Rules and Regulations Relevant to the RRTC

People sometimes wonder which of the procedures in the Course Measurement Manual are specified formally as USATF Rules and which are simply methods selected by the Road Running Technical Council. On this page, we have gathered all of the official USATF Rules pertaining to course certification and RRTC. Notice, for example, that measurement along the Shortest Possible Route and use of a one-part-per-thousand Short Course Prevention Factor are hard-wired into the Rules, so must be regarded as absolute requirements, no matter what method is used for measuring a road course. Use of the Calibrated Bicycle Method is not hard-wired into the rules, but has been selected by RRTC as, without any doubt, the best currently available method for measuring a road running course.

• USATF Competition Rules, Article IV (Rules of Competition), Section VII (Long Distance and Road Events Running and Walking), Rule 240 (Course Certification)
• USATF Governance Manual, Section III (Operating Regulations), Regulation 13 (Long Distance Running Division), D (Councils), 3 (Road Running Technical Council)

Rules for Verification of Road Courses

The following rules pertain to the verification of road running courses when records are set. This may require re-measurement by an expert measurer before or after the race. For USATF championship road races, the course must be verified in advance of the race, so it will not require a post-race re-measurement if a world or national open record is set. Please note that the Drop and Separation requirements in USATF Rule 265.4 pertain only to acceptability of records but will not prevent a course from being certified.

• USATF Competition Rules, Article V (Records), Rule 265 (Rules Applicable to Long Distance Running Events): 4 (Road Records)

USATF Rule 265.4 is not self-contained, but refers to IAAF Rule 260.28:

• IAAF Competition Rules, Chapter 5 (Technical Rules), Section X (World Records), Rule 260 (World Records), 28 (Road Running Events)