The Skipton Cup

🟢🔵The Skipton Cup – a 5k Competition 🏆🟢🔵

The Skipton Cup is back once more….!

➡️For those who don’t know, the Skipton Cup is a series of 5km handicap races for club members, held at Frenchfield.

🗓The first event will be held on Wed Sept 6th 2023 at 6.00pm. It will be a mass start 5km, 3-lap clockwise (ie opposite direction to parkrun) race around the perimeter of the main field at Frenchfield, with trophies ( awarded on presentation night) for the first three men and women to finish.

Then, on the 3 subsequent Wednesdays, there will be a 5k handicap race series on the same course– details are given below. As in previous years there will be awards in the age categories for runners with the top 3 fastest times across any/all of the 4 events in each of the following age categories –  Open (ie 18-34),  v35, v40, v45, v50, v55, v60, v65 and v70+ for both men and women – so that even if you can’t make all of the events, there will still be something to aim at. We will be publishing a leaderboard covering these age cats after each of the 4 races. Age applicable is as on the day of the initial Skipton Cup race – Sept 6th 2023.

IMPORTANT – You will need to wear a race number – so you’ll need to register and collect your number beforehand – we aim to be at Frenchfield from around 5.15pm so please be as early as you can – we aim for a 6pm start. Please bring safety pins if you can – we have a limited supply. And that race number should be worn for each subsequent event you attend.

Note:

• Age Categories will apply across all 4 events – your best time at any of them will be used to establish prizewinners.

• If you are a prizewinner (ie first 3 male and female) in the initial Skipton Cup 5k mass start race, then you will not be eligible for series Age Category prizes.

• Your initial starting time for Handicap Race #1 (Sept 13^th) is based on your Skipton Cup 2023 (ie Sept 6th) time. If you miss that event, we’ll work out your handicap start time using next-best estimates based on fastest ‘recent’ parkrun times, etc.

• You need to be a member of Eden Runners to take part.

HANDICAP RACE SERIES (13th, 20th and 27^th September, all 6pm start)

The runner with the longest 5k time will start first and the shortest-timed runner last, by a differential equal to the difference in their respective fastest times in the preceding races. The Handicap times will be adjusted after each Handicap Race as improvement is achieved. Please note your Handicap time cannot decrease! Points are awarded for finishing position i.e. first place 1 point, second place 2 points etc.

Handicap races #2 and #3 are then completed on subsequent weeks and points awarded in the same way; the overall winner of the handicap series will be the person (male or female) with the lowest total points over the three Handicap Races.

Prizes will be awarded to the three runners with the lowest number of total points.

If you miss one or more of the three Handicap Races, then points equivalent to the last placed finisher in the race plus one point will be added to your total points.

The whole point of this competition is to promote friendly competition by rewarding genuine improvement across the series….and if you win a prize in the process, well, great!  Participation is also at the core of the Skipton Cup race series so please try to attend as many as you can – they are great fun!

The events will be available to book on TeamApp – booking yourself on would be greatly appreciated, but is not essential. Runners are encouraged to wear club colours please

Apologies for the necessarily long post. If you’ve got this far and have questions, please go back to the start and re-read these notes, and then have a bit of a think. Then, and only then 😬, if you’ve STILL got questions, comment on here or send me a pm 🙂

 Get your running shoes on – it’ll be great to see a good turnout – these events really are for ALL MEMBERS OF ALL ABILITIES. Your support is really appreciated

Good Luck! and remember …..anyone can win the Skipton Cup!