Edinburgh Half Marathon Course Measurement

This of course may be the oldest excuse in the book (!) but did anyone else measure the course for today's ADT half a bit long. There was a brief discussion between people around me at the finish and pretty well everyone was a minute or two down on predicted times which - considering good conditions etc - was a surprise. I know Garmins and otehr GPS devices tend to measure all distances a bit long but fairly uniformly everyone I spoke to measured it at 13.4 miles. The course didn't quite correlate with the route map either around the 10 mile mark and seemed to go a bit further out to Cockenzie than expected.

Anyway - this all may a classic case of sour grapes on my part  but I think I'll drop the race organisers (who otherwise did a great job) an email to confirm the distance was verified accurately.

HI

I agree with you my Garmin GPS measured 13.41 miles and the two other people I was running with measured the course long as well.  I was going for a PB and missed it by just over a minute!  I have already emailed the organisers.  I know some people might see it as sour grapes but it was also a different course to the one advertised so their must have been a change in distance somewhere.

By checking my pacing (7.47 minute miles) I should have come in at 1.42 over a 13.1 mile course.  It is important to all runners to know you are running the correct distance as to most time does matter.

Fiona - maybe it's not just me then ! Did you think the course was different to that advertised at the 10 mile turnaround bit ?? I'll def email. Presumably the more people speak up it might make a difference ! I was going for a PB too ! Would be great to hear from anyone else with similar thoughts

Were you on the first shuttle bus back to town? I was standing near some people in the queue who were saying exactly the same.

Re the measurement I know GPS isn't super accurate for course measurement etc etc, but I really didn't deviate much at all and had a clear run without much overtaking etc and do more than a dozen races a year usually so am pretty used to my garmin reading about right...and mine was 13.4 too. Sorry you missed out on the PB's .  Lucky for me I'm doing London next week so was going for a steady run and wasn't really worried about time, so it didn't actually bother me at all, but thought I'd respond anyway to say hello

Otherwise a great race though I thought. The organisation at the start especially seemed loads better than previous years (well done the organisers!!) - except perhaps the cunningly hidden ladies baggage truck almost completely eluded me! (The compulsory gender split of the bags for transport confused me as after reading the race guide leaflet had planned to leave my bag on the London road truck) Admittedly it was a big truck and hard to miss once you turned all the necessary corners round the back of the stadium , but a marshall told me it was in the car park and it took me 15 mins to actually find! I'll know for next year though..

Well done and thanks to the organisers!  

I had my splits for each mile on my wristband and was a minute under my expdected split at 9 miles, but by 10 miles I was a minute over - in effect saying I ran that mile in 9 and a half minutes after doing the rest in 7 and a half consistently?? Oh well, never mind got my pb anyway!

I'm sure the turn was further on this year. My Garmin measured mile 10 as almost 2k.

I was on first bus back to and heard lots of comments saying the same.  The course was a different route than advertised at the turn and the two previous years it has been a different route.  Well done to all who ran and if you got a PB Wow.   Keep on running

Facebook link on the official site has word from organisers that the course WAS long due to those cones around mile 10 being misplaced. They're going to recalculate times possibly tonight. Good news that I'm not insane but not a great display of organisation - shame considering everything else about the event was spot on I thought

My trace says about 240 metres past last years turn, so nearly 0.5k extra.

I too measured the race at 13.42 miles. A bit of a shame if it turns out that the course was a bit long as I thought everything else was pretty well spot on (although not going to complain if my time comes down a bit!)

Great race my endomondo came in at 13.35, that car outside the racecourse threw me I thought that was the end, was I the only one? Great organisation though and fantastic route, tshirt not bad either.

http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/topstories/Race-chiefs-say-sorry-as.6749789.jp

 Good to get a clarification from them so fast.

Did anyone have problems getting water? 

There was no water left at the first water stop and none at the last one.  The amount of water must have been seriously miscalculated as there were a fair number of people behind me.  I cannot remember what the entry fee was, but you should expect an accurately measured course and enough water for everyone as a minimum. 

 Having got the moan off my chest I did still enjoy it, and I'll most likely be back next year.  It's a great course, and alot of people obviously put a lot of effort into organising it.

Hi guys,

Please see the note below from our Race Director - Mike James

"Thank you for taking part in the ADT Edinburgh Half Marathon on Sunday 11th April 2011. I am sure you will agree that it was a glorious day and I was pleased to see so many happy faces in and around Musselburgh Race Course following the race.

As Race Director I would like to thank all the workers who have put in so much time and effort over the past few months to make this event happen.

Everybody that works on this event honestly and genuinely puts in so much hard work and when certain things do not go to plan it hits the team hard because every effort is made to try and make each individual runners Half Marathon experience a good one.

There were three specific problems that have come to my attention and I would like to explain how these problems occurred and how they are being dealt with.

1) The route was 0.3 miles too long on the day. Unfortunately the responsible person placed the turning point at Preston Pans in the wrong location, this resulted in the course being 300 metres longer than the 13.1 miles. I sincerely apologise for this mistake and our Chip Timing specialists (Winning Time) are re-calculating all results and deducted 0.3 miles from your time. This does mean that all runners ran faster than they thought however their time is not an official time and cannot be used within UK Athletics records.

2) There was a lack of fluid on drink station one that effected many hundreds of runners towards the back of the field. The event team collectively made a decision to pour water into cups this year in order to cut out the wastage that is normally left when half empty bottles of water are left scattered all over Edinburgh and East Lothian. It was thought that runners would welcome a quick drink of water in a plastic cup rather than having a full bottle. Unfortunately the water station workers were unable to pour water into the cups quick enough when the masses of runners went past therefore giving out bottles was the only option and this in turn left this station short of the amount required.

It seams clear that we got this very wrong and may have caused runners to become dehydrated on the route. This procedure will never be repeated again.

3) Some of the runners at the end of the race did not receive a t-shirt in their goody bag. Unfortunately some people who are being dealt with internally helped themselves to goody bags and t-shirts before the final runners came over the finish line. All runners who did not receive a T-Shirt will have them posted out within the next few weeks once we have time to print some more. Again we will ensure better security on the goody bag tent next year.

I have received so much positive feedback on the day from runners and spectators alike and please understand that we look to improve this race year on year. Again I apologise for the issues listed above and can only hope that the positives outweighed the negatives and hope that we will see you again next year for an even bigger and better event.

Thanks Mike."

If you have any questions please join in on Facebook page - www.facebook.com/EdinburghHalfMarathon

Thanks

Rob, Social Media Manager for the 2011 ADT Edinburgh Half Marathon

Was it 0.3miles or 300m too long? anyone know?

As far as I can see from the FB link from the race website it was 0.3 miles ! Looks like the revised time will be av pace over 13.4 miles multiplied by 13.1 - not really a particularly valid statistical manipulation but as close as anyone's going to get I suppose

Even though the race was otherwise enjoyable - for anyone vaguely interested in their finish times and aiming at goals (PBs, qualifying times for other races etc) it really isn't good enough. I was hoping for sub 1.20 and was more or less there until the 10 or 11 mile mark when things went Pete Tong and my head dropped (handy excuse I suppose !!). For all the frills and peripheral stuff surely one of the most fundamental and basic requirements is to actually measure the course length correctly.

Is there truth in the rumour that it was the Police who messed it up ? I suppose like any organisation it all hinges on the multiple cogs in the machine working together and it may have been an innocent mistake on the part of one or two individuals. It isn't great though.....