parkrun Handicap Series & Points Series

Changes for the 2019 Series

DON’T FORGET: You must have Newcastle Flyers registered as your parkrun club, or your results will not be calculated.
Points allocated for each event will not be split into male and female categories. All Flyers running on the day will compete against each other. This is possible due to parkrun Age grading being standardised. Trophies will still be awarded to the Best Overall Male and Best Overall Female at the end of the season.
Each runner will have an ‘Average Age grading’ for their best 5 results. This will be used to rank competitors in the event of a tie.
The maximum reduction in a handicap time has been reduced from 30, to 15 seconds.

Overview

There will be 20 designated parkrun events across the region (see below) whereby members can run to earn points in the Points Series championship and qualify for the Handicap Series championship.
Each parkrun will earn points for the Point Series season championship in the following categories:
- Overall Points Male
- Overall Points Female
Members will be allocated a new handicap after each parkrun which will be used at the end of season Handicap Decider. In this event runners will have a start time based on the handicap they’ve accumulated throughout the year, so theoretically everyone should finish together. The winners of this race will determine:
- Male Handicap
- Female Handicap

parkrun Series Events - 2019

Run	Date	Event	Difficulty
1	02/02/2019	Blackbutt	10%
2	09/02/2019	Stockton	0%
3	16/02/2019	Newy	0%
4	23/02/2019	The Beaches	15%
5	02/03/2019	Lake Mac	0%
6	16/03/2019	Maitland	3%
7	23/03/2019	Blue Gum Hills	6%
8	30/03/2019	Callaghan	5%
9	20/04/2019	Lakeview	6%
10	27/04/2019	Singleton	2%
11	11/05/2019	Blackbutt	10%
12	25/05/2019	Stockton	0%
13	01/06/2019	Lakeview	6%
14	29/06/2019	Lake Mac	0%
15	03/08/2019	Nulkaba	tbc
16	17/08/2019	Callaghan	5%
17	31/08/2019	Fingal Bay	2%
18	07/09/2019	Blue Gum Hills	6%
19	28/09/2019	The Terrace	3%
20	05/10/2019	Newy	0%
	26/10/2019	Handicap Decider

Point Series Rules

You must have Newcastle Flyers registered as your parkrun club, or your results will not be calculated.
Each eligible runner will be ranked using the parkrun Age Grading result for that event. This allows an equal playing field across the membership base.
1st place 100 points, 2nd 96 points, 3rd 93 points, 4th 91 points, 5th 90 points, reducing by 1 point for each position with a minimum of 2 points to be scored.
Best 5 results to count for the Best Overall Male and Best Overall Female categories.
In the event of a tie, the Average Age grading across the best 5 points results will be used.

Handicap Series Rules

At the end of the Series, a separate Flyers only event will be held to determine champions.
Participants start times will be handicapped based on their form during the parkrun series (see explanation below).
The first runner across the finish line will be determined the winner.
Final Handicap Event is compulsory for the Male and Female Handicap categories.
A minimum of 4 parkrun races are required to be eligible for the Handicap series event.
Members without a minimum of 4 parkrun races may apply to race in the event however will be allocated a handicap via the committee. These handicaps will be determined based on previous personal bests and will likely be significantly over the current form of the runner.
All handicap decisions are final.

Handicap System

The Flyers handicapping system used for the parkrun series has been around for many years and is in use by running clubs around the world. It is a robust system and has stood the test of time. It is difficult to beat and you can't "work" the system to your advantage meaning the winner of the handicap competition can be any member of the club.

How it works:
The two key elements in each race are your race time and your handicap.

After each parkrun event, there are 4 possible situations:

No previous handicap: New Handicap = Race time + 1%
Race time equals handicap: New Handicap = Old Handicap
Race time faster than handicap: New Handicap = Old Handicap less (80% of difference between Race time and Old Handicap)
Race time slower than handicap: New Handicap = Old Handicap plus (10% of difference, to a max of 15 secs, between Race time and Old Handicap)

Due to differing terrains across the regions’ parkrun courses, some parkruns may have a handicap adjustment for all runners. E.g. if a runner can run 20 minutes on a flat Newy parkrun, the equivalent time on a hilly course like Blackbutt might be 22 minutes making it 10% slower. This would mean that times run at Blackbutt would be reduced to 10% so they compare with the flat courses… confused? Don’t worry, these calculations will be made automatically. All you need to do is run your best at each event.

Key points to remember:

A handicap will only change if you run and complete a race (DNF does not count).
No matter how slowly you run, your handicap will only move out a maximum of 15 seconds per race.
Consistency is more important than a once off great performance. Improving throughout the year has the best chance of doing well in the competition.
The handicapping system brings your handicap crashing down fast, but it takes forever to move out again - and there is nothing you can do about it, so enjoy!