Road Running Competitions
Borders Road Running League
The Borders Road Running League was set up in 1983 by a number of small clubs in North Wales and west Cheshire to provide friendly inter-club team competition through a series of road races over each winter. Today West Cheshire AC is one of the 14 clubs in the League. Between October and the following May seven races are held at distances from 4 miles to 10K. The races are restricted to the 14 member clubs providing good class competition. The emphasis is on team competition and the first 10 male runners home in each race form the men’s team, whilst 3 females are required for the ladies team race in Division 2 (where the West Cheshire females currently reside) or 4 in Division 1. The team points from each race are added to produce a final points total for the club, the lowest club total winning the trophy for that year. There are two Divisions with relegation and promotion of 2 teams at the end of each season. Both male and female runners count towards the 6 person veterans team.
During the 2006/07 season the numbers taking part were in the range 240 to 265 in each race.
Go to Borders League for current results.
Cheshire County Road Running Grand Prix
A few years ago the Cheshire County Road Race Permit secretary, Adrian Thiemicke, introduced a road running grand prix in the County. In this, 7 established open road races in the county are chosen each year for the GP (e.g. Chester Spring 5 mile and Sutton 6 10K organised by West Cheshire AC). A separate result is produced by Adrian for those athletes running for Cheshire clubs and can be found on the Cheshire AA website.
As with the Borders League, it is designed to encourage members of Cheshire clubs to support races in Cheshire which are largely organised by Cheshire clubs. There are awards to winning clubs and individuals at the end of each season.
In addition and alongside there is the;
National Endurance Running Handicap Scheme
The Cheshire Road Running GP series has been used in the last 2 years as one of the pilot schemes to evaluate a novel endurance running handicap scheme which was invented by George Bunner of Frodsham. Essentially the scheme produces a handicap number for each athlete based on their recent road running performances over different distances. This number (analogous to a golf handicap) then provides a time allowance for a handicap race, the time allowance increasing as the distance of the event increases. Handicap results are published to all Cheshire clubs taking part in the GP series and also found on the same page of the Cheshire AA website.
John Driscoll of West Cheshire AC is working on the scheme and maintains a performance data base for Cheshire club members, which is used by the handicap scheme. This is beginning to provide a detailed breakdown of endurance participation and standards in Cheshire clubs.
- WCAC Handicap codes at beginning of July 2007
Road Relays
There are road relays for all age groups from U13 upwards – Open, County, Area and National.
Ladies and the male athletes under 17 can enter directly into all championship relays. Senior/Junior men must qualify for the National Relay Championship via the club's Area Championship.
The Cheshire County Championships are usually held in September as part of the North West Counties Road Relay Championships. Four Counties Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside take it in turn to host this event within which their own Championships are decided.
The North West awards the first eligible team in each event.
Each County decides the awards for their own County winners
Entries:
All athletes must be first claim members of their Club for Road Running and must be registered with the England Athletics Membership Scheme.
- Clubs may enter teams in more than one County Championship providing the athletes have the appropriate County qualification.
- Clubs can enter up to 3 times as many names as required for a team. On the day athletes MUST be selected from those pre-entered.
- All athletes in a team must be qualified for the same County.
- Please use separate entry forms for teams from the same Club but competing for different Counties.
- Club Vests all of the same design must be worn by all members of each team.
County Qualification (Rule 9):
The Competition Year is from 1st October to 30th September.
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To run in the County Championships, provided you have not competed in another County’s Championship (in any discipline!) within the same Competition Year, you must have been born or have been resident for nine months within the county border or have previously qualified and competed as a resident. The residential link is broken by competing in another County’s Championship after moving outside the previously qualified county boundary.
Age groups as at 31 August / 01 September 2007:
- Under 13s must be at least 11 years old on the day.