Neil Featherby: Record-breaking runs and course accuracy

Yahoo

14-02-2025

Prior to last Sunday's Norfolk Gazelles Valentine's 10K, Gazelles' chairperson Mark Thorpe posted on social media a question asking if there could be a new race record that weekend whilst also additionally posting a results page from what was the Sprowston 10k which took place just over 40 years ago in December 1984 and did indeed see several very fast times (winner Paul Magner 29:26).
Well firstly, the Valentine's course record did go after what was a neck and neck battle between two brilliant athletes in peak condition – Cambridge & Coleridge ACs Nathan Mapperley in 1st place (30:25) and runner up Logan Smith (30:35) from the City of Norwich AC. The ladies course record also went with Holly Archer also from Cambridge & Coleridge crossing the finish line in 34 minutes and 11 seconds.
However, Mark's earlier post resulted in world class Ironman and indeed awesome runner himself Joe Skipper making a comment saying the Sprowston course was probably short as were several smaller races back then.
Needless to say, this brought a response from me as I was part of the organisation of that race and was involved with the course being measured accurately.
In a nutshell, it was measured in the same way as courses are measured to this very day, which entails riding a bicycle with what is known as a Jones Counter attached to the front wheel. Air temperature and tyre pressure also being considered.
The Jones Counter first came into use for road running course measurement as far back as 1971. Each course is also measured following what could be deemed as the shortest possible route for runners to take ie the potential to cut corners.
The Sprowston 10k course was measured by Dr Max Speake who was an official course measurer at the time who travelled up from Suffolk after I made contact with him. I was always fascinated by course measurement myself even for training runs for which I had been given the job to ensure that the course was measured accurately. At the time I asked Max if I could run round while he measured the course, but he refused. However, he did allow me to cycle beside him as well as hold the tape measure to make sure the start and finish at Sprowston Hall were in the right places to ensure accuracy.
Going back to Joe's comments, I can of course fully understand why some of today's athletes may think that a lot of courses going back 20, 30 and even more years were short especially with all of today's technical equipment.
Nevertheless, and as already mentioned, despite all of today's GPS watches and techno, very little if anything has changed since the introduction of the Jones Counter.
Prior to the Jones Counter, the Road Running Club of Great Britain would recognise course measurement by those done with a surveyor's wheel but particularly so to those also measured with a calibrated cycle wheel during the 1960s for which recognition had to go to the tireless efforts of John Jewell from the Road Running Club and American Ted Corbitt who were both fixated on ensuring that road running courses were accurate. John's extensive paperwork and research can still be found online.
Where I fully agree with Joe though is that after the first London Marathon in 1981, there was a huge boom with road races springing up everywhere of varying distances whilst also being organised by all sorts of groups and organisations and even pubs which did not necessarily have full in-depth knowledge of the sport. In many cases they were just organised for fun and fundraising for charities for which some of the organisers were not concerned about accuracy. Athletes attached to affiliated clubs were advised not to enter into these races which may not only have been short in distance but at times well over distance too.
I always made a point before entering a race of asking how the course was measured particularly after winning a 10-mile road race in 46 minutes. My immediate reaction when crossing the finish line was saying 'that was short!' I asked for an accurate remeasure and predicted it was about 15k. The course was remeasured, and I was right for which the following year's event was advertised as a 15k road race.
After my response to Joe's comment, he responded with: 'I wonder what the winner of the Sprowston 10k would do today?' Well, Paul Magner (the winner) was indeed a class athlete (as were so many others in the race) with a 5k PB of 13 mins and 51 secs and ironically went on to work for Adidas and the development of their running shoes.
Whilst I am sure that athletes from back in the day would have definitely run quicker with today's technology, back then we of course had better equipment, nutrition and science to what had gone before us. In other words, it is what it is and I am sure in 20 year's time, it will be the same thing ie today's athletes saying 'if only we had this back in our day'.
I have said this many times before and it will always be hypothetical, but I do believe if the marathon stars of the 1960s, 70s, 80s and 90s had today's shoes (and science) they would be just as fast as the current world's best. How interesting would it be though to see some of today's elite turning out to race in shoes styled on those from 40 to 50 years ago so as to really see just how much difference carbon plated and fancy special foams make to what is a top end performance shoe?
Incidentally, and whilst the Sprowston race saw seven, including the race winner, under 31 mins as opposed to just two at Valentine's, there really was not too much difference after that. In fact, the Valentines race had eight more sub 40 minute clockings ie 109 to 101. As for comparison between the ladies' race winners, the Sprowston race was won by England International Gill Settle who was at the top of her game at the time and she was actually one minute and 56 seconds slower than Holly's winning time of last week.
At the end of the day and as Joe and the likes of Logan know – whilst today's technology is pretty substantial when it comes to performance, their success apart from their natural talent also comes from their commitment, dedication and huge desire to be the best they can possibly be.