Rules, Regulations, and Bylaws 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.

All links are to PDF files

• USATF Competition Rules, Article III (Rules of Competition), Section IV (Long Distance and Road Events), Rule 240 (Course Certification)
• USATF Governance Manual, Section III (Operating Regulations), Regulation 6 (Certification of Road Courses)
• USATF Governance Manual, Section II (Bylaws), Article 15 (Long Distance Running Division), D (Councils), 3 (Road Running Technical Council)

Rules for Validation of Road Courses

The following rules pertain to the validation of road running courses when records are set. In such cases, RRTC may send an expert measurer to re-measure the course to check its accuracy. Please note that the Drop and Separation requirements in Rule 185.5 pertain only to acceptability of records but will not prevent a course from being certified.

All links are to PDF files

• USATF Competition Rules, Article IV (Records), Rule 265 (Rules Applicable to Long Distance Running Events): 3, 5, and 8