The first race of the ELR virtual XC competition will be held in Wanstead Park, and can be run any time from Saturday 14th November until the end of the month. Click here for a PDF file with full course details, including a map and photos. A reminder that this race will count towards the individual competition, and will be used to select teams for the rest of the races (see below for details). Submit your time here.
Given the cancellation of most cross-country races, we are organising our own virtual cross-country series. There will be five races, one each month from November to March, each on a specific course in a local location such as Wanstead Park, Hainault Forest, Claybury Park or Epping Forest. You will be able to run it on any day of your choice in the given month. To make it more interesting, this will be both an individual and a team competition. The November race will contribute to your individual score and will be used to select teams of roughly equal ability. Teams will be announced in early December, and the remaining races count towards both team and individual scores. Participants should intend to run all five races, to avoid affecting their team's score - but remember you have a whole month to run each one, so plenty of flexibility. There will be five awards: best team, fastest male/female, and top age grade male/female. Race schedule - The competition will run from November to March, with one virtual race per month. - Each race will be on a different local cross-country course of 4-6 miles distance. The course will be chosen to be easy to navigate. A map and route description will be published shortly before each race. - The first race can be run any day between Saturday 14th November and Monday 30th November. Subsequent races can be run any day of the respective month. Teams and scoring - The competition has both team and individual elements. The first race in November counts towards the individual competition, while subsequent races count towards both individual and team competitions. - At the beginning of December we will use the times from the November race to assemble teams of roughly equal ability for the remaining races. The number and size of the teams will depend on how many members decide to take part. - There will be five awards: best team, fastest male/female, and top age grade male/female. The best team and fastest individuals will be calculated using the aggregate time across all races. The age grade awards will be calculated using the runner's average age grade across all races. Age grading will use the WMA 5 mile age factors (the same as we used for last year's winter leagues competition, and similar to the parkrun method). Missed races If any runner misses a race, scoring will be as follows: - For the individual competition: the runner's race time will be set to 1 second slower than the slowest runner of that race, and their age grade will be set to 0.1% below the lowest age grade of that race. - For the team competition, in case of injury only, and up to a maximum of two races in the series: the runner's race time for the purposes of team scoring will be calculated by dividing their time for each race they did complete by the median time of all runners in that race (to give a course-adjusted performance number), averaging this, multiplying that value by the median time of all runners in the missed race (to give a predicted time in the missed race), and finally adding a 5% time adjustment (to avoid the team benefitting from any inaccuracies in the prediction formula). - For the team competition, for reasons other than injury, or if more than two races are missed: as for the individual competition, the runner's race time will be set to 1 second slower than the slowest runner of that race. Miscellaneous - You can run a race more than once, provided it is within the time window. This could be useful if you take a wrong turning and want to try again. The best time will be used. - You must submit your race time through a Google form (link to be provided). We will also have a Strava segment for each race, which you are encouraged to use to provide a live leaderboard; however, it is not mandatory to upload your run to Strava. If you do not upload to Strava, please retain evidence of your run in case of any queries. - The competition is open to all ELR members (first or second-claim). For further information, please contact Jacob Stevens or Alexandra Rutishauser-Perera.
2020/2021 provisional cross country championship dates and venues: XC Relays, Weald Park, Brentwood, 3rd October 2020 U13/15 & Vets XC , Writtle College, Chelmsford, 28th November 2020 Senior XC Champs, Gloucester Park, Basildon, 9th January 2021
Well done to all members who ran in this winter's Sunday Cross-Country League. The club finished in good positions in all categories: - Men overall: 7th, vets: 8th - Women overall: 11th, vets: 11th Out of 19 clubs. The following members finished in the top 10 of the individual categories: - Maud Hodson: 5th VW45 - John Henry: 7th VM40 See you all again at Cheshunt in October 2020! Michael Wilson and Jacob Stevens Winter League Captains
For the 2019-20 season, we have introduced a new internal ELR competition, where runners are given scores based on a combination of participation and age-adjusted performance in the Chingford and Sunday League races (see Scoring Method below for details). Trophies will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd placed runner of each gender at the end of the season. Final Standings Here are the final results of the 2019-20 competition. Some interesting stats: - 109 ELR members took part at in at least one Winter League race. Almost certainly a club record! - 9 members ran in all Chingford League races: Euan Brown, Fiona Day, Becky Evans, Maud Hodson, Catriona Hoult, Mark Moir, Billy Rayner, Jacob Stevens & Michael Wilson. - 7 members ran in all Sunday League races: Karan Gadhia, John Henry, Maud Hodson, Mark Moir, James Nichols, Jacob Stevens & Michael Wilson. - The 5 women with the highest age-adjusted performance score (omitting volunteering) were Becky Evans, Paula Bedford, Caroline Frith, Emily Clarke & Ellie Wilkinson. - The 5 men with the highest age-adjusted performance score (omitting volunteering) were Euan Brown, Calvin Bobin, John Henry, Rhys Edwards & Thomas Grimes. - 31 members ran in only one Winter League race. Columns: Part. - Participation score Perf. - Overall performance score Race perf. - Performance score in last race Score - Overall score Pos.chg. - Position change (N: new runner/volunteer)
Summary For each runner, we calculate a participation score and a performance score. The participation score is the percentage of Chingford and Sunday XC League races that the runner has taken part in. The performance score is calculated by taking the runner's time for each race, applying a gender/age adjustment (similar to parkrun age grading) and then comparing that to the median time of all runners in the race; this is then averaged over the races they took part in. The overall score is a weighted average of the two scores: 60% of participation score plus 40% of performance score. All Winter League races are included in the competition, both cross-country and tarmac, including the Chingford League relays in March. Volunteers at the relays (organised by ELR) also score points: a fixed race performance score of 100 is used. Detailed Calculation For anyone interested in the details, the scores are calculated as follows: Time = Runner's race time (individual time in the relay) CatFactor = Conversion factor from gender/age category standard to mid-point between SM & SF standards - see below. AdjTime = Time * CatFactor MedianTime = Median time of all runners in race (all clubs, all categories) RacePerfScore = MedianTime / AdjTime * 100 (or fixed value of 100 for relay volunteers) PerfScore = Mean RacePerfScore for runner over season PartScore = (Number of races attended by runner) / (Total number of races) * 100 Score = PerfScore * 40% + PartScore * 60% Category factors are calculated using WMA age factors and male/female 5 mile road race records (similar to the data used for parkrun age grading). Factors for 5y Chingford League categories: SM 1.0676 SW 0.9404 M40 1.0076 W40 0.9017 M45 0.9690 W45 0.8630 M50 0.9304 W50 0.8156 M55 0.8917 W55 0.7674 M60 0.8531 W60 0.7192 M65 0.8145 U18M 1.0523 Factors for 10y Sunday League categories: SM 1.0676 SW 0.9404 M40 0.9883 W35 0.9144 M50 0.9110 W45 0.8393 M60 0.8338 W55 0.7433 Example (for one runner, one race): Time = 20:50 AdjTime = 20:50 * 1.0076 (M40) = 20:59 MedianTime = 24:15 RacePerfScore = 24:15 / 20:59 * 100 = 115.52 Score = 115.52 * 0.4 + 100 * 0.6 = 106.21
Sunday 20th October 2019 Event 1 Cheshunt Park, Cheshunt - Hosted jointly by Broxbourne Runners and Garden City Runners. 11am start. Sunday 1st December 2019 Event 2 Trent Park, Cockfosters - Hosted by Trent Park RC. 10.30am start. Sunday 22nd December 2019 Event 3 Fairland Valley Park - Hosted by Fairlands Valley Spartans. 10.30am start. Sunday 12th January 2020 Event 4 Cassiobury Park, Watford - Hosted by Watford Joggers and supported by Ealing Eagles. 10.30am start. Sunday 9th February 2020 Event 5 Royston - Hosted by Royston Runners. 10.30am start. Sunday League website: http://www.runherts.com/xc.htm Mike Wilson and Jacob Stevens Winter Leagues Captains
East London Runners supports the running of equal distance for Men and Women in all Cross Country Races. While some races/leagues/counties/nations/vets have equalised distances, some have not, as yet, done so. East London Runners also respects the right of each individual Club Member to decide for themselves what races they wish to run in and we will NOT obstruct in any way a member running in a race or League that does not have equal distances. It remains the Club policy that all members will run for FREE in Cross Country Leagues that the Club are members of (e.g Chingford League and the Run Herts Sunday XC League) and the County/Regional/National races whether of equal distance or not. The Club does pay League fees on members behalf in addition to any fees for entering our County, Regional and National Championships. The views of members expressed on Facebook and other types of Social Media are considered to be of a personal nature and may differ from those of the Club expressed above.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2018/02/24/cross-country-new-battleground-women-step-bid-equality/
Cross Country Captain Mike Wilson reports. With the Cross Country season drawing to a close, I would like to congratulate Thomas Grimes who was crowned overall winner of the Sunday League title. He achieved this with a top five finish at the final fixture at Royston. This is a great achievement with record attendances of over 500 runners at some of the races. I am pleased with the turnout from the club in both Leagues, with numbers increasing from last year. We had 10 enjoyable races in total on on a variation of surfaces and conditions, appealing to novices and experienced athletes alike. In the Chingford League we had a record 54 runners compete on a cold autumn evening at Hog Hill in October. The ladies and men's 'A' teams finished 4th and 5th in this League respectively. I would like to thank everyone who took part in 2017/18 and look forward to welcoming new and old members again, when the season starts again in October.