A marathon is longer than a marathon.
I am not talking about how one should properly train for a marathon by covering multiples of the marathon distance during one’s training season.
And I am not talking about how the official distance of a marathon is longer than 26.2 miles — that it is actually 26.21875 miles long.
No, I am talking about how participating in a marathon can force one to travel more than the official 26.21875 miles from the starting line to the finish line.
When I completed the Houston Marathon this past January, my GPS unit recorded that I actually covered 26.60 miles from start to finish.
When I completed the San Antonio Marathon this past Sunday, my GPS unit recorded that I actually covered 26.69 miles from start to finish.
From my personal example with these two marathons alone, that means that I covered an extra 0.42625 miles on average.
Think about that! It means that I covered on average more than four-tenths of a mile more than I should have in those two marathons!
And my actual average pace was 14 seconds per mile faster in the San Antonio Marathon than what the organizers reported to me.
I have talked to a few people about this discrepancy, and we all have the same conclusion:
Marathon courses seemed to be laid out such that the shortest possible traversal of them will equal the official marathon distance.
In other words, as long as you stay on the course, you must cut all corners so that your marathon distance will be as close as possible to the distance of a marathon.
I agree with this approach to laying out a marathon course.
For example, suppose that a marathon course were laid out such that its official distance required running down the middle of each street along the way. Then the winner and others close behind him, all of whom would cut those corners (and NOT run down the middles of the streets), would actually run LESS than a full marathon.
And I take full responsibility for whatever meanderings caused me to run almost half a mile extra in each of these marathons this year.
But I also take several lessons from this analysis:
- Elite runners have the best chance at keeping their race mileage as low as possible, given that they have the best chance at cutting corners (because they are not stuck in the crowds with the rest of us).
- One must be very deliberate, if one wants to cut as many corners as possible while running (or walking!) in a crowd.
- Expect to have to cover more than 26.21875 miles in a marathon — maybe up to something like 4/10 of a mile more.
- Stop complaining when a training run is longer than what its organizer said it would be!
- Train to be able to run and/or walk farther than a marathon — because you probably will cover more than that distance during the race.
Have you had a similar experience in any of your races? Do you attribute the overage to your GPS unit? Or do you trust the accuracy of your GPS unit’s mileage measurements and attribute the overage to your not cutting all corners along the course route?
What kinds of deltas have you seen? Please leave a comment here. Thanks!
