Race Handicaps

The race handicaps used each week are calculated by a complex Excel spreadsheet that has been developed by Dennis Jolliffe and used by the club for many years.

Broadly speaking, your handicap is based on the fastest per kilometer pace that you have actually run in your last three races in the current season.

The Difficulty Factor that is displayed on the Race Results and Handicap sheets takes into consideration:

• Actual Distance Difficulty Factor – eg. The 1.5km race is actually 1,582m, thus 1.582/1.5 = 1.05 actual distance difficulty factor.

• Race Difficulty Factor – compares the race distance to 5km. A 1.5km race is deemed to be easier than a 5km race, and thus per kilometer pace should be faster. This has been estimated to be 0.91 for a 1.5km race.

• When combined, these two factors give the Difficulty Factor that is displayed – eg. 1.05 x 0.91 = 0.99 for the 1.5km race.

• A Conditions Difficulty Factor is then calculated based upon the results of all runners in the particular race. This recognizes that in hot or unpleasant conditions most runners will run slower than their handicap pace, while in ideal conditions they are more likely to run faster. This is calculated by dividing the median actual finish time by the median handicap time.

The final handicap that is calculated for each runner is then subjected to a rounding process.

• Division 3 and Division 4 handicaps are rounded to the nearest 5 seconds.

• Division 1 and Division 2 handicaps are rounded to the nearest 15 seconds.

Group starts are used in Division 1 races that are longer than 7km so that back markers do not have to wait for so long on the start line.

2010 Handicappers

Division 1 & Division 2               Colin Wilson                    distance_secretary@sgdac.org

Division 3 & Division 4               Michael Gentle                 webmaster@sgdac.org