Today was a fine and warm day with a fairly strong breeze.

There were 17 finishers today and Mick Whybrow who did not record a time.

Winner today was Kate Plowman, a very recent starter with us.   Kate received a pair of socks, courtesy of the Runner’s Shop.  (Kirstin finished too early to be eligible for the prize).

To update the point score competition to before today’s run, Kevin maintains his lead on 216 points, followed by Simon on 182, Rick on 159, Ian on 155, Mike on 149, Richard 148 and Kirstin on 146 points.  There are a number of others not far off and the competition is still wide open.

Next run is at 12:15 pm on Friday 4 October, with usual charge of $1.00.

A number of people have asked me how the handicapping system works.  Thanks to Colin Bridge for providing the following details that I hope will clarify the system.  The most important rule however is to keep running.

Handicapping Rules 2002

Handicap Re-groups for this Series of Runs.

• If a runner finishes better than the 15^th percentile in the last run, he/she is automatically re-handicapped. 

• If a runner finishes better than the 30th percentile in their last two runs he/she is automatically re-handicapped. 

• If a runner finishes better than the 50th percentile in their last three runs he/she is automatically re-handicapped. 

• If a runner finishes below the 50th percentile in their last four runs he/she is automatically re-handicapped. 

• If a runner finishes below the 75th percentile in their last three runs he/she is automatically re-handicapped. 

If you get re-handicapped, the computer assigns you to the group you would have needed to start from to finish at the 50th percentile, i.e. in the middle of the field.  So in this series of runs there has been more re-handicapping of runners than the first half of the year.

So based on our usual numbers, the winner each week will be re-handicapped.

There is also provision in the system to manually assign runners to easier groups if they have been injured etc.

Pointscore Eligibility

• New participants become eligible to score points for an event on their third event.

• Participants are deemed ineligible to score points for an event if:

  • They have participated in less than 2 of the last 50 events (1 ineligible column); or

  • They have missed the last 50 events (2 in eligible column); or

  • They do not compete from their allocated group (G in eligible column).

Pointscore Values

• Fifty points are awarded to the first eligible finisher, reducing by mathematical progression for each eligible participant thereafter to a minimum of 1 point.

• Events are sorted by highest Pointscore then aggregated.  A participant’s 20 highest point scoring events will be counted toward their Series aggregate Pointscore (best 20 events finishing before Christmas).

Pointscore Report

• The columns in the Pointscore Report are Gross points (all points for events counted), Net points (best 20), and Low points (lowest points scored in events that are counted if less than twenty, and twentieth event if more than 20).  Our results sheet shows gross points and net points equal at this time.

House Rule

In addition to the above we do have a house rule that a person finishing before 34 minutes is not eligible to win the weekly prize, but he/she may still earn points.

Regards

Nick Blackaby