So here’s how to race the First Annual 100/100 Grand Finale Virtual 5k. Entry is open to all registered users on Slowtwitch, regardless of participation in the 100/100 challenge.
Between March 14th and March 29th, participants may either A) time themselves on a 5K course, measured as accurately as possible, or B) enter an organized 5K race. (Or a disorganized one, if that’s what’s offered in your area.) Feel free to organize a small event with other participants, if you know any.
You will allow yourself ONE attempt: that is, you make the decision before you start that this is the race. No do-overs if you’re not happy with how it’s shaping up. This goes for solo time trials and actual races.
Running on a track (indoor or outdoor) is permitted.Outdoor (non-track) courses can be loop or point-to-point. Solo time trials should ideally minimize crossings of busy roads - I don’t want anybody to get splatted on account of trying to save time. Ideally your selected course should be as flat as possible. Large losses in elevation on point-to-point courses are NOT permitted for solo efforts or organized races. You may select your route based upon prevailing conditions for the day (e.g. choose your direction on a point-to-point course based upon wind direction). You may feel free to run uphill on a point-to-point, but if you do, you’re just showing off. No credit will be given for this. It will be assumed that everybody’s results were achieved on the fastest route that could be arranged.
Treadmill runs are NOT permitted. Sorry. We’re trying to replicate an actual race as much as possible.Submit your results to STvirtualrace at gmail. I think that you all know that there’s a “com” after the dot, but I’m being paranoid about spam. (Slowman - sorry if the “ST” borders on trademark infringement, but “virtualrace” and “virtual5K” were already taken, and I was running out of ideas.) Everybody please use this address only for submission of results. Any other communications (questions, suggestions, etc.) either post on this thread or PM me.
In order to keep the data entry as simple as possible, please submit in the following format:
ST user nameFinish timeSex
Age (optional, but I’d like to do age group rankings for those who do submit)(Also optional) BRIEF description of the type of course: e.g. “solo loop course,” “group indoor track,” “organized point-to-point race,” etc.) Remember, this will be going in a free text field in a spreadsheet, so lengthy descriptions might mess up the formatting. Save your detailed race reports for the thread in which results are posted.Please try to keep your results to yourself until the full results are posted. Ideally, everybody will be doing their individual efforts in a similar “fog of battle” to what we experience in actual races.And finally, a word about honest reporting of results. Prior to this year’s 100/100 challenge, I would not have considered a competition that relied upon honest self-reporting of results to be possible. I think that this winter has shown that such a thing can happen, and can be quite enjoyable for the participants. We are members of a community here, and our reputations are important to us. For most of you, providing accurate results will not be any sort of an issue.
For those of you who do feel the temptation to fudge the numbers a little, just remember this: 1) You will be messing up the event for everyone else to a greater or lesser degree, and 2) this could prove to be the first of a long series of questionable moral and ethical decisions you will make, leading to the day years in the future in which your career and family life are in tatters, and you find yourself in a seedy motel room with a dead prostitute, a bottle of gin, a gun, and a profound sense of regret and despair. Do you want that to happen? Of course not. So don’t falsify your results.
Everything perfectly clear? Good. Operators are standing by.
