Club Races and Awards
All paid up members are eligible to compete in club events, score points and win awards. Guest runners or lapsed members may compete, but do not score points or win awards.
Summer Handicap
A series of 6 races per season over a designated 5 Kilometre course. The Summer Handicapper calculates handicaps and publishes results separately for men and for women. Basic points are awarded in each race to the finishers, with 200 points to the first man, 199 points for the second and so on. The first woman is awarded 200 points, the second 199 points and so on. Finishing positions lower than 200th for men and women do not qualify for basic points in that race..
An additional 5 points (Bonus Points) are awarded for Personal Best performances in a race, provided that the member has completed 5 previous races over the same course. If all 6 races are completed in a season the 5 best points scores count towards the total. In addition, the first finisher in each race wins a £5 prize voucher.
An example of how bonus points are awarded.
Mary ran her best ever summer handicap time in Race 2 this year. She also ran in Race 1 this year and in three races last year. Although she achieved a summer handicap PB in this year’s Race 2 she doesn’t qualify for bonus points because she has only run in five handicap races.
Mary was the 1st female finisher and was therefore awarded 200 (the maximum) points.
Jane also ran her best ever summer handicap time in Race 2 this year. She also ran in Race 1 this year and in four races last year. As she achieved a summer handicap PB in this year’s Race 2 she did qualify for bonus points because she has run in six handicap races.
Jane was the 2nd female finisher and was therefore awarded 204 points – 199 points for 2nd female plus 5 bonus points.
Jane’s sister Sarah was visiting Coventry and signed up to run as a guest in Race 2 this year. She finished just behind Jane as 3rd female but because she was a guest she was not awarded any points.
Monica also achieved a summer handicap PB in Race 2 this year, and ran in all six races last year. She therefore qualified for bonus points in Race 2.
Monica was the 5th female finisher, but the 4th Northbrook female finisher as Sarah in 3rd was a guest and not awarded points.
Monica was awarded 202 points – 197 points for 4th female plus 5 bonus points.
The men’s table works in exactly the same way.
Northbrook Race Championship
Races run over various distances in a calendar year.
Race distances are:
- the Summer Handicap 5Km
- 5Km
- 5 miles
- 10Km
- 10 miles
- Half-Marathon
- 20 miles
- Marathon
All races completed over these distances will qualify, regardless of the surface on which they are run. As long as the race is advertised to be over the appropriate distance there is no need for an official Certificate of Accuracy to be produced. The only time that a Certificate of Accuracy is required is when a member claims to have broken a Club record.
The Race Championship results compiler will award 200 points to the fastest time in a category, then 199, etc. Categories are All Men, All Women, Veteran Men (MV35, MV45, MV55 & MV65) and Veteran Women (FV35, FV45, FV55 & FV65). If a member completes more than 5 distances in a calendar year, the best 5 distances count to their total.
It is the responsibility of members to inform the results compiler of their results using the Results Upload form on the Club website, to ensure that their results are included in the Championship. Results published on the Club website will be automatically included as are parkrun results.
Parkrun Cup
The Parkrun Cup works on a handicap system. Club members notify the competition organiser of their wish to participate, each competitor is then given a target time equal to their parkrun PB for the current year. Pairs of names are drawn at random and the two people in each pair compete against each other for the best time in order to progress to the next round. Each round takes place at Coventry parkrun with, preferably, runners in each pair competing on the same day. There is a two or three week window for each round.
Example:
Runner A has a PB for the year of 22.00
Runner B has a PB for the year of 20.00
In order for Runner A to progress to the next round, Runner A has to finish inside 2 minutes of Runner B’s time on the day of the run. If Runner B runs 20.10, Runner A has to run 22.09 or less to progress to the next round.
If Runner A wins by running 22.09, the time Runner A defends for the next round remains at 22.00 minutes. If Runner A wins by running 21.55, then Runner A defends 21.55 in the next round.
The competition progresses round by round until the final round when the winner of that round is the competition winner.