In today’s local paper, a reader wrote that he was disappointed that the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon was 26.5 miles and not the standard 26.2 miles according to his Forerunner 305. The letter annoyed me as the author is a bit clueless about marathons. I’ve thought about writing letters to the editor all the time, but finally pulled the trigger.
I read the letter from Joe Chavez about the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon and was very annoyed that the author thought he knew more about the marathon than the organizers. If he had done any research, he would have known that a marathon is measured as the absolute shortest distance along the course; this means taking all of the inside corners and not zig zagging on the course, like many runners have to do in order to pass slower runners. In addition, while the Forerunner 305 is an excellent training device, it is not 100% accurate. I ran the marathon in 2006 and 2007 and my Forerunner 305 also registered 26.5 miles; I know that I had to zig zag to avoid runners and definitely didn’t take all the inside corners.
Joe should have done a little more research before accusing the organizers of stretching out the marathon.
Scott Gruby
San Diego
I’m not sure if they’ll publish it, but it felt good to write it. If the author was around, I’d slap him upside the head.