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Manchester Marathon measure short 2013 - 2015
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A bit of good news the 100 marathon club are willing to treat these as 'full' marathons as they were run in good faith, so they will count towards any of you trying for the 100.
I agree Seren, but as they said their certicficate was valid for 5 years. Personally I would have looked into it after the 1st year.
I'd be interested to see the proof they have that, after 3 years, there was an error in the calibration of the measuring wheel. Surely, to know this for definite, they must have known at the time that it was wrong ? I assume they must keep records of which wheel was used to measure which course but who is to say that it is as accurate now as it was 3 years ago.
Djwolf.... The 100 marathon club always accept short races if it wasn't known before the event....the badly organised Newport marathon a few years ago was over two miles short and they accepted it...
They also accepted the famous Brighton cheat who cheated on the course and didn't do the full course....so really they just seem to accept any old distance
SN At least I have a genuine GFA this year from Manchester
I still have the Manchester Marathon car sticker on the back window of my car from 2014. I think I'm going to take it down and stick it back on with it edited with a marker to show 25.98 miles and add the word 'shortest' marathon to it's flattest, fastest and friendliest caption!
when cardiff organisers cocked up a few years ago it all came to light within a few days.....
I made exactly that same point recently on here seren nos....I also ran that too and remember it was caused by someone moving roadworks the night/early morning beforehand so a completely different situation altogether too. Now awaiting for my 4th short race somewhere at some point....or knowing my recent luck, maybe another will also be declared short retrospectively at some point soon!
I've had a couple of emails now from the organisers apologising again for the error and giving me an adjusted time.
The one for 2014 looks about right, but for 2013 my time has gone up by over 6 minutes (for a 4h20 time). They say it's based on pace for the last six miles, but I did that in about 57 miinutes so this looks wrong to me.
Either the course was very much shorter than the 380 metres they mentioned, or they've managed to mess this email up as well.
No they came out of the blue two days ago. This was the text of both:
We want to keep you updated with developments regarding the Greater Manchester Marathon course in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
Firstly, we would like to thank those of you who have taken the time to get in touch with us. We want to let you know how sorry we are to hear of the impact that it has had.
The Association of UK Course Measurers (AUKCM) is the UK’s official course measurer. We remain very upset about the situation and are currently in discussions with the AUKCM. We will let you know as soon as we have any further information. When a course is measured and certified, that certificate is valid for 10 years as long as the course remains the same. The short distance was only highlighted after the 2015 race which is why there are 3 races affected by this error. Unfortunately, in the last 24 hours, it has transpired that there are many other races affected by this error across the North West.
Going forward, we appreciate that many of you have explained to us that you are less concerned about who might be responsible and more interested in the implications you may personally have as a result of running a short marathon. You have asked us how we intend to go about rectifying these. Here is what we are doing now:
• We are working to see if the results from the Greater Manchester Marathons for 2013, 2014 and 2015 can still be included in records such as the Power of 10;
• We are working with other event organisers to see if your results from the 2015 event can qualify you for these respective events;
• We are aware that Virgin Money London Marathon has accepted GFA results with time added from 2015 for qualification for the 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon
We have worked with our race result service providers to provide you with an updated time for the event. We have used the short distance and your pace in the last 6 miles to calculate your full distance time.
Your original 2013 time was 04:20:33
Your adjusted 2013 time is 04:26:52
We cannot put into words how upsetting this situation has been for our whole team. It was never our intention for the event to be affected as it has been.
Once we have further news we will communicate this via our website and social media. We thank you for your continued co-operation and patience.
Best regards
Xtra Mile Events
Nicole, aside from the fact that Boston is extremely unlikely to accept anything other than an actual time from a marathon not subsequently declared short, qualifying times for next year's Boston marathon have to be set after September 2015, so your Manchester time wouldn't be valid anyway.
Also, in recent years times several minutes inside the BQ time have been needed to get in, such is the demand.
Only the most pedantic would dispute that you're a sub 4 hour marathoner though. Certainly I wouldn't!
Ooo, I've emailed them now too, thanks for the info. Excited to see the results - My OH came in 20 seconds before me, but I sped up over the last 6 miles and he slowed down..
Ah OK Nicole, I thought you meant you were going to use it as a BQ for next year.
I suppose it's fortunate that the short course wasn't discovered until after Boston was done and dusted - I wonder what they'd have done if they'd accepted your entry and then found out? I wouldn't put it past them to have cancelled your entry, they're very protective of their qualifying. At least you don't have that to worry about, all done and dusted now.