First off, congratulations to all teams and individuals who competed yesterday at Benton and Rend Lake. Was the girl's course at Rend Lake really 2K? Or maybe mostly downhill? I ask because there were so many young ladies below 8:00. I knew there were several who ran in the Benton pre-state so I looked to see what they ran two weeks ago. The top 2 girls yesterday had over a minute improvement (8:09 and 8:14 to 7:00 and 7:11) which is an amazing improvement in only two weeks. Some may say the Benton course is tougher but I have seen bettertimes there than even our flat home course. I am in no way trying to take away from their wonderful accomplishment, but it may not be fair to Margo Richardson to say her record was matched when the course was short or downhill.

The Rend Lake course is completely flat, whereas the Benton course has several up hills and more turns both of which would effect runners times. Also the conditions for running on Saturday where near perfect with temperatures in the low 50s at the race start. At the prestate meet the temperatures where about 10 degrees warmer.

I talked with the Rend Lake meet manager and both the girls and boys courses were measured using a wheel at 2,000 and 3,000 meters. There is not doubt in my mind that the Benton course is tougher. So the Rend Lake course is going to be a flat fast course much like the high school state course at Peoria which is completely flat and fast as well.

-Geff

Geff,
I had the same observation about the girls course being 2000 meters long at the Girls Class S State meet. The boys 3000 meter race at the Class S State meet was not quicker than expected, yet the Class S State meet girls race had 8 girls faster than the Class L state champion. The Benton course did not seem overly difficult to me to make that much of a difference even against a flat course for an improvement of one minute for that short of a race in 2 weeks time.

Bryan Riba

I will be attending a high school meet in Benton tomorrow. I will use my Garmin 405 gps watch to check both courses tomorrow and see what it shows. I tried using mapmyrun.com to measure the course at Rend Lake but the satellite view does not really have enough detail for that area to properly measure the distance.

I agree that the boys course times seemed inline with what was expected and I also thought the girls times were very fast.

I'll post here what I find out.

-Geff

The Benton park was beautiful. But I must say, the last two meets they have not had properly working bathrooms. They really need to look into this problem if they host next year. I am sure the cost was set by the state, but $5 is a lot for a family to pay! Also, this is our first year running cross country, and I understand that it is a natural environment race, but around the curve by the ball diamonds was very dangerous. There was a wooden step that we seen kids trip over and fall. At the same spot was a tree with branches over the running area. A kid got cut up pretty good by a branch. I also really wish there was a middle of the rode class for smaller schools. The top three schools are huge in comparison to some of the others. I think cross country is really exciting though. I hope my son stays with it, but he plays other sports as well.

Before I post the results of measuring the two state girls courses I want to say that I am not a race official, I had no runners involved in either race and that this is in no way intended to take anything away from any runner, only to try to accurately measure the course distances. A great quote from the book "Daniels' Running Formula" states "A win on the track is not easy to achieve, but a win in cross country is a rare treat." This sums it up in my book. What the runners achieve on race day stands on its own.

Some History: State records for cross country are course specific. Before the state meet was held at Benton it was held at Clay City and the girls record was set at 7:24 by Erica Jansen of Selmaville in 1996 the last year state was held there. That makes her time the state record for girls on that course. In 1997 the course was moved to Benton. In 2000 cross country was split into two classes. The state records are set in each class. Class L state record at Benton is 7:07 by Megan Riley of O'Fallon set in 2003. Class S state record is 7:00 by Margo Richardson of Rome (Dix) set in 2005, this would also be the course record.

I have measured both Benton's and Rend Lake's girls courses using a Garmin 405 gps watch. I let the watch lock on to 10 satellites which gave it an average error of about 15-20 ft. I then walked both courses as close to the center of the running path as possible. I have uploaded the results onto mapmyrun.com the links are posted below.

The results on the watch show that the Benton course is 1.22 miles (1963 meters). When uploaded to mapmyrun.com the results showed 1.21 miles (1947 meters). My estimate would be that this course is between 1950 meters and 2000 meters depending upon how close to the center of the path you run.
Benton Course Map link below http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/il/benton/753392859375

The results on the watch at the Rend Lake course showed 1.12 miles (1802 meters). When uploaded to mapmyrun.com the results showed 1.11 miles (1786 meters). My estimate would be that this course is between 1790 meters and 1840 meters again depending upon how close to the center of the running path you run.
Rend Lake Course Map link below http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/il/ina/743612510974

What does this mean. Well different course will certainly generate different times. Some courses have more difficult terrain. Sometimes weather will play a big role in how fast the runners are that day. Not taking into account course difficulty or weather, if you want to compare a time at Rend Lake to Benton you would have to multiply the time at Rend Lake by 1.0893 so a 7:00 minute time at Rend Lake would translate into 7:38 at Benton. If you want to compare a time at Benton to Rend Lake you would have to multiply the time at Benton by 0.918 so a 7:00 minute time at Benton would translate into 6:26 at Rend Lake. This in no way should take away from the records at any course as a timed run on any given day stands on it own.

We do want to post accurate information. Currently we post that both courses are 2000 meters. To be 100% certain we would need someone certified to measure courses to perform measurement on both courses so that the correct distance would be known, until that time we will show the girls course distances as 1960 meters for Benton and 1800 meters for Rend Lake.

-Geff Purcell