Brian Moore, our very own statistical genius, casts his expert eye over Club Championship race results & reveals the numbers that matter...
IAN CASEY MEMORIAL 5K - 20th MAY 2010
A magnificent club record of 45 RRR members took part in this race, a fine tribute to Ian. This represents an amazing 42% of the field. Carole Madden was not only first lady to finish, but also achieved 84.33% age-related performance - according to Brian Moore's figures, this puts her in 'National Class'. [David Emanuel]
STEVE ROTHWELL 4 MILE RACE - 14th APRIL 2010
After our first five races the total number of RRR runners to have taken part in at least one race is 58 - representing 136 race finishes (the equivalent for 2008 & 2009 were 102 & 119 respectively. There are six runners who have competed in all five races (Stuart Carroll, Bernie Goodwin, David Emanuel, Rob Kellett, Eamonn Nolan & Mark Kelly) - but you could also consider Matt Oldham, Paul McHugh & Des Thorpe as having 100% records, as they have taken part in the only race since they joined the club. Whilst the number of sub-20min finishers at the Vera Hirst 5K (seven) was less than in 2009 (see below), the times for those taking part in the Steve Rothwell race show 10 runners running times the equivalent of a sub-20 5K.
The 33 Royton Road Runners taking part in this race represented 17% of the field - the next largest represented club was Rochdale Harriers with 17. Even more impressively, in addition to Stuart Carroll's position 'on the podium' & various age category winners, we had 27% of the 90 runners who completed the course inside 30 minutes & 38% of the sub-25min finishers. We also had 40% of the first 10 vets to finish. [David Emanuel]
VERA HIRST 5K - 24th MARCH 2010
One interesting stat from this race: whilst Richard Fiddling beat his wife Debbie by over 3mins, the percentage performances show an altogether closer race. Richard's time of 19.36 meant he 'scored' 70.23% while Debbie's 23.06 equates to 68.49%. In fact, Debbie would have outperformed Richard if she had managed to run 35 seconds quicker...and after her birthday on 28th April the change in age factor allowance means that just 20 seconds would give Debbie the better performance!
There were nine runners inside 20 minutes last year, 13 runners exceeded 70% performance - can the bar be raised even further in 2010?
DENTDALE RUN - 13th MARCH 2010
Up to & including Dent, the total number of Royton Road Runners competing in races is 79 (compared to 64 last year). On a similar theme, 45 members have now taken part in at least one club race this year, compared to 34 at the same point in 2009. After Dent we now have 10 'ever-presents' in club races - Bernie Cassidy, Bernie Goodwin, Bruce Whittam, Chris Eavers, David Emanuel, Dave Smith, Eamonn Nolan, Mark Kelly, Rob Kellett & Stuart Carroll. Somewhat surprisingly, the greatest improvement on 2009 time for Dent was not by Dave Smith (as it had been in the first two races) but Julie Greenwood, who improved her time by over 16 minutes from last year. Dave's improvement was a still-impressive 11 minutes. Likewise Bernie Goodwin exorcised his 'nightmare' from 2009 by improving his time by nearly 10 minutes. Two other runners to improve on last year were John Higgins & Stuart Carroll, by around 1min 30secs & 1 minute respectively. With a comparable number of runners taking part (26 in 2010, 27 in 2009), the overall average of 'age graded performance' was almost identical - 64.31% in 2010 versus 64.32% in 2009 - even though two fewer runners achieved 70% or more in 2010.
GREAT NORTH WEST HALF MARATHON - 21st FEBRUARY 2010
Despite there being nearly 300 less finishers than last year (881 compared to nearly 1200), RRR managed to more than double our number of (first claim) finishers, up from 13 to 28. This turnout made us the number one club in terms of finishers! As in 2009, six of our runners managed to break 90 minutes - but it may be an indication of improving strength-in-depth that the number going sub-95 was up from seven to 11. Following a significant improvement on his 2009 Dewsbury finishing time, Dave Smith again produced an impressive run at Blackpool, knocking a massive 16mins of his time in 2009. At this early stage 36 people have taken part in the club championship, compared to 26 at the same point last year.
DEWSBURY 10K - 7th FEBRUARY 2010
Some impressive performances in the first club race of the season! New PBs for Stuart Carroll (by 40 seconds), Chris Eavers & Mark Kelly (by 3mins 45). Dave Smith completed the course almost five minutes quicker than in 2009. Other significant improvements on last year were posted by John Higgins (1min 22secs), Bryan Lawton (51secs), Rob Kellett (33secs) & david Emanuel (25secs). Highest age-related 'percentage performance' was recorded by Carole Madden (85.02%) - if Carole had managed to run just over two minutes quicker, her percentage performance would have broken the 90% 'world class' mark. Average percentage performance was 70.10% compared to 67.69% in last year's race.
