Team competition heating up!

Well, that was unexpected! The @Thundering-30s have been leading the team competition by a decent margin for quite a while now, but just in the last week, the @Fabulous-50s have gained ground, and @kag22’s run at Thom B this morning gave the @Fabulous-50s a boost, putting the two teams in a tie.

Here are the rules, but in short, teams benefit from their ten fastest runners’ age grades and from the overall number of runs, regardless of speed. Each gets a score, the scores are totaled, and the lowest score wins for each course. The overall score is the cumulative across all courses, and again, lower is better.

Clicking a team name on that page shows where the team sits for each of the courses, so speaking as someone on the @Fabulous-50s, here’s where you can make a difference:

  • If you’re up for a fast mile, see if you can lower your time on the East Hill Rec Way. The fastest time for the 10 people with the highest age grade is what makes the difference. Filter the East Hill Rec Way by age group and then sort by age grade to see who’s in the top ten. (And sorry, but I don’t dare stress my calf to go faster on that course.)

  • Ditto for running a fast 5K on the Waterfront Trail—we’re in third there, so moving up even one place would help.

  • We’re tied for first on the South Hill Rec Way, but there are points for the picking by either improving our age grade or logging enough more runs (8 at the moment) to take the lead there. @mickiejauquet?

  • Although we’re in first on Thom B, thanks to Karen’s run this morning, we’re tied for Most Runs. Just one more Thom B run would give us the lead there, however temporarily, and help our score by one point. (And remember Saturday’s group run there!)

  • We’re also tied for Most Runs at Forest Frolic, so if someone wanted to run that one more time, that would be good for dropping another point. There’s room to improve on age grade too, but it seems unlikely that anyone will run a fast time there in the remaining days.

  • We have two opportunities with Pseudo Skunk Cabbage, where the top three teams are extremely close in age-grading, so a fast time from one of our runners could move us up a position. Similarly, we’re tied for second in Most Runs, and we can’t let the 40-49 team get ahead of us there and saddle us with another point.

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Woo! Thanks to Jesse Koenecke (@JesseKoennecke) running an East Hill Rec Way mile PR today on the High Noon run, the @Fabulous-50s have taken the lead! His 6:04 mile increased our collective age grade from 73.25% to 73.67%, just enough to sneak into second ahead of the 40-49 team’s 73.52%. And that dropped our cumulative score by one point, putting us in the lead.

Check out the other suggestions I outlined for where we can get points and see if any fit into your running plans. And remember, the top ten runners of the winning team will win a $10 gift certificate to the running store (along with any other individual prizes you might win—I’m working on the award calculator now).

Way to go Fabulous 50’s!!!

And it looks like @amandaking and @aaronking32 are going to make sure the team competition stays close. Their runs on Tortoise & Hare this morning put the @Thundering-30s back into the lead ahead of the @Fabulous-50s. Curses! :scream:

If someone wants to take the helm of the @Thundering-30s and encourage some specific runs as I did for the @Fabulous-50s yesterday, here’s the technique. I may be biased toward the children of the 1980s, but the competition is only fun if it’s about what we do on the courses, not having inside information—the leaderboard’s insights are open to all. :slight_smile:

Start at the Top Teams page.

Click a team name to see how that team is doing on all the courses.

Then click through the Team Points for each course. On the team page for a course, look at the Average Age Grade and Total Runs columns, and see if there’s any room for improvement.

Obviously, if Total Runs is out of reach, there’s no point in focusing on it. And it’s unlikely that anyone is going to be able to set a really fast time on a gnarly trail course like Frolic or Danby, so the Average Age Grade scores for those courses will be hard to change. But where it’s close, such as on Thom B, where Total Runs is tied, there’s room to compete. Sounds like Saturday’s group run there might involve a bit of a showdown.

May the most organized and single-minded team win!

Uh oh, @Thundering-30s. With Mark Jauquet finally entering his stored-up efforts into Webscorer and updating the leaderboard (with, for instance, a Thom B. run that broke the previous tie for Total Runs), the @Fabulous-50s have moved back into the lead, 35 to 38.

What will the weekend bring in this battle of age and cunning versus youth and vigor?

Given the closeness of the standings, what is the etiquette for posting runs that were done a while ago but never logged? For example, I ran the Pseudo with the group run a while ago, but never logged it on webscorer because I was lazy, I guess.

If you would have remained lazy and never posted, you shouldn’t post now. If, however, you had been planning to post all along, it’s fine to do so now.

It will also only make a difference if it’s your fastest time. And even then, I don’t think it will make much difference because 50-59 is already in the lead for Average Age Grade on the Pseudo Skunk course.

Thanks! Good ethical compass there.

C’mon @Thundering-30s, we can take this! I can manage logging a bunch of completions but I’m not in shape for any fast times. Someone please start throwing down PRs on the CBG, Skunk, and Frolic courses. I turn 40 next year and want to end my 30s on a high note!

Pete, what courses would be most helpful for us to run for slower miles? Are we close to moving up in # of runs placing in any of them?

It’s getting exciting! The @Thundering-30s have now retaken the lead, with 34 points to 37 points for the @Fabulous-50s, on the strength of @lizhartman running Tortoise & Hare twice today to give them the lead in Most Runs on that course and @aaronking32 and @amandaking running Forest Frolic to do the same thing. Those two courses remain in play for Most Runs, but anyone who wants to head out there should be super careful—it’s not worth getting hurt.

Clearly, we @Fabulous-50s have some work cut out for us in the next week!

The @Thundering-30s have pulled ahead significantly today, 34 points to 40 for the @Fabulous-50s, based on Amanda King running Tortoise & Hare twice for the Most Runs lead there, Pete Kresock putting in two efforts on Forest Frolic to take the Most Runs lead there, and Margaret Frank running the fastest women’s time on Pseudo Skunk Cabbage yet—a sizzling 1:35:02—to catapult them into the Age Grade lead there.

Clearly, the @Thundering-30s have this sewed up and should just spend the rest of the week resting at home, finishing off the eggnog. :wink:

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Amazing for the thirties team! Adam, how exactly is the age grade for each team calculated for any given course? Is it the average age grade of the top 10 finishers?

Yep! From the rules:

For each course, the age grades of the best efforts for each of the top ten runners (sorted by age grade, not time) on the team are averaged to provide an average age grade for the team.

In other words, new PRs for the top ten will increase the Age Grade score, as @Margaret_Frank did today on Pseudo Skunk.

That Frolic double wasn’t too fun. I sure hope it’s worth it!

What would the most beneficial course be to run for the Thundering 30’s to help with points and such for speed or completion? Thanks!

Hey @Daniel_Kalinowski ! I just added you to our group message- let me know if you have any problem seeing it! I’ll also look up your completions and message you directly. Thanks for chiming in! Woo-hoo!

Cool, thank you so much Amanda!

@Daniel_Kalinowski’s Forest Frolic has now moved the @Thundering-30s into a tie with the @Fabulous-50s for Most Runs on that course, while @Jmckain85 rocked a 6:47 PR on the East Hill Rec Way to nudge the @Fabulous-50s into second place, up from third, but still behind the @Thundering-30s.

The score now sits at 34 to 38 with the @Thundering-30s in the lead, but the @Fabulous-50s have room to drop points in Most Runs on Danby Down & Dirty and Forest Frolic, and with fast PRs on East Hill Rec Way and Waterfront Trail.

Two more days!

Talk about a smackdown! I’m all for “never say die,” but the @Thundering-30s have extended their lead significantly in the last day or so, making it currently 30 to 40, a point spread that seems insurmountable in the remaining day. It appears that youth and exuberance have bested age and guile this time.

The @Fabulous-50s might have been able to stay in touch if the @Thundering-30s had stuck to focusing on the Most Runs category, but with @Margaret_Frank and @lizhartman throwing down super fast times on a number of courses, they were able to pull ahead in Age Grade too.

Great running, everyone, and we’ll pick this up again next year!