One hour run - question

[noone]

I posted this question a couple of weeks ago but didn't receive an answer, probably because my post was hidden in another thread.

My question is: How do they measure the exact distance in an hour run? Does an official run alongside each runner for the last few steps and when the final horn goes they jam a marker in the track? Or does the runner have to stop "on a dime" when the horn goes?

[Daisy]

Re: One hour run - question

Couldn't they just record it on video with a timer and mark the spot? How accurate do they measure it to? Surely no more than to the nearest meter?

[ppalmer]

Re: One hour run - question

I am sure there are high tech ways people could come up with, but the only time I ran it (over 40 years ago), we were given a metal marker the last time we would cross the start line, and dropped it when the gun sounded.

Pat Palmer

edit
I remembered later: there was a gun with 1 minute to go and then another gun at the end of the hour.

[utkvol80]

Re: One hour run - question

A couple of times I counted laps for runners in an 1-Hour race in Knoxville, TN. As I remember it we had piece of paper with a track oval drawn on it, and with the best our ability we were to make on the track the point reached by the runner at the end of the hour. I'm sure that now there are more high tech ways to do this, but the race is run so infrequently, I doubt it.

[Halfmiler3]

Re: One hour run - question

Back in the 1980's our club hosted the National 2 hour walk championships & a one hour postal walk.

The way it worked backed then was that there was a lap counter assigned to each walker or two walkers at most. The lap counter recorded lap splits to be able to prove the number of laps walked. A few minutes before the hour was up, each walker was handed by his lap counter a stick (like the ones a runner sometimes is handed at the end of a cross country race)with his competitors number on it. At the end of the hour or two hour, the starter would shoot off his gun and each walker (under the observation of his lap counter) would drop the stick to the ground beside him.

Then officials would take a measuring wheel around the track to measure the fraction of a lap that each walker had completed and that distance would be added to the distance of the full laps the walker had completed to determine the distance he had achieved.

[bambam2]

Re: One hour run - question

>Back in the 1980's our club hosted the National 2 hour walk championships & a
>one hour postal walk.

Is the one hour postal walk an event where you walk for 1 hour and then get really mad?

[oneill]

Re: One hour run - question

We had some great one-hour runs in Santa Barbara back in the '60's and '70's, 100 plus runners in four or five heats, the results compared with other one-hour races held regionally across the country, all on the same day. It was fun to get out and set up on a steady pace with times called every 440, and neat competition too.

Each runner had an asigned lap counter, usually a runner drawn in another heat. Coming up to the one-minute-to-go gun, the lap counter would move onto the outside of the track and try to estimate where his runner would be at the one-hour gun, and would spot the exact point when the gun went off and mark it for the measurement.

I counted laps for Mike Kimball, SBAA runner, when he set an American record at Alameda, CA in 1968 0r '69. He went about 12 miles and 380 yards, I think, but I'll have to check the club records for distance and exact date.

[ZZrunZZ]

Re: One hour run - question

I think this may answer your question

From USATF Rule 163.8 (2005 Rules of Competition, page 80)

"In any race decided on the basis of the distance covered in a fixed period of time, the Starter shall fire the pistol or give other audible or visual signal exactly one minute before the end of the race to warn competitors and judges that the race is nearing its end. At the exact specified time after the start, as directed by the Chief Timer, the Stater shall signal the end of the race by again firing the pistol or giving other audible or visual signal. The Timers will then immediately stop their watches. At the instant of the signal of the expiration of the time, the Judges appointed for that purpose shall mark the exact spot where each competitor last touched the track before or simultaneously with the final signal. Competitor may be given marking devices to place at their last contact point to aid the Judge. The distance achieved shall be measured top the nearest meter or yard behind the rear edge of the last footprint of the competitor. At least one judge shall be assigned to each competitor before the start of the race for the purpose of recording the time of each lap completed and marking the distance achieved."

[no one]

Re: One hour run - question

oneill - fred richerson - chuck smead? - wasn't that SB? hs semi-phenoms - well maybe full fledged phenoms

[oneill]

Re: One hour run - question

No one

Fred Richerson and Chuck Smead both had good one-hour runs here in Santa Barbara. Both were juniors at the time. Smead ran for SBAA for a few years. Richerson went to USC, competed as a freshman, seems to have thereafter dropped out...Never to be heard from again, so far as I can tell.

The American Junior record for the one-hour run is still held by SBAA runner (17 years old) George Aguirre, 12 miles 197 yards, set in 1975 or thereabouts.

[eldrick]

Re: One hour run - question

one problem

what if there was a blistering photo finish between 2,3 or even 4 guyz ?!

( ala geb v tergat in '00 )

there's no finish line to judge

woud we see the 4 track officials involved in a mass brawl claiming that their "competitor" had won the race ?

[DrJay]

Re: One hour run - question

>>Back in the 1980's our club hosted the National 2 hour walk championships &
>a
>one hour postal walk.

Is the one hour postal walk an event where you
>walk for 1 hour and then get really mad?


Made my afternoon! (We're easily amused around here.)

[noone]

Re: One hour run - question

Thank you all for your answers -- much clearer now.

[no one]

Re: One hour run - question

got a questionable memory but it seems I saw one or two of those. Had worked out with a Chuck a few times - he schooled me on how to run uphill - for 15 or 16 miles. And Richerson won a CIF SS xc champ in small school div same yr I (won!) the large school. I don't know what ever happened to him either - but the showdowns with (primarily) Ruben Chappins were epic. Chuck, I believe became pretty good all around distance guy. Can't think of a US runner better on a long uphill grind.