Club Championship Rules

** SUBSCRIPTIONS MUST BE FULLY PAID UP TO QUALIFY FOR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS **

Road Club Championship Rules (Updated 2018)

There are various different championship events:

Main Club Championship

Half Marathon Championship

Six Mile Series Championship

Off Road Series Championship

Ultra Championship

Age Graded Championship (introduced 2016)

For ANY event to qualify towards ANY Championship points, subscriptions must be fully paid before the event. You must also be entered in that event as a Forfar Road Runner (this is of more relevance to those with dual club membership).

It is the responsibility of the member to inform the results to the appropriate result co-ordinater (These may be different for the Road and Off Road/Ultra events).

All Championship events will have separate Male and Female awards.

No points will be awarded for any of the Forfar Road Runners own organised events (Forfar 10k, Clova Half Marathon, Multi Terrain). This is to avoid any disadvantage, as we need members to officiate to allow our events to happen.

The Championship Race Year is from 1st January to 31st December.

For the Main Championship, we recognise there are many popular road races that are not SAF, EAAA, IAAF approved/permitted. Where races are not held under SAF, EAAA or IAAF permits, the Committee will accept times from any accurately measured, bona fide organised event. The Committee will have the final say as to whether any non permit event is approved. These events may be Worldwide.

With the exception of parkrun for 5km, offroad races do not qualify for the road championship.

The Main Championship comprises 5 elements with the best 4 performances to count from:

  1. Fastest marathon
  2. Fastest half marathon
  3. Fastest 10 mile
  4. Fastest 10 km
  5. Fastest 5 km

Points will be awarded on performance with the Half Marathon, 10 mile, 10 km and 5 km attracting 25 points for the fastest runner, 23 points for 2nd fastest, 21 points for 3rd fastest etc.

The Marathon will attract 30 points for the fastest, 28 points for 2nd fastest, 26 points for 3rd fastest etc. This points weighting is to reflect the additional commitment to train, prepare for and participate in the longer event.

Half Marathon Championship

This championship is decided on the aggregate of your best three half marathon times from any club approved event.

Six Mile Series Championship

This championship is decided on the aggregate of your best 3 times out of the 6 events held at Suttieside from May to October. The Six Mile route may on occasion be run in the opposite direction to normal, as agreed by the committee. The age-related multiplier, as laid down by Scottish Athletics, will be applied to the aggregate times.

Age grading used for six mile series

Some of you may first come aware of age-grading when an older club mate who you have comfortably beaten informs you, “Ah, but I beat you on an adjusted time”. It’s strange how many people get interested in the system just as they reach the age when personal bests are becoming a thing of the past. However, anything that gives a new dimension in competitiveness to those who are fighting a losing battle against the ageing process is worth encouraging.

There is more than one way of comparing performances. The chart below allows members to compare performances.

Male 5-25K Female 5-25K Male Marathon Female Marathon
Open 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000 1.0000
35 0.9724 0.9696 0.9724 0.9845
40 0.9430 0.9376 0.9560 0.9516
45 0.9125 0.9037 0.9251 0.9176
50 0.8804 0.8684 0.8926 0.8819
55 0.8441 0.8285 0.8926 0.8819
60 0.8038 0.7842 0.8053 0.7965
65 0.7615 0.7384 0.7890 0.7501
70 0.7192 0.6911 0.7728 0.7021
75 0.6757 0.6675 0.7292 0.6781

How to use the above table: Say runner A (Troop), an open competitor, ran 31:10 for 10KM, Runner B (Seaton), a V40, ran 33:00, and Runner C (Smythe), a V60, ran 38:00.

Troop gets no adjustment (multiply by 1.0000), but Seaton’s adjustment (0.9430) gives him 31:07 and Smythe (0.8038) 30:33. Victory for old man Smythe!

Off-Road and Ultra Championship Rules Updated 2018

Although founded as a road running club, in recent years there has been a steady growth of participation in off-road and ultra-marathons events (including a member of the club winning the UKA 100K championship and competing internationally for Scotland).  In order to recognise this, in 2012 we introduced an Off-Road Championship and Ultra Championship.

The two main aims of this are:

  1. To encourage club participation in trail, hill and ultra events.
  2. To recognise efforts & achievements of those already competing in these events.The championship has been designed to include a variety of events ranging from those suitable for novice or first time runners to more demanding and ultra distance events.

The Off-Road Championship and the Ultra Championship are two separate competitions with prizes for Male and Female winners.

The rules for both championships are as follows:

Points awarded for participation in the races listed below are as follows:

1st FRR – 10 points, 2nd – 8 points, 3rd – 6 points. All other finishers – 5 points.

The West Highland Way or Double Cateran will attract 15 points for 1st FRR , 2nd 13 points, 3rd 11 points , all other finishers will get 9 points. This points weighting is to reflect the additional commitment to train, prepare for and participate in these longer events.

Bonus points are awarded for completing 5 races (5 points) 10 races (10 points). Complete 10 ultras and you get 25 points and a bottle of single malt whisky – and your head examined!)

No minimum number of races required.

Since March 2023 all ultras became eligible for FRR club championship.

Age Graded Championship (Introduced 2016)

Age graded percentages vary between different websites so https://www.runnersworld.com/tools/age-grade-calculator will be used to give consistent results. Only the overall best result from each individual will be used.

Age-Graded Scoring allows all individuals within a race to be “scored” against each other. This is done by first comparing the individual’s finish time at that particular race distance to an “ideal” or best time (not necessarily the “world record”) achievable for that individual’s age and gender. Many of you will have seen it with your Parkrun results.

Age-Graded Scoring utilises statistical tables to compare performances of individual athletes at different distances, between different events, or against other athletes of either gender and/or of any age. Confusing? Perhaps looking at how Age-Graded Scoring applies to road racing may help clear things up.

How does Age-Graded Scoring work?

Let’s say a 55-year old male runs a marathon in 3:00:27. He would receive an Age-Graded Score of 80.21%. That is because, according to the Age-Graded Scoring tables, the “ideal” finish time for a 55-year old male is 2:24:22, and that’s about 20% faster (about 36 minutes) than our 55-year old ran.

Now let’s say that a 27-year old male ran the same marathon in 2:45:47. Obviously, that is faster than our 55-year old. But is the performance of the younger runner really “better” when compared with that of a man more than twice his age? The answer is, “No!” In fact, the Age-Graded score of the 25-year old is only 76.51%. The old guy wins! And, our 27-year old has a lot of training to do if he expects to “improve with age” and post anything close to a 3-hour marathon when he turns fifty-five!

Why Age-Graded Scoring?

Age-Graded Scoring was originally developed to do two things:

Provide each race finisher with a percentage value score that will enable them to judge their performance against any and all others without bias to age or sex. So, no matter how old you get, your Age-Graded Score or “performance percentage” will be judged against the standard for your current age within your gender. And as your performances decline with advancing age (and they will), so too will the standards used to calculate your Age-Graded Score, thereby giving you a true measure of your performance. Who knows, although your actual finish times may get slower over the years, you could actually improve in Age-Graded score like a fine wine.

Correct people’s performance, no matter what age, to what it would have been (or will be) in their “prime” athletic years. This allows for very interesting comparisons. You can compare your current performance to previous ones over the same or any distance. You can compare your performance to other runners of any age and either gender. You can even compare your performance to the elite athletes.

Age-Graded Scoring Achievement Levels

  • 100% = Approximate World Record Level
  • 90-99% = World Class
  • 80-89% = National Class
  • 70-79% = Regional Class
  • 60-69% = Local Class

https://www.runnersworld.com/tools/age-grade-calculator will be used to work out all results. To make it fair, your age at 1st of January of the current year will be used as it would be an astronomical job to work out everybody’s age on the day of a race.  Please feel free to check your results against your age on this site.