The Club Championship is an annual competition to find the best runners in the club. Their are a number of different age-groups competitions, which range from "open" (under 35 for women, under 40 for men) rising in "veteran" ten year groups (e.g. Ladies 35-45, 45-55, etc). For the championship your age on 1 st January dictates your veteran status for the entire year.
To be considered for the Championship members must record times in at least four of the chosen events, each over a different distance, ranging from about 5 miles to half-marathon.
This year (2008)'s Championship events are :
1/2 Marathon : Wokingham (10th Feb), Burnham Beeches (17th Aug), Marlow (2nd Nov)
10 Miles : Maidenhead (21st March), Hook (18th May), New Forest 10 (13th July)
10 Km : Shinfield (5th May), Camberley (5th Oct), Fleet 10k (19th Oct)
Woodland 5 (miles) (28th May, 25th June, 30th July)
Club Handicap (5.25 miles) (monthly)
Cross-Country league races (5+ miles) (Jan, Feb,Mar, Nov, Dec) (best position)
Details of these events (either the entry or results) can be found on the right hand link pane, or email events@sandhurstjoggers.org.uk.
In all cases except the cross-country the runner's time is used; in the cross-country only it is his/her position .
The road events are chosen, as far as possible, to be similar in "difficulty", reasonably close to home, spaced from one another throughout the year. We also try and avoid clashing with other major (running and otherwise) events.
Several members have commented that they been disappointed that there are not more off-road events in the championships; I wish there were. But as off-road events are all so different it would be impossible to compare one off-road half-marathon (e.g.) with another.
Age Graded Championship
In addition to the age-bands described above, this year we are adding an overall "age-graded" category in the championship. This levels the playing field to allow members, whatever their age, to be compared directly with each other. The runner's performance (i.e. times) in the qualifying events will, for the Overall Champions awards, be factored according to the member's age.
The factors vary according to the member's gender, age and the race distance (see "Age Graded Race Times", in the February newsletter). For instance a 60 year old man's actual 10K time would be multiplied by .8263 or his half-marathon by .8304 to calculate his age-graded time. Thus his 1:45:00 half-marathon converts to an age-graded time of 1:27:12.