State Records

At the Catherine Rooney's 5k for Ulster Project DE last Thursday night Mark Vilardo ran a 15:33 as a 36 year old which would set an age group Delaware state record (that he owns) by 11 seconds. The route is USATF certified. The problem is this.....the final turn up Rattle Snake Run at the 3 mile mark was under construction. Runners went 15 yards further to make the turn to home and I moved the finish line 15 yards down the hill to make up that distance. When Mark told me he broke his age group record I told him, "sorry but I can not accept it as a record due to the change in route." Mark was cool about it and said, "no problem.....I still have the old record of 15:44." I try my best to keep state records up to date. I recently received an email from a runner stating that she ran a 5 miler back in 1991 as a 20 some year old faster than what I have posted on my website. I told her that unless I have a hard copy of the results either posted online or on paper and had the usatf certification number my hands were tied and I could not post her faster time. She too was cool about this and will try and find me the hard copy results. Folks work so hard to set these records and as the keeper of the books I want to make sure that when a record is set that it is legitimate.