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The bottom line is, then, that in the US the
unfortunate common practice is to have mile markers, and everywhere else, of
course, km markers. Some marathons have both mile markers and
markers at each 5 km. This used to be the case with the Seattle Marathon,
since it is close to Canada. Years ago I had an exchange with the person
who put out the signs, and he said it was just too much to ask to deal with 26
of one kind of sign and 42 of another, so they settled for each 5
km.
Another unfortunate oddity, at least here in
California, is that years ago when track (but not "field"!) converted to metric,
the high school governing body opted to have the mile converted to a 1600 m run,
rather than 1500--which is the international and college standard. This to
be close to the old mile standard and to have the start and finish lines the
same. Another case of American shortsightedness.
HARRY WYETH
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