As we hurtle head-long towards 2020 we just want to give you the heads-up about a couple of changes to the club road champs for the year to come.
You may have already seen the provisional list of club races which includes 22 road championship races for 2020. The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed that there is no long or short category against the road races, this is because from 2020 we’ve made the decision to remove the requirement to do at least two long races to qualify. So now its just 7 road champs races of any distance to qualify for a medal. We felt that this old rule discriminated against those who perhaps were unable to complete longer events and we really want everyone to have a chance to qualify.
But fear not if you are one of our runners who prefers a longer event – how about a marathon in the road champs? Yes that’s right head girl Sarah and I want to offer you even more next year, so we are adding race 23 – ‘the marathon challenge’.
So how will this work I hear you ask? The following rules will apply:
• Members can run any marathon between the dates of the first and last road championship races and submit their best time
• It must be an officially recognised and measured marathon and can be anywhere in the world (must be a measured 26.2 miles)
• We will use the chip time (rather than gun time which is normally used for champs races)
• We will relax the normal club vest rule to allow members to run in a charity colours if they so wish
• Members will be responsible for emailing the captains with a link to their result by the date of the final road race of the year
Points will be awarded as follows: times will be ranked from fastest to slowest, with 50 points each for the fastest female and fastest male, down to a minimum of 20 points.
This can count as one of your qualifying road races (assuming its one of your 7 best scoring events)
So there you have it; start planning your 2020 campaign, including a marathon if you wish.
The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody’s out on the run tonight but there’s no place left to hide
Together, Wendy, we can live with the sadness I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
Oh, someday girl, I don’t know when we’re gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go, and we’ll walk in the sun
But till then, tramps like us baby, we were born to run
Wishing you a happy running 2020 and may all your injuries miraculously disappear.
Head girl Sarah and Captain Grayling.