Race performances for members of the Heartland Road Runners Club (HRRC) are shown here. These performances are handicapped (i.e. adjusted) for age, gender, and distance. Only adults 18 and over are shown. Theory and details for handicapping footraces can be found at Age Handicapping Competitive Runners, Part1: Quantifying the Population Effect and at Age Handicapping Competitive Runners, Part 2: Tables for Speed Handicaps.
Three sections are shown below:
- Hannibal-Cannibal: detailed handicapped speeds for 27 HRRC members (5K=9, 10K=7, 15K=11)
- Determinations of “Race Difficulty” for 9 races near Quincy, IL and Hannibal MO
- Rankings of 68 HRRC members based on handicapped performances in local races
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Hannibal-Cannibal, July 1, 2017, Hannibal MO
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Race Difficulty
Race Difficulty was determined by examining how each individual runner’s speed changed as he or she participated in the different races. The race difficulty estimates are the least squares estimates for the pairwise speed differences. Only results with a base speed above 6 MPH and a handicapped speed above 8 MPH were used to insure the performances were competitive and did not mix walking and running gaits.
Due to the significantly different topography, the Bridge the Gap Half Marathon was ranked separately from the Bridge the Gap 5K and 10K; otherwise the handicapped results for the various distances for each race were pooled (with the appropriate speed handicaps for distances).
Two races, the Ring-a-Bell 5K and the Hull-of-a-Race, were given a higher race difficulty than might be expected from a simple examination of the course topographies. Of course there can always discrepancies in course length. However, weather played a significant factor in both of these races. The temperature at the start of the Ring-a-Bell was a few degrees below freezing and bulky clothing and over dressing played a part for many contestants. Participants in the Hull-of-a-Race experienced a very stiff headwind during the long, straight highway stretch.
As expected, excepting the possible effects of weather, the Hannibal-Cannibal was the most difficult of these races local to the Quincy, IL area.
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HRRC Handicapped Rankings
Please let me know (DataDave511@gmail) if there are any questions or issues relating to these results.
Ranks 1-20
Ranks 21-40
Ranks 41-60
Ranks 61-68
