Manhattan Invitational Speed Ratings for 2007 To Be Deleted from XC Database
The Manhattan Invitational is billed as the "Biggest and
Best". It has a great tradition of outstanding team and individual competition.
Many coaches and runners love the Manhattan Invitational because it is a great
spectacle in which to participate. Many Central NY teams look forward to this
over-night trip to the Big City.
The problem is not the competition or participants ... The problem is the
results, and has been for a long time ... I am not first or only person to
criticize the results (I am just one of many).
There have been many errors in the posted results for as long as I know ... But
now this problem has reached the breaking point with respect to TullyRunners.com
... I give up - I can no longer waste my time with the Manhattan
Invitational.
Therefore, I have decided to completely delete ALL database records
concerning this year's Manhattan Invitational.
TullyRunners.com still exists for one reason - Speed Ratings ... and speed
ratings require reliable data.
According to various coaches from this year's meet, some posted results are off
by three to five seconds in some races and by as much 30 seconds in other races
... Some results seem to be accurate ... and this is a common occurrence at
Manhattan. The timing method and transcription of results lends itself to errors
... and the biggest factor is the incredible number of runners and lack of time
between races which can't help but create mistakes (I do not blame the people
doing it, because it is remarkably difficult to accomplish accurately due to the
sheer numbers and method).
Several coaches cite the following as a common problem - slower runners from
previous races get "inter-mingled" with runners from a different race and the
people timing may or may not know who to time.
I realize many of the posted times are generally correct ... the problem is "many
of the posted times are inaccurate".
For the purposes of TullyRunners.com, the time has come to treat the Manhattan
Invitational results as "standard" statistical data ... When a significant
percentage of the overall dataset can be deemed as "unreliable", the entire
dataset must be excluded as unreliable ... Since my databases are used
for ranking and determining speed rating adjustments, it is necessary to
completely delete all Manhattan Invitational results.