2020 Grand Prix fixtures announced!

Each year, our club has a momentous Grand Prix competition!

We choose a selection of races ranging from 5k to fell races – and everything in between.  For every race you run, you will accumulate points.

Points for showing up, points for your performance if you are faster than your predicative times based on a recent Gibside Parkrun result, points for your position. (Full rules below.)  You don’t need to do any of the number crunching though, as our resident expert Carole will do the scoring. Just turn up and run!

The Grand Prix is a brilliant way to try out new races with fellow club members, and is open to all.

Bottoms Up Cup 5k

Date 2020	Race	Distance	Terrain	Location
Sat-15-Feb	Chopwell Moon Runner 10k	10k	Trail	Chopwell Woods
Sat-21-Mar	Cow Bell 5k Road Race	5k	Road	Newcastle Town Moor
Fri-10-Apr	Elswick Good Friday Relays	Relay	Road	Newburn Riverside
Sun-19-Apr	Sand Dancer 10km MT	10k	Multi-terrain	South Shields
Sun-17-May	Pier to Pier	7m	Trail	South Shields
Tue-09-Jun	Blaydon Races	5.9m	Road	Newcastle
Sun-14-Jun	Cheviot Trail Race Kirk Yetholm to Wooler	13m	Trail	Wooler
Sat-04-Jul	Chevy Chase	20m	Fell	Wooler
Sun-05-Jul	Bottoms Up Cup 5k	5k	Mix	Northumberl’d
TBC	Auckland Castle Trail Race	5m	Trail	Auckland Castle
Sun-20-Sept	Prudhoe Miners Race	5m	Trail	Prudhoe
TBC	Druridge Bay NEHL XC	XC	XC	Northumberl’d
TBC	Pedro’s 10k	10k	Mix	Stanley
Sun-15-Nov	Brampton to Carlisle 10 Mile (coach trip planned)	10m	Road	Brampton
Sat-28-Nov	Gibside Parkrun	Parkrun	Trail	Gibside
Sun-06	Hexhamshire Hobble	10m	Fell	Allendale

All dates with TBC are provisional as of Jan 2020.

Rules

• Moving to points based scoring, with points accumulated by various methods
• Enter as many races as you wish – your best 5 scores count, plus bonus points
• We need your Gibside parkrun times to predict Grand Prix race performance. So get yourself down to Gibside on a Saturday at 9am before the end of March!

How to score points:

• 1 point for turning up and running! BONUS – the more races you do, the more points you get (even beyond the minimum 5 race requirement)
• Performance versus predicted time (prediction based on Gibside Parkrun). 1 point for every minute faster than your predicted time up to a maximum of 5 points. No minus points if your time is slower than predicted.
• Race position versus club runners – 5 points for finishing first, down to 1 point for 5^th place (split male/female)
• Cross Country Bonus Points – to encourage more people to participate in Cross Country, you gain 1 point for each race you do (Wrekenton, Lambton Estate, Aykley Heads). Note – this is extra to the Druridge Bay round which is one of the Grand Prix races.

Grand Prix Scoring – Example 1

Mo Farah (new member) does 8 races, plus 3 XC fixtures

Best 5 Race Scores:

Race 1 – 5^th club male and 1 minute faster than predicted = 1+1+1 (attendance) = 3 points

Race 2 – 2^nd club male and 3 minutes faster than predicted = 4+3+1=8 points

Race 3 – 15^th club male and 7 minutes slower than predicted = 0+0+1=1 point

Race 4 – 6^th club male and 45 seconds faster than predicted = 0+1+1 point=2 points (round up to a minute)

Race 5 – 1^st club male and 8 minutes faster than predicted = 5+5 (capped)+1=11 points

Bonus race attendance (above mandatory 5) plus 3 XC fixtures = 3+3=6

TOTAL SCORE=31

 

Grand Prix Scoring – Example 2

Paula Radcliffe does 16 Grand Prix races and 3 XC races

Best 5 Race Scores:

Race 1 – 20^th club female and 5 minutes slower than predicted = 0+0+1 (attendance) = 1 point

Race 2 – 18^th club female and 1 minute faster than predicted = 0+1+1=2 points

Race 3 – 12^th club female and 3 minute faster than predicted = 0+3+1=4 point

Race 4 – 8^th club female and 5 minutes faster than predicted = 0+5+1 point=6 points

Race 5 – 6th club female and 8 minutes faster than predicted = 0+5 (capped)+1=6 points

Bonus race attendance (above mandatory 5) plus 3 XC fixtures = 11+3=14

TOTAL SCORE=33

2019 Grand Prix

Well done to Bernadette Salmon and Marc Runkee, 2019’s well deserved Queen and King of the Grand Prix!