2020 Championship rules

Club Championship 2020 

Category A – Trail/hill races

¹ Also includes the Junior trail race

Category B – Short road races

² Also includes a 2km Junior race

Category C – Long road races (10 miles or longer)

³ For the Great Scottish Run, choose either the 10k or the half marathon.

The Championship is open to all members of Strathearn Harriers over the age of 16. The Championship consists of a series of 12 nominated races. You can do as many of the races as you wish.

In order to complete the Championship a minimum of 5 races must be completed, with at least 1 race from each of the three categories shown:

• trail/hill races
• short road races
• long road races.

If you cannot manage any of the nominated races in a category, you can use a wildcard to complete another race in the same category. For example, if you cannot enter one of the long road races, you can use a wildcard with any other road race of 10 miles or more, such as the Tom Scott 10, Tay 10, or any other road half-marathon, such as Edinburgh, Dundee, Islay, Mull, and so on.

16-17 year-olds There are very few, if any, long road races open to 16-17 year-olds, so runners aged 16 and 17 do not need to run a long road road. 16-17 year-olds get an extra wildcard to compensate.

The 5 best races for each runner will be added to give performance points. In addition, 1 appearance point is given for every Championship race run. To gain the appearance point, you must run in Harriers vest or top.

In addition to the nominated races, you have 2 wildcards (3 for 16-17 year-olds). Wildcard races should be nominated prior to the race to the Championship organiser Susan Alexander by email at championship@strathearnharriers.org.uk. Wildcards can count as one of the best 5 races and so count towards the Championship.

A wildcard must be a race that has a Scottish Athletics/UK Athletics permit, has a field of at least 100 and takes place within the timescale of the championship. It will be the responsibility of the person playing their wildcard to provide the Championship organiser with a full set of results of the race or it will not be counted.

Everyone has one joker they can play. This must be nominated for a specific race in the same way as the wildcard to the Championship organiser before the race. Playing your joker means that points scored for that race before an appearance point is added are doubled. Jokers can be played on wildcard races, but you cannot play your joker at the Club 5k.

Championship points will only be awarded to runners listed in the official results. Runners running under someone else’s name will not get race or appearance points. If race places are exchanged, this can only be done with the express agreement of the race organisers in advance of the race.

Championship points will only be awarded to paid-up members of the club.

The winners of the championships will be the man and woman with the most points after the last formal championship race (the club 5k in October) has been run.

You can download these rules and the race dates here.

Note that those completing the championship will be given first option to be included in the draw for the London marathon place allocated to the club.  If none of those completing the championship want the chance to run the London marathon, the draw will be opened up to all Club members. 

Calculating the points

The points that a runner receives are worked out in relation to the winning time of the race and there is a correction factor for age.

To take an example:

The winning time of a race is 30 minutes.
Runner X is 45 years old and finishes in 36 minutes.
Runner X’s time is divided by the winner’s time to give a number:

• 36 ÷ 30 = 1.2 

That number is then subtracted from 2 and the resulting number is multiplied by 10.

• 2 – 1.2 = 0.8 × 10 = 8 

That number is multiplied by a factor depending on age:

• 1+ your age divided by 100: in this case 1.45 

So the performance points awarded would be:

• 8.4 × 1.45 = 12.2. 

Finally an appearance point is added to give 13.2.

If a joker is played, the total points will be 2 times the performance points + 1 appearance point, so in the example above:

• (2 × 12.2) + 1 = 25.4