No shade intended, but was this year’s Trinidad to Clam Beach Run and Walk, held this past Saturday, not long enough? 

Some runners have said that the finish line on Clam Beach seemed too far north, affecting the 8 3/4 miler and the 5 3/4 miler.

From 2011 to 2013, the average time of the top 10 male finishers was 48:18.

This year’s average time for the top 10 male finishers was almost 30 seconds faster, at 47:49.

Personal GPS devices were indicating that the course was too short by as much as a quarter mile. This could be GPS satellite inaccuracy, or maybe ‘generous’ course marking. 

It bears mentioning that nobody was complaining about the apparent speed of the course. And that run is fun, y’all. 

Runners: What did your GPS show?

For the uninitiated: 

“The 8 ¾ mile race begins approximately 2 miles north of Trinidad on Patrick’s Point Drive near Westgate, proceeds south onto Stagecoach Road, through Trinidad, along Scenic Drive to Little River. The course crosses the river and continues along Clam Beach to the finish line at Strawberry Creek.”

[Note: Standard journalistic practice requires three sources to triangulate the truth of an assertion. In “Two Makes It True,” the threshold is lower.]