New Calibration Course laid down in Bandon - Measurement News, October 2014

On Monday Oct 20th, Susan McCourt and John Quigley laid down a new measurement course, on the main Bandon Clonakilty Road, at Old Chapel, Bandon. This will assist greatly in the measurement of race courses in the area. The aim is to have a separate calibration course close to each of the main race hubs, to facilitate both accuracy and convenience.

The 400m course is now available for all measurers.

Laying down of the calibration course

A calibration course must be on straight section of aroad or path, and may be between 300m and 800m long. Most courses are 400m long. Of course, the surface must be 'smooth' - gravel, or similar surface, is not suitable, due to 'slippage' - and free from potholes, bumps, etc. Each end is permanently marked, generally using nails and washers. Once a route has been selected for a calibration course, the next step is actually setting it out.

The first step is to hammer in the nail and washers marking one end. Then the course is measured out in 30m sections, using a certified steel rule. A spring measure is used to ensure that the tape is tensioned to 5lbs. So, in this case Susan and John measured off 13 x 30m sections, with 10m added at the end. The tape is certified at 20C. Temperature, at time of setting out, was 12C, so 3.8cm was added to the final mark and this is where the final nail and washers was hammered home. The process took approx. 2 hours.

Looking west, to one end of the course

West end of the calibration course. The line is level with the large traffic sign in the first photo. A masonry nail, with washers, marks each end of the course - the paint line is probably washed away already!

East end of Calibration course is outside Eircom building

East end of calibration course

Following the laying down of the calibration course, a new course, for the Deirdre O'Reilly 5k, on Sunday October 26th, was measured.

Other race courses measured recently include:

Event	Distance	Location	Measurer
Eyeries 5	5M	Eyeries	John Quigley & Padraig O'Sullivan
Lee Fields 4	4M	Carrigrohane Road, Cork	Pat Killeen
Deirdre O'Reilly 5k	5k	Bandon	Susan McCourt & John Quigley