When is a PR not a PR?

When the course is inaccurate, of course, and in the last several weeks, this has happened at three local 5K runs (values in parenthesis are projected 5K times, based on actual course length):

9/27 – Madzy Short Run* (Berea), 3.00 mi. – 20:57 (21:41)
10/11 – Run for the Son (Brookpark), 3.06 mi. – 21:20 (21:42)
10/18 – Great Pumpkin Run (Lakewood), 3.05 mi. – 20:42 (21:05)

Corrected distances, as linked to above, were obtained using gmap-pedometer.com; by turning up the zoom to maximum, an accurate tracing of the route can be made, provided the start, finish, and any turnaround are correctly located. (The “Run for the Son” was out-and-back, and I failed to note the turnaround location, so a fellow competitor’s GPS reading was used.)

Thus, I tentatively accept the Great Pumpkin 5K as (barely) a PR, which is confirmed by today’s time of 21:09 at the Skeleton Run 5K in Amherst. I don’t know if the distance today was accurate, since the section through the park is obscured on satellite photos (due to being heavily wooded) and could not be traced with gmap-pedometer, but the route was unchanged from last year, when I did 21:18 – my previous 5K PR.

*Last year, it was 3.27 miles, and afterward a plea was made to relocate the start at the driveway of Bonds Hall (making the course almost exactly 5K). Instead, it was moved too far down the road – to the north Fairgrounds entrance. Oh well, at least this time it lived up to its name of a “Short Run.”