Prizes

[Trossachs?]

So whats the etiquette with prizes and the different age groups? Many races do it differently, for example the Glen Rosa race works out the team prize on lowest cumulative time rather than placings.

Anyway yesterday at the Arrochar Alps Race we gave prizes to the first 5 then to the next V40, V50, V60 and all four women. However the first five were all V40s and so the V40 prize went to the guy in 9th or so. Oh and 1st Westie, David Rogers (he will be chuffed!)

Would you have given Stewart Whitlie (brilliant on these long scottish races by the way) the 1st place and V40 prizes, or should he get first and the next V40, who was 2nd overall, gets that prize?

Its something about the overall ranking or value of the various prizes, is it better to be 2nd overall or 1st V40? Do you spread the prizes or multiply reward certain runners?

Not sure there is one answer but it would be good to see what you think.

Jason

[Fellhound]

It's a difficult one this, especially with the prominence of veterans in long tough events like the Arrochar Alps.

Maybe the 'normal' prizes should all go to vets, with a special prize for first senior, cos those youngsters, like Purple Plodder (6th overall and first senior), do struggle with their limited stamina.....

[bill]

Generally, round here, most races do top three prizes to whoever finishes in the top three, regardless of age, i.e. to first three in male and female races. Then the various categories kick in - so if the top three are all Vet40 (it happens down here too, even on short races ... no speed either these youngsters) the 4th V40 gets the V40 prize and there is rarely a "first senior" prize.

Ultimately, it's down to the race organiser & what they can afford to do.

[Trossachs?]

In this case our sponsor Fyne Ales were very generous, supplying vets trophies & 22 beer presentation packs as prizes, as well as a keg to help recovery for all on the day. It was more than we expected so had to think of spreading things as much as we could. Sorry for the plug but I always moan about the lack of decent bitter up here, so to get sponsorship from a good brewery was amazing, and it did taste good after 6 hours on the line time keeping in the rain.

Adam Ward seemed a little embarrased to get the V40 prize with 5 V40s in front of him. I like the idea of a seniors prize as encouragement for this minority group.

Jason

[IainR]

I think spread it out as you did.

In NZ they were very strict about this. My wife holds the open race record for the Holdsworth-Jumbo Mountain race, but that year the 1st woman vet beat her by a few minutes, but because she was a vet she got the vets record, but not the open record. So on the race web page it looks as though my wife holds the overall record. A bit harsh. So there of you were a vet, that was all you could race in and couldn't be a counter in another category.

[mist cherub]

Just read this.
Wish I read it before the weekend too, as I nipped off before the prize giving to see the end of le tour prologue only to find out subsequently that I'd been awarded V40 even though I wasn't the first one home.
So, apologies to the organisers on that one, however given the prowess of us v40s why not just get rid of the category all together?

Bump the vets prizes up to v50, then watch the v50s start winning races regularly?

There's a couple of events up here that do that already

[marrow]

I think its crazy presenting "1st Vet" to someone who is actually 9th Vet. Or pretending that "1st" is really the non-vet who comes 3rd. Fair enough if, like the Old Farts Mountain Running Trophy, each category has a seperate race, but not where there is one race.

Surely the issue is not the prize so much as the catergorisation of the finishers? If the winner is a V40 then he is on the results as "1. [name][club]V40. If you don't want to give him/her 2 prizes, then just extend the number of prizes further down the field - making sure that the value of the prizes is hierarchical on place not category.

I think that makes sense doesn't it? If I ever win 1st prize, I want to win it because I beat everyone, not because I was too slow to beat the fogeys.

As for purple plodder, he just needs to train a bit more and eat lots of pies!

[Purpleplodder]

P*** Off Marrow you skinny runt.
Sobered up yet?
Still going to Stool Pile or whatever it's called?
Thinking I'll pass as there's somewhere else I'd rather be.
Anyway, 700ft climb, what's that all about?

[Stagger]

I find it strange how a runner can feature in more than one class in the championships.
Mr Holmes could win a couple and so could others

[Chris]

All it would mean is that they were very good.

As far as I can see only Dave Neil and Dave Spedding would have won English Championships in more than one age category.

I find it strange how a runner can feature in more than one class in the championships.
Mr Holmes could win a couple and so could others