mile markers before the crack of dawn!


Dear Ms. Recto,

First, I would like to thank you very much for directing such a wonderful race.  Everyone involved - from the runners to the volunteers to the spectators - created a friendly and inviting environment.  And to have the placement of mile markers and an on-time start as the foremost things on your mind while your car was stuck in a ditch? Well, that is just extraordinary.

Though I am happy to have the opportunity to tell you those things, the reason I am writing to you today is because of a discrepancy with the course that all the runners with GPS watches (including me) had noted.  I am not sure if anyone else brought this up to you, but we all came up with 26.45 as the course distance.

This may not seem like a lot, but it translates to anywhere from a minute (for the faster runners) to several minutes (for the back-of-packers).  For me, it was about a minute and a half, but even more importantly it was the difference between qualifying for Boston (with a 3:09:12 according to my watch) and not (with a 3:10:44 on the official clock). 

After looking over the results, I think I may be the only person in this predicament, but I do believe it is worth looking into for the sake of accuracy and for any past or future runners that may find themselves with this dilemma at your otherwise lovely race.

It is my belief that the reason for this discrepancy is that the runners were instructed to stay on the shoulders of the roads due to traffic.  The USATF likely measured all the shortest distances - tangents around corners and straight lines through curves.  This was probably why we lost a few yards with each passing mile, as our Garmins beeped farther and farther before the mile markers as the race progressed.

I hope you will help me appeal to the USATF to recalibrate the course and, hopefully, retroactively adjust all finishers' result times.  Again, this is especially important to me as it makes or breaks my Boston qualification. Any assistance from you, the Chesapeake Bay Running Club, and even other runners would be most appreciated.

Thank you for your time and for putting on an all-around enjoyable race and a fabulous weekend.

Sincerely,
Daniel Galioto