USATF/RRTC Meeting Minutes

December 3, 2022

Meeting Minutes Approval – All

The minutes from the 2021 meeting were approved.

Registrar report – Jane Parks

2022 Certification Statistics

East Vice Chair Report – Justin Kuo

There is one new certifier in the East, Brandon Wilson for South Carolina.

West Vice Chair Report – Jane Parks

There is one new certifier in the West, Jeff Huber for Oregon.

World Championships Report – Jane Parks

Jane Parks was the lead measurer for the 2022 World Championships Marathon and Race Walks courses in Eugene, Oregon. The additional measurers of the courses were Lee Barrett and Jeff Huber, both from Oregon.

The Marathon was 3 laps of a 14k loop plus an additional 195 meters. The Race Walk course was a 1 kilometer loop.

Jane’s report of the measurement process is in Appendix A of these minutes.

Verifications – Mike Wickiser

Record Ratification – David Katz

David talked about the World and American record ratification process. This process includes a verification that the course used for the record was accurately measured, that the course was set up correctly on race day, and that the runners followed the correct course during the race. The RRTC Board will create a document the RRTC’s role in this process (see Action Item).

USATF Championships – modify rules and regulations – David Katz

David talked about cases where there were records, set but they didn’t count because the course was not set up correctly. David is proposing that the course measurer or his designee, who is also an A or B, must be on site for all USATF Open Championship events. This will be part of a document that will be created by the RRTC Board to detail the requirements for setting American records (see Action Item).

WA and rankings – all courses must be WA certified – David Katz

WA athlete rankings are used to determine qualification for the World Championships. Athletes earn ranking points for performances in events that are included on the WA list of eligible events. In order to be included on this list of events, the course used for a race must be measured by a WA measurer and certified by WA/AIMS. The RRTC Board will create a document detailing these requirements (see Action Item).

WA A & B appointments – Jane Parks

Jane talked about the process of promoting a measurer to World Athletics “A” and “B” status. Part of that process is a review by the WA/AIMS International Measurement Administrators of candidates for promotion to WA measurer status. Unfortunately, this group meets only once per year, so the process can be slow. In 2022 two Grade B measurers were upgraded to Grade A measurers: Jeff Huber, Oregon Certifier, Grade A and Todd Byers, California Certifier, Grade A. There are two US-based measurers who have been candidates for quite a while, and hopefully will be promoted to “B” status this spring.

Website – Mark Neal

        Additions to the RRTC.NET website this past year

• PDF and Google Docs versions of the new Procedures Manual (Version 2022-1.1)  This is also available on the USATF website in PDF.
• Continuing to maintain a map that shows the location of all USATF course measurers and also provides links to their contact information.
• New map available that shows the precise location of most USATF certified calibration courses (even provides one-click driving directions).
• Google Sheets version of the certification application for LDE submissions
• Google Sheets spreadsheet for submitting measurement data for LDE submissions.
• Table of computer and phone apps useful to course measurers

A new roadrunningtechnicalcouncil google account was created. Google docs (like the procedures manual) and to google sheets (like the certification application) are now stored on this account rather than the webmaster’s personal account.

New Training Chairperson – David Katz

David Katz has appointed Doug Thurston to be the new Training Chairperson.

Online Certification Application Submission System – Justin Kuo

Justin Kuo discussed the status of the Online Certification Application Submission website. It is understood that there are many “quirks” in the system that need to be fixed, and there is now some money available to make those changes. Mark Neal mentioned that the update to the web server for the system that was completed this past year has greatly improved performance, virtually eliminating the “hanging” that used to occur fairly often.

Olympic Trials – David Katz

Orlando has been selected as the site. A yet-to-be-determined team of four measurers will measure and certify the course.

Ted Corbitt Award – David Katz

David announced that the winner of the 2022 Ted Corbitt Award is Mark Neal.

Action Items

The RRTC Board will create documents that will clarify the course measurement requirements for USATF National Championship Events, World Athletics Ranking Events, US Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifying Events,Olympic Qualifying Performance Events, and American and World Record Ratification.

Front row(left to right): Christo Landry, Mark Neal, Jane Parks, David Katz, Andy Carr

Back row(left to right): Justin Kuo, Matt Slocum, Stephen Peckiconis, Ron Pate, Mike Scott,  Carol McLatchie, Steve Vaitones

APPENDIX A: 2022 World Championships Marathon and Race Walks Courses Measurement by Jane Parks

This is a brief overview of the measurement for the RW and Marathon with a focus on the actual event. It was amazing, exciting, a little stressful, definitely educational, and that is what I want to share, not the “mundane measuring”.

Race Walk (RW) and Marathon Course discussions started over a year before the event. About 2-3 months after the World Athletics (WA) and the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) walkthrough the race walk and marathon courses were changed. Both courses had same finish and David Katz was involved in designing a better finish walk off for the athletes. The first Marathon course was changed due to impacts on the residential community.

I was appointed as the Course Measurer Delegate for WA to measure both the racewalk course OR22001JHP and the marathon course OR22004JHP. Lee Barrett (WA A and now retired) Jeff Huber (WA B and now an A and the new OR certifier) both from the Portland agreed to help me with the measurements. While the LOC paid expenses our time was as volunteers.

The “final” marathon course was a 14K loop run 3 times with 195 meters added to create the finish. The RW was 1000m. We only has a weekend to measure both courses and a calibration course.

The courses were measured in March 2022. The Marathon course had a tight U-turn that the WA Officials did not like but it was the preferred course of the LOC. There was another tentative option which I quickly measured but it came up long so we proceeded with the LOC version.

With three measurers, two of the three were always in agreement so it was easy to fix any errors and we all made an error at some point. We measured the marathon 14K with a police escort starting at 3 am in the morning.  It was so dark in the park along Prefontaine’s trail that even the police took the wrong turn. Fortunately, I knew the course and stopped before making the same mistake. We created a tight U-turn on Centennial, a 4 lane road, to make the 14K distance. It was not a runner friendly course but it was accurate. We also measured the RW.

The WA Officials were not happy with the course because it was not a good course for the athletes. With a lot of David’s help and a little of my help, WA arrived at a better course that would, per Google Earth, require only a soft wide turn at Rainbow and Centennial. The LOC did not want the change but WA persisted and asked me to go back to Eugene to re-measure at WA (not LOC) expense. Lee and Jeff fortunately were available to help with the remeasurement. The LOC was not available to assist. There was no police escort and the LOC was not able to find a person to pick me up at the airport. I learned that only in Oregon a pickup truck is the same price as a subcompact to rent.

I previewed the course and determined exactly where to enter the turn from Rainbow to Centennial and where to exit. When Lee and Jeff arrived we needed to ride the course to the point going into the turn and then ride against traffic (with no police support) from the exit of the turn to the 12km mark which was a short distance crossing three lanes of oncoming traffic. Once we determined the distance needed for the soft curve turn I used a metric wheel to site a line to make the distance. We did that twice to get very close to the distance then we all rode the intersection pressing the xc signals and waiting for traffic. We all agreed on the exact turn and then had to document it. Lee laid out nails while Jeff and I taped two points to each nail to create a detailed description. Creating the turn took more time than the entire rest of the measurement.

The week before the Worlds at our final conference call I learned there was a change to the Marathon. The ramp from Prefontaine’s trail to the road was never built. I needed to measure the difference between using a hypothetical ramp which we measured and using the existing curb cut from the path to the road. One of the WA Officials wanted some other changes made to the marathon course as well. I explained to him that the course was pre-verified and we could not make significant changes. He explained to me his definition of a “Significant Change” so I told him that I would check it out as soon as I got there. I arrived three days before the first event which was the 20K RW.

Tuesday before the Opening events, the LOC arranged for a volunteer with a truck to go out to the ramp location. His truck couldn’t carry a bike. So I rode my bike everywhere. Without the new ramp the course was about one foot longer so I did not make any changes.

The volunteer who helped me was a Section Captain for the course set up. He had never seen the certificate. He had a very general map but no details on where to place the cones in his section on D St. He would have set it up incorrectly for the measured tangents. I showed him the certificate and how to get his own copy.

Once I realized that the marathon course certificate had not been shared with the course set-up teams, I asked the Volunteer Coordinator if she would arrange a meeting for me with each of 3 Section Captains. I said I would meet at any time of the day or night knowing that these were volunteers who had full time jobs.

Wednesday and Thursday I met each Section Captain and walked their sections of the course. Not one of them was aware of the Course Certificate and none of them would have set up the course correctly with the information they were given. They all appreciated the additional information on the certificate.

Thursday evening before the RW, I received a call from the LOC Course Manager that the first turn of the RW needed to be changed from a 3m radius to a 4m radius. There had been some discussion previously on the 3m radius and David had provided information how many of the Olympics and Worlds courses had used a 3m radius. Although 4m is preferred by the RW community it is not always possible. I emailed my contacts at WA and also contacted David about the last minute change. Late that night I received  an email from WA that the change was for the “fixed” TV camera which needed a wider the turn to capture the entire turn. The other end was a boom camera so there was no problem on that end. On the morning of the RW I changed the radius with a tape and also confirmed it twice with my calibrated bike. The LOC Course Manager and two WA Officials confirmed my calculations on the radius and assisted with the tape measurement.

War of the Roses (the Cone Wars)
As course measurer my role on race day is to ensure that the course is run as measured. Right before the RW race they set up the turns with attractive flower boxes to make the course look good for the TV cameras. Behind the flower boxes were branded marketing sponsor track boards. About an hour before the first RW race two WA officials were having a discussion about using the flower boxes to mark the first turn or cones. One said the flower boxes were too high and obstructed the sponsor names, while the other wanted flower boxes for appearance and felt they did not obstruct the branding. I wanted to be sure whatever was in the right place. I suggested flower boxes on the ends and cones in the middle but was told by one of the WA officials that “You cannot mix cones and flower boxes”. At that point the other WA official said he had to leave and asked me to place the flower boxes around the course. So I went from course measurer to course decorator after carefully placing the cones. The race went perfectly.

On Saturday, it was back to the marathon course with a 6am start. The course set up started at 3am so at 4am I was on the course on my bike checking the setup. At the critical turn from Rainbow to Centennial the cones were set up correctly on the inside of the turn but the barricades blocking the intersections made the turn too tight. The volunteers were setting up another part of the course so I started pushing out the outer edge barricades to widen the turn. Someone must have seen the crazy lady pushing barricades around and got the Section Captain. He recognized me from our previous meeting and asked why I was widening the turn when the runners would be on the inside. I explained that the course vehicles wouldn’t be able to make the turn. He then asked his volunteer team to help me move the barricades.

At 5am before the start, I went out to review the course with a driver, 2 WA officials, 2 EMTs to be dropped on the course, a producer from national TV, and the LOC course manager. At 45 minutes before the start we were still gathering everyone to go out on the course but fortunately the course was set up correctly. We drove the course and then returned so the driver, the TV producer and I could ride 5 minutes ahead of the runners to ensure that there was no interference on the course and that it was run correctly.

On Monday the women’s marathon had the same set up. I was on my bike at 4am again and everything was set up except at the critical turn from Rainbow to Centennial. This time the inside cones weren’t set up. When I asked the Section Captain why, he said I was right about the vehicles. The race vehicles could get through but the bus dropping off the water stop volunteers couldn’t make the turn on Sunday and ran over all the cones. So they were waiting for the bus before setting up the turn cones. Again everything went very smoothly.

One of the last events of the Championships was the 35K RW. I was out early checking the turns and this time the flower boxes were back out so I made sure that they were in the correct positions.

At less than 10 minutes before the start I was waiting at the first turn when the WA Race Official came up and asked why there were flower boxes instead of cones. He said he had told someone to bring cones but there were none to be seen. At this point the participants were lined up at the start and they were making final announcements. He said to remove the flower boxes and he would find the cones. Someone started removing the boxes and I told him to stop until we had the cones otherwise there would be nothing marking the turn and if the race started there would be no course. At less than 4 minutes on the clock before the start, the cones appeared and I placed them just before the gun went off. Once again a perfect event.

There were a lot of things that could have gone wrong due to lack of communication but everything went perfectly. It was an amazing experience and I was very happy to be a part of it. Please scroll down to see the photos on the next page.