Yes. And no.
While running the Globe 21k yesterday, I thought my Garmin reading was off when my distance reading was consistently longer by more than 600 meters everytime I’d reach a kilometer marker. I initially thought that I had problems with the GPS satellite signal due to the tall buildings in the Makati CBD and the short tunnel we crossed at the early part of the race. I later learned most people measured the course anywhere between 21.6 to 22 km on their GPS devices.
Upon checking the Globe website, I’ve concluded that the 21k route actually was 21k. However, the route that we were directed to was really longer by close to 700 meters.
Below is the route from km 2 to km 3: coming from Makati Ave. going towards the Kalayaan flyover, runners should have been directed to turn right to Paseo de Roxas then right to Buendia.
Globe planned race route
Instead, we went straight and turned right to Buendia from Makati Ave. Distance added: 213 meters.
Actual route
Inside Heritage Park, based on Globe’s route map, we were just supposed to loop around Filipinas Drive.
Planned route through Heritage Park
Instead, runners turned right to Bontoc and doubled back going back to Filipinas Drive. Distance added: 465 meters.
Actual route through Heritage Park
The distance added by the two route deviations totalled 678 meters. I measured the course at 21.73 km. If we deduct the 678 meters, the distance would’ve been 21.05 km, a perfect half marathon distance.
Although the race organizers planned for an exact 21k route, it seems that the marshals that were responsible for directing the runners along those crucial instersections didn’t do their job properly. It didn’t help either that the route was changed at the last minute.
Unfortunately for me, I was trying to meet a certain finish time which I almost hit at the 21km mark, I was just off by less than a minute. With the added distance though, my time was off already by 5 minutes. I still got a PR, but not the time I wanted. I’ll just have to try again in the next half marathon.
runningDATCom 
Ouch! Keep on trying. Good to see you at the pre-race event DATC. I’m sure you’ve had a wonderful sunday, see you again.
Vener, good to see you and Cristy too. Hope to see you next time running again.
A classic Intel-inspired post mortem report. 😀 Good catch.
Bwahaha – actual vs POR yan!
Thanks for this. It made me a little less bitter, and a whole lot better.
I just had to check to make me feel better too Rico.
Ei Dindo congrats pa din just the same..
Thanks Chito! How are the legs? Are you back running?
hey dindo. as usual i like your post-race blog posts… if not statistical, route analysis naman. ikaw lang talaga magaling sa ganito. hopefully, i’ll see you na sa next event (and take your pic also while sprinting to the finish!). 😉
Mas technical pa ang mga post ni i2 runner 🙂
Yes, hope to see you next time. I think sa globe you were taking art’s pic when I finished, yun kasi ang in between ng pics ni Fernando at Jun!
Ouch! Thats aright, it just means next time will all be the better! =)
It’s going to be a hot summer, I hope I can do better the next race.
Hi Dindo, I remember similar case with the 5K race in KOTR2009, wrong actual route vs map route, it was 1.4kms longer, so the race was 6.4Kms 😦
Bang for back, we got more than what we pay for, kaya lang bye bye new PR 😦
I actually don’t mind a longer race route, except that I was going for a PR this time….
i heard about the route change because this guy had it with him at the registration counter when a friend went to register a couple or so weeks ago. i don’t know why it took them so long to post it… but then again… di rin naman sinunod…
anyway, thanks for this. your post race analysis helped me make better sense of the results. my garmin recorded 22kms… in my head that just meant that I was running like a drunk again… that’s why it’s better to rely on other people’s smarts (meaning yours) for things like this!! 😉
Haha, I’m sure you had to zigzag a lot to avoid the slower runners, kaya siguro umabot ng 22k.
I heard about the 21k route not being exactly 21km.. Ouch.. I did 15km and was miffed when we didn’t turn right at Paseo. But oh well. Thanks for this. I’m a big fan of Google maps and what you did was amazing 🙂
Thanks for dropping by and enjoy your training for the Dream Marathon 🙂
so accurate yung km 0-2? ack! i was really running at 8km pace.
Well, it was really crowded at the start. My 1st km was pretty slow too, until the crowd started to thin out.
Enlightening and interesting post. You’re pretty good with stats and I miss that. Good to know you’re blogging again.
Thanks but if you want to see hard core stats, check out i2 runner’s blog 🙂