Marathon Handicap Competition...

--amadeus--

About the only thing I like about golf is the handicap system them have. And I was thinking that we could adapt that for the DCM (or the other autumn marathons).

My basic idea is that we pick a midpoint time (could be anything but I suggest 3:30). You then use your most recent time to calculate your handicap. So my last race was 3:00 so my handicap would be +30 (minutes). If random runner ran his last race in 3:45 his handicap is -15.

To calculate your handicap score is easy, take your actual result and combine with your handicap. So if this autumn I ran 2:55 my handicap time is 3:25 (2:55+30). If Random Runner runs 3:25 his handicap time is 3:10 (3:25-15) so he beats me.

We could use the handicap and the DCM (or whatever race) results to calculate handicapped score and work out the best Boardsie autumn marathon performance. Puts everyone on a level playing field and if we got enough interest I'm sure someone would sponsor a prize.

Thinks & thunks?

RayCun

I think newbies should have a handicap based on an estimated time of 6 hours...

Woddle

Great idea amadeus, I'd be up for it. I remember trying to introduce a handicap system to the 1000 mile challenge last year and got shot down.
Isn't there a definite number somewher for the average runner finishing a marathon, not too far from 3'30, obviously women would be working off a different figure

We also used a handicap system for a 10k race last year based on mcmillans race predictor, lot of fun, Peckham and kevinkilbane current champs.

nomadic

This could be my only chance to go sub 3 ever.

shels4ever

+1 to what woddle said.
If you base it on just marathons it would be hard to do , anyone can have a really bad day over the distance. My last time was 4:50 or something like that, id say i'd do that without training now.So may takea couple of races.

TFBubendorfer

All your handicap calculation is doing is measuring how much you have improved (or slowed down) since your last marathon.

Condo131

Woddle wrote: »

I remember trying to introduce a handicap system to the 1000 mile challenge last year and got shot down.

I dunno. Seems like a good idea to me. Give M55's a head start, say, of 250 miles! I like it! On downward slope to M60 - that MUST be worth a decent handicap in any book!

Why not use WMA tables for performance? Everyone then runs off the same, apart from different M/F, tables, so we can compare everyone's performance.
E.g. My last 5 miler was 33:44, age 57. Based on the above calculator, this gives an age graded result of 27:51 (over 20 years since I ran that sort of time /:( )

Bringing it along a bit further, it works for all distances, so we could just add a column to the 'Best of' table:

800M
Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
condo131|2.54|M55|15/04/10|2:22.8|Eagle AC Invitational 800, CIT


1500m

Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
condo131|5.45|M55|1/06/10|4:37.6|AAI Cork Co Graded Leagues, Rd 1, Mardyke


1 mile

Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
condo131|6:11|M55|1/04/10|5:06.2|Eagle AC Invitational Mile, CIT


3K

Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
Condo131|12:05|M55|04/03/10|9:58.4|CIT Track, Eagle AC Confined Members & Guests 3K



4 miles

Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
condo131|27:03|M55|24/1/10|22:20|FMC BHAA Little Island


5 miles

Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
condo131|33:44|M55|27/5/10|27:51|Ballyandreen 5


6 Miles

Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
condo131|41:25|M55|12/05/10|34:11|Pfizer 6 (Cork BHAA)


10k

Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
Condo131|42:18|M55|23/05/10|34:55|Emer Casey 10k, Youghal


10 mile

Name|Time|Cat|Date|Age Graded|Where
condo131|1:11:06|M55|18/04/10|58:57|Great Island 10, Cobh


I'd nearly give my right leg to do the Age graded equivalents again!

bart simpson

--amadeus-- wrote: »

About the only thing I like about golf is the handicap system them have. And I was thinking that we could adapt that for the DCM (or the other autumn marathons).

My basic idea is that we pick a midpoint time (could be anything but I suggest 3:30). You then use your most recent time to calculate your handicap. So my last race was 3:00 so my handicap would be +30 (minutes). If random runner ran his last race in 3:45 his handicap is -15.

To calculate your handicap score is easy, take your actual result and combine with your handicap. So if this autumn I ran 2:55 my handicap time is 3:25 (2:55+30). If Random Runner runs 3:25 his handicap time is 3:10 (3:25-15) so he beats me.

We could use the handicap and the DCM (or whatever race) results to calculate handicapped score and work out the best Boardsie autumn marathon performance. Puts everyone on a level playing field and if we got enough interest I'm sure someone would sponsor a prize.

Thinks & thunks?

a few mates and myself organised a handicap competition for our local road series, how we did it was the 6 of us entered our most recent race time in mc millian to get a predicted time for a two mile race, the person who bet their predicted time by the most won, all 2 mile results were then entered back into mc millian again to predict 3 mile times and so on, we awarded points based on places for each race, it was a good laugh and kept us focused for the small races, the mc millian method would work for the marathon id say, it is a bit harder to win the better you are but its still a laugh

menoscemo

If we go with Mcmillans predicted marathon time based on shorter races then I haven't got a hope :mad:

tunney

Surely being overweight and not training properly/enough is handicap enough for most?:)

TheRoadRunner

tunney wrote: »

Surely being overweight and not training properly/enough is handicap enough for most?:)

you'll be grand Tunney. We'll take that into account when setting your handicap

Nialloooo

need to be a board ac member to take part?? love the sound of it

bart simpson

menoscemo wrote: »

If we go with Mcmillans predicted marathon time based on shorter races then I haven't got a hope :mad:

ah yeah it wouldnt hold exactly true from a short race alright, when we did it we were predicting 3 mile from 2 mile, 4 from 3, 5 from 4,6 from 5
it worked out great because mc millian was predicting from a race of similar distance, when the handicaps were factored we even had draws it worked so well
for a marathon handicap you would need to base it on a your last half marathon, or maybe the average mc millian prediction of two races e.g last half and last marathon
amadaeus suggestion would work just as good id say, just giving info on how we did it for shorter races