The Grand Prix is the club’s oldest member’s event.

Aims

The main aim of the Grand Prix is social. It is structured with a view to building friendships and team spirit amongst members. The organisers are seeking to provide a series of races where, as many members as possible, will travel, meet and race together.

The second aim of the Grand Prix is to encourage friendly competition amongst members. The organisers are seeking to provide a structure where participants push themselves, within their limits, against other members, seek to improve their running over the series and can benchmark themselves against their peers. The hope is that being able to see, chase and encourage their teammates in club colours brings added excitement and interest to races for participants.

Ackworth Road Runners is a large club with c.300 members. Our membership is diverse in terms of age, running experience, racing experience, pace and members’ own personal running aims. The organisers will seek to ensure that competing within the GP is within reach of all members (even where individual races within the series are not).

Structure

Different participants will have different wants, needs and must-haves from races. The structure of the GP (best 10 results to count from 20+ events) is designed to ensure that members can pick those races that suit their needs and avoid those that do not, improving accessibility. The use of pace, age and gender leagues is designed to increase the number of areas of competition across the series.

Members can and do run more than the minimum 10 counting events. The current structure does give a theoretical, mathematical advantage to participants who run more events in the series than the minimum 10 counting races. This is because running additional races can e.g., prevent a rival from achieving a higher score in a given race than they would have in a ‘smaller field’. However, on review of the 2024 leagues the data shows that the actual impact of this theoretical advantage is very limited in practise. The vast majority of positions within each of the leagues would not have been altered had participants run only the required 10 races; whether participants choose to run 10 events or more than 10, generally the leagues will end up broadly consistent by the end of the year and this is the intent underlying the structure.

Grand Prix Event Scoring Open Leagues

This year we have reverted to the main leagues being based on pace but with an amended scoring system. This year points will be calculated by a combination of your finish time compared to others in your league only, plus pace points for how quickly you ran compared to that of our first finisher.

1. The fastest in each league will receive 10 points based on finish time, 2nd 9, 3rd 8 etc with a minimum of 1 point. Where two or more have the same finish time, they will receive the average of the total points for their positions. For example, the 3rd and 4th have the same time therefore their points are calculated as 8+7 = 15 points/2 = 7.5 each. The 5th person would receive 6 points etc.
2. In addition, the overall fastest club member will receive 10 pace points with all other finishers (irrespective of league) receiving a percentage of 10 points based on how well they ran compared to the fastest club member.

Examples

• Runner A finished 4th in their league and their speed was 95% of our first finisher. They would receive 7 points for being 4th in their league and 9.5 pace points. Total points 16.5.
• Runner B finished 1st in their league and their speed was 70% of our first finisher, they would receive 10 points plus 7.0 pace points. Total points 17.
• Runner C finished 10th in their league and their speed was 48.5% of the overall fastest, they would receive 1 point plus 4.85 pace points. Total points 5.85.

Advantages of the dual scoring

1. Encourages running as quick as possible to maximise points and not ease back because you can’t improve your finish place.
2. Encourages racing amongst those who would only receive the minimum of 1 point.
3. Overall, it will enable leagues to be more competitive by reducing the points difference for each finish position.

Females League, Male and Female Vets Leagues

The scoring for these leagues will be as existing. The fastest will receive 50 points with each subsequent place receiving 50 points less 40/number of participants. This means that the slowest will always receive just over 10 points.

For example, if there are 35 finishers, then each place difference is 40/35 = 1.14 points.

The qualifying age for the Male Vets league is 40 and Female Vets 35 determined at 1st January. For clarity, if you reach these ages after 1st January you will not be eligible until the next January.

Guiding Principles for Organisers

Across the series, there should be races that offer something for all: The series should include a variety of events e.g., across distances, types of races and terrain.

Members who wish to take part in GP events should be able to sign-up: Where possible the GP should include ‘races with spaces’ – races that ‘sell out in minutes’ will generally be avoided.

Across the series races should be affordable: The series should include low/no cost races (e.g., parkrun, handicap, series with ‘low-cost per race’ series tickets) and local races (e.g., where higher entry cost is off-set by lower travel time and cost).

Across the series races should take place on different times and days: Members have different non-running commitments (e.g., work, caring etc). Including races at different times and on different days increases accessibility.

Wider community considerations: The series should include races that support local running clubs, community events and charities. This has the benefit of raising the club’s profile locally, supporting good causes and supporting the local running community.

These are guiding principles, which will inevitably be conflicting at times. The races chosen for the Grand Prix will be those that the club feels best meets the aims of the GP and these principles across the series, while recognising that in isolation any given race may not achieve one or more of them.

General Notes on the Series

Organisers

It is recognised that it will be impossible to meet all of the aims and principles of the GP in each and every individual race. The organisers will however try to meet them individually, or together across the series.

The series is run by volunteers in their free time. It should be simple to organise and easy to administer for the organisers.

The organisers will endeavour to avoid clashes and choose events that fall throughout the year, while recognising that most races take place on Sunday mornings and that mos