The Portslade Gold Cup

What is it?

An annual club competition with a race every month through the year. Races can range from 1 mile to half marathon. Points are awarded for how well you do in each race against a target time and accumulated through the year. The best 7 scores count towards your grand total.

Everyone is running to compete against their own personal target time so Pacy and Gentle Joggers and all points in between have an equal chance.

How are points awarded?

All runners are given an individual target time for each individual race.

15 points are awarded for starting each race then for every 1% ahead or behind target time 2 points will be added or deducted up to a maximum of 10, so the maximum point score is 25 and the minimum is 5.

Sample additional / deduction points are shown below with a Target time of 25 mins for a 5K race.

Volunteers will receive 15 points (applicable to 1 race only).

Members running in an event for the first time will be awarded 15 points and their actual time will be used as a basis for target times in later races.

2 “Jokers” are available to play, one in each half of the year. Playing a Joker will double the points in a particular race and the organiser should be notified before the race starts! Any unused Jokers in the first half of the year aren’t carried forward.
Jokers will automatically be applied in June & December for anyone running in those months who hasn’t played it previously in that half of the year.

These results will be calculated and sent out as soon as possible after each race.

How is target time calculated?

Baseline performance is taken from fast flat race – Hove Prom parkrun Mar 2024
Average performances for runners in remaining races gives a multiplier to apply to the race. This multiplier is used to recalculate what the time would be on a fast flat course.
Standard factor (1.06) for increase in distance and decrease in pace is also applied.

e.g.
Time at Hove prom parkrun 5k= 25:00
Expected time at Trundle View WSFRL 7.3K =25mins * ((7.3/5)^1.06) = 37:20
Actual time at Trundle View = 43:00
Multiplying factor = 43:00 / 37:20 = 1.15

Sum the multiplying factor for all runners and the use the average as the factor for the race as a whole.

For subsequent targets use the reverse of the formula to rebase all past performances to a 5K time.

Only previous Portslade Gold Cup races are used for calculating targets and these are weighted so that most recent races are given more importance

For new races review results on RunBritain for a selection of Hoppers and compare actual results to average times in previous races with difficulty factor taken into consideration to estimate multiplier.

When will I know my target time?

Target times will be available around a week before the event.

What races are included?