For details of the scheme see below

Here is the information collected so far

• All 7401 performances 1 Jan 2007 to 30 Nov 2012 in date order (1.8Mb Excel file)
• All 7401 performances 1 Jan 2007 to 30 Nov 2012 in name order (1.8Mb Excel file)
• All 332 certificates 1 Jan 2007 to 30 Nov 2012 in date order (550kb Excel file)
• All 332 certificates 1 Jan 2007 to 30 Nov 2012 in name order (550kb Excel file)
• By year, the number awarded certificates has been 2007-22, 2008-54, 2009-51, 2010-62, 2011-69, 2012-74
• Do-it-yourself age grade calculator - input your date of birth and race performances, the spreadsheet does the rest!

Runners' race performances will be compared with the theoretical world record (see below for definition) for that distance. A time just inside double the world record will be awarded Grade 1, and there is a scale such that a time close to the world record will be Grade 10, beating the world record will be Grade 11. For more detailed calculations see below.

The distances available are 1 mile, 2 miles, 5km, 5 miles, 10km, 10 miles, half marathon, 20 miles, marathon

The theoretical world record is taken from a set of tables. This may be a slight adjustment from the actual world record if a record is considered too easy or too hard (e.g. 10 miles is infrequently raced at world standard so may be out of date).

Men and women are treated separately i.e. we use women's world records for women!

Different ages are treated separately, the tables we use (the Age-Graded Tables) have a theoretical world record at each distance for every age.

The grades will be set at 5% bands as follows, the example shows for a half marathon for a man and woman, both aged 27

V.S.    Percent W.R.      Time better than 
Grade   Range                or equal to
                           Men      Women
   A    40.0%-44.9%
   B    45.0%-49.9%
   1    50.0%-54.9%      1:58:26   2:11:40
   2    55.0%-59.9%      1:47:40   1:59:42
   3    60.0%-64.9%      1:38:42   1:49:43
   4    65.0%-69.9%      1:31:06   1:41:17
   5    70.0%-74.9%      1:24:36   1:34:03
   6    75.0%-79.9%      1:18:57   1:27:47
   7    80.0%-84.9%      1:14:01   1:22:18
   8    85.0%-89.9%      1:09:40   1:17:27
   9    90.0%-94.9%      1:05:50   1:13:09
  10    95.0%-99.9%      1:02:20   1:09:18
  11   100.0%+           0:59:13   1:05:50

Awarding of Certificates

When a Strider has achieved 5 performances at the same grade at 3 different distances, they will be awarded a certificate at that grade.

Some small print : Note that some courses e.g. Rothwell 10k offer significant advantage in that they are point to point so may benefit from prevailing winds and/or altitude drops. Such courses will be marked (A) for Assisted and a runner may only include one such event in any 5.

Striders achieving 5 grade "A" or "B" will also be awarded a certificate

Supplementary Information

Click for full table showing sex, distance, age and times corresponding to each grade

Click for more information on age-grading (V S Website)

Click for more information on age-grading (Alan Jones)