|
Valley Striders Grand Prix |
Handbook Major revision Dec 2004 Minor
revisions for 2006 and 2008 and 2009 championships Updated 17 Jan 10 |
The Grand Prix was started
in 1989 and is reviewed on an annual basis.
Significant changes have
been made to the format with effect from 2002 and 2005.
Summaries of the changes
introduced for 2005, 2006 and 2008 and 2009 are at the end of this document.
Purpose
The Grand Prix aims
Races to be
incorporated in the Grand Prix
The number of events to be
incorporated is currently 28 each year, from the following categories:
The season runs from
late-December one year to mid-December the next. This enables the awards
for one year to be presented at the Christmas Dinner whilst allowing two of our
most popular events (the Chevin Chase and the Xmas
Handicap) to be included in (next year's) GP.
The GP sub-committee will
attempt to decide the majority of events in advance, but some may be marked as
provisional. These would mostly be based on popularity in previous years,
but consideration would also be given to new local events. Suggestions are
encouraged from club members for the inclusion of events not on the list.
Such suggestions may only be incorporated as long as good advance notification
is given.
Awarding of Points
100 points are awarded to
the fastest runner in an event followed by 99 for the second and so on.
As good notice will always
be given of forthcoming qualifying events there will be no minimum restriction
on the number of Striders participating for points to be awarded. Thus in
a turnout of one that runner would score maximum points.
(new rule 2009) However, in a race where 20 or fewer Striders
compete, points are scaled down as follows
·
In a race with more than
20 Striders, the first Strider in the race scores 100, the second scores 99,
the third scores 98 etc.
·
but in a race with 20 or fewer Striders, the first Strider in
the race scores 100, the last scores 80 and the others are equally spaced.
·
So in a race with 25
Striders, the scores would be 100,99,98, down to final
places of 78,77,76.
·
and in a race with 5
Striders, the scores would be 100,95,90,85 with 80 for last
·
The confirmed method is
basically the same as the method of the last 21 years, but does not give
over-generous scores in races where only a few Striders running.
Group Awards
There are 5 groups A-E. All
club members will be entered into the Grand Prix automatically and will be
placed in a group based on their best performance in a 5mile, 10k or club
handicap event over the previous year.
The placing will be based
on their pace per mile with groups being based on bandings of 30 second
intervals with Group A being sub-6 minute mile, B being 6:00 – 6:30 mile pace ,
C being 6:30 – 7:00 mile pace, D being 7:00 – 7:40 mile pace, E being slower
than 7:40 mile pace. Adjustments will be made for hilly courses!
Groups will be set and
published at the start of the year. (It doesn't matter that the number of
runners in each group may be different).
New-comers (and other
Striders with no recent form) will be placed into group "U"
(unclassified) until they have run 3 races and then their grouping assessed on
this performance. This way new club members have the opportunity to
complete a qualifying number of events if they join the club mid way through
the year.
Runners must run a minimum
of 8 events to qualify for any award. For each runner we will calculate a total
being the total of their best 8 points scores with the following conditions
The runner scoring the most
points (on this basis) in each group become the group winner, and the runner
with most points overall becomes Valley Striders Grand Prix Champion of
Champions.
Group winners, other than
of group A, will automatically be promoted to the group above for the following
year.
Other awards
There will also be titles
for Ladies Champion, Men's Vet (O-40) Champion, Men's Vet (O-50) Champion and
Ladies Vet (O-35) Champion. All of these will be calculated on the best 8
scores from at least 5 categories as above.
There is no best handicap points award - the Handicap Cup is the prime award in this
category and is held for 3 months by each winner.
No Strider can win more
than one award (group, sex, or age). The sequence of allocation is Champion of
Champions, Ladies Champion, Vets (3), Groups
(4). So for example if group C is won by the MV50 champion, this person
takes the MV50 award and also is promoted to group B next year, but does not
take group C, nor does the runner up in group C win an award.
Publicising events in
the Grand Prix
The Newsletter will be used
to publicise forthcoming events and invite suggestions. Information will also
be sent out by e-mail. Forthcoming races will be announced at the club each
Tuesday. A folder of entry forms for GP events will be held at the club. The
practice of handing out a results sheet periodically will continue although
this will revert to the previously used format of showing scores and positions
by groups rather than across the whole club.
An explanatory note of the
Grand Prix competition will be included in the information presented to each
new member in the future.
As always, at least one
competitor at each Grand Prix event should ensure they obtain at least one set
of results to forward to Bob Jackson.
Grand Prix
Co-ordinators
The Grand Prix
co-ordinators are responsible for selecting events, collecting results and
resolving queries. They will call upon the sub-committee to meet as
appropriate.
Questions and Answers
Q1. Why aren't handicaps
scored on finishing position rather than time?
A1
Because of the difficulty of providing a fair handicap. Two runners in the same group could
score 20 points difference purely because of an inaccurate handicap.
Q2 Why are
fell races in the Grand Prix when no-one runs them?
A2 To
encourage Striders to run them. Before we put cross-country races in the GP a
few years ago, we struggled to get a men's team of 6 and usually had 4-6
ladies. Now the cross-countries are among the more popular events and we rarely
miss getting a team out.
Q3 Why aren't women scored
separately e.g 100 for 1st woman, 99 for 2nd etc
A3 Because
we'd then have to do the same for all the other groups i.e. the age groups
(MV40), and the "pace" groups (A-E). Runners would get 3 different
scores for each event! Too difficult to administer (and explain!)
Q4 How are
points allocated for cross-country when the men and women run different races
and different distances?
A4 On pace. This is easy
where the men and women run a different number of laps of the same course - the
women's time is just scaled up. Otherwise we guess the distances and calculate
accordingly.
Q5 Why are
there so many races?
A5 There are
two reasons. Some runners only run road and handicap races, others only run
off-road - reducing the number of races overall would make it difficult for
these runners to achieve their 8 races. Also it gives new members joining up to
May or June plenty of opportunity to run 8 races.
Q6 Is
it possible to win a prize by only running 8 races?
A6 Quite possible. Two
winners in 2001 only ran 8 races. But past experience has shown that most group
winners have run at least 10 races.
Q7 Why are
there fell races in the GP when there is a separate Fell Championship?
A7 We
have now introduced corresponding awards for road races and off-road (trail and
x-c) races to balance this out.
Q8 Do second claim members
qualify for Grand prix points?
A8 Second claim members
definitely score points in club handicaps and in races where they run in a
Striders vest (e.g. Jerry Watson in cross-country). Other than this, they do
not score points.
Q9 Do new members joining
from another club and under the 9 month rule qualify for points?
A9 Yes.
Details of changes by year
Summary of Changes
for 2005
Following
a comprehensive review, the Grand Prix format for 2005 has been amended as
follows:
·
·
·
Long –
o
includes road and off-road events;
o
Spen 20 and
o
best notified marathon time, other than
·
Trail and Fell - Combined into one category of 5 races
·
There are now 6 categories (previously there were 7).
A minimum of 5 categories should be completed otherwise 5 penalty points will
be deducted per category missed.
These
changes have been made to try and encourage more members to compete in at least
8 GP races. The total number of Grand Prix events remains at 28.
Summary
of Changes for 2006
Following
a further review, the Grand Prix format for 2006 has been amended as follows:
·
·
·
Long – unchanged from 2005 - still 5 races road and off-road and including Any
Other Marathon
·
Trail and Fell - Remains as one category, increased to 6 races
·
There are still 6 categories. A minimum of 5
categories should be completed otherwise 5 penalty points will be deducted per
category missed.
These
changes have been made to try and encourage even more members to compete in at
least 8 GP races. The total number of Grand Prix events has been
increased to 31, but it is still minimum 8 to count.
Summary of Changes for 2008
The only changes made concern the “Groups”.
We are continue to group
according to pace and the top 3 bands have not changed. The band D/E border has been changed from
7:30 to 7:40 to get approximately equal numbers in groups D and E.
Rather than making “adjustments made for hilly
courses”, we are now using all of the Performance Data. We have an accurate way of converting the
pace for 10k to paces for other distances.
This is the table we have used:
|
Group |
Percent |
|
5K |
5M |
10K |
10M |
Half |
Mara |
10k |
|
|
|
World Rec |
00:12:54 |
00:21:20 |
00:26:51 |
00:44:23 |
00:59:13 |
02:04:55 |
Pace |
|
A |
72.06% |
|
00:17:54 |
00:29:36 |
00:37:16 |
01:01:35 |
01:22:11 |
02:53:21 |
00:06:00 |
|
B |
66.52% |
|
00:19:24 |
00:32:04 |
00:40:22 |
01:06:43 |
01:29:01 |
03:07:48 |
00:06:30 |
|
C |
61.77% |
|
00:20:53 |
00:34:32 |
00:43:28 |
01:11:51 |
01:35:52 |
03:22:14 |
00:07:00 |
|
D |
56.40% |
|
00:22:52 |
00:37:50 |
00:47:37 |
01:18:42 |
01:45:00 |
03:41:30 |
00:07:40 |
Striders who ran 3 or more races in 2007 are graded
according to their best performance in 2007.
For Striders running less than 3 in 2007 (including
those who joined in 2008), we use the first 3 recorded and grade from the best
of these
Summary
of Changes for 2009
The
only change made was for the scoring of races where 20 or fewer Striders run.
·
In a race with
more than 20 Striders, the first Strider in the race scores 100, the second
scores 99, the third scores 98 etc.
·
but in a race with 20 or fewer Striders, the first
Strider in the race scores 100, the last scores 80 and the others are equally
spaced.
·
So in a race with
25 Striders, the scores would be 100,99,98, down to
final places of 78,77,76.
·
and in a race
with 5 Striders, the scores would be 100,95,90,85 with 80 for last
·
The confirmed
method is basically the same as the method of the last 21 years, but does not
give over-generous scores in races where only a few Striders running.
Any
Questions?
Please
address any other queries to either of the Grand Prix Co-ordinators - Alan
Hutchinson and Paul White.