Personally I did like the average pace column, some days and other days I did not. I found that the average pace column could be a motivators on fast days but worked against me on easy days when I would intrisically start running faster than I should have....and frankly after 40 days your average pace is more or less locked down for the entire challenge....it takes a herculean effort to drop it in the second half by any reasonable amount.

"But when you consider overall points, a lot of the front runners in the challenge fall to MOP."

Actually this is untrue. I have participated in all of the ST challenges this year except for a few of the swim ones (kind of pointless when you swim 0-2x per week). What I have seen is that the front runners in every challenge be they run, bike or total points also happen to be the same guys doing the most overall training (aerobic points). Here is an example: http://training.slowtwitch.com/...allengeType=distance

You can also look at the May bike Challenge or June points challenge (well, that one is obvious) to see who did what.

They also happen to be the guys (relative to others in the challenges) finishing up near the front of actual races. Anyway, it is what it is.

I'm somewhat indifferent about the aerobic points thing. It clearly favours someone like me who happens to inherently train more than most of you guys, but I don't do these challenges to chase positions on a spreadsheet. I just do what I'd normally do to train for events or to enjoy the training aspect of my life and it is interesting to see what friends worldwide are up to, without physically having to be in Tokyo, Sydney, Columbo, Berlin, Rotterdam , DC, Boulder or Seattle on a given day :-).