Congratulations to our 2018 Grand Prix winners – Helen Kipling & David Walton
The points table will shortly be reset and the attention will turn to the 2019 competition, starting with the Sherman Cup Cross Country 5th January 2019, the rest of the schedule will be finalised soon.
Grand Prix Format Change
The scoring system will remain the same as in previous years, members can participate in as many of the listed events as they want, however only their best 9 scoring events + their Wild Card will count to the final Grand Prix table. Note : the time carry over period for events has changed from 3 years to 2 years.
Following a suggestion at this years AGM, there will be a BONUS of 50 points should anyone achieve a LIFE TIME BEST time at any of the following distances, 5k (not Parkrun), 10k & Half Marathon (don’t have be GP listed races and can only be claimed once per GP season for each distance) If anyone records a lifetime best, please send John Hopps the relevant race information and time together with their previous record details, (Date, Race & Time)
Points Cap
To prevent one or two run-away winners dominating the competition the maximum score you can achieve for any one race will now be 100 points.
The Wild Card
You can substitute any Grand Prix race, with any other race of your choice (minimum distance 10k) but you MUST declare your intention BEFORE you run the substitute race,
Anyone who runs any of the races below will be automatically entered into the Grand Prix. This makes things a whole lot simpler for the results fairies, rather than trying to chase people down to ask if they want to be included. If, for whatever reason, you really don’t want to be included please let John Hopps know
NUMBER SWAPPING & RESULTS
Under UK Athletic rules, athletes who run in transferred numbers without permission from the race organiser, will not have their result entered, also to make GP table updating easier, results are taken from runners entered as Blackhill Bounders.
2018 Grand Prix Races
February
1 Blackhill ParkRun (Saturday 24th)
March
2 NEHL Alnwick XC (Saturday 3rd)
3 Coniston 14 ( Saturday 24th
April
4 North Tyneside 10k (Sunday 1st)
5 Manchester Marathon (Sunday 8th)
6 Blyth Valley 10k (Sunday 8th)
7 Sand Dancer 10k (Sunday 29th)
May
8 Keswick Half Marathon (Sunday 6th)
9 Pier to Pier (Sunday 20th)
10 George Ogle (Wednesday 23rd)
11 Edinburgh Half Marathon (Sunday 27th)
June
12 Blaydon Race (Saturday 9th)
13 Newburn River Run (Wednesday 13th)
July
14 Tyndale 10k (Tuesday 3rd)
15 Great North 10k (Sunday8th)
16 Northumberland Coastal Run (Sunday 29th)
August
17 Blyth Invitational 10k TBC
18 Watergate 5k TBC
September
19 Great North Run (Sunday 9th)
20 Pedro’s 10k Hellhole Run (Sunday 30th)
21 Haltwhistle Half Marathon 9Sunday 30th)
October
22 Keilder 10k (Saturday 6th)
23 NEHL Druridge Bay XC (Sunday 7th Oct)
November
24 Heaton Harriers Memorial 10k (Sunday 11th)
The Scoring System
Put simply, the idea is to run as many races as possible to achieve your best 10 points scoring races (9 plus wild card). Participating runners will receive points based upon a comparison of a previous (within the last 2 years) personal best for that race. Don’t worry if you want to run a particular race, but have no previous form. You will still receive points for doing so (see below).
Results