2021 ESSEX ROAD RACE CHAMPIONSHIP INFORMATION

19 May 2021 - By Natalie Lilley

As we slowly get back to racing, here’s some information on the Essex Road Race Championship (“County Champs”), as a refresher for members and guidance for new members.

Provisional races and dates (covid permitting)

5 Mile – (Pleshey) 25th June 2021 – CANCELLED
10 km – (Chelmsford) 21st November 2021
10 miles – (Stebbing) 14th November 2021
Half Marathon – (Pleshey) 19th September 2021 – ENTRIES OPEN
20 miles – (Rochford) – CANCELLED
Marathon – (Chelmsford) 17 October 2021

Scoring Information

The Championships are held annually over 6 distances; 5M, 10K, 10M, Half Marathon, 20M and Marathon.

At each of the championship races medals are awarded for the first 3 in each age category and the first 3 teams in both Ladies and Mens. Teams are made up of 3 runners in finish order

Over the race series points are awarded for the first 25 in each age category of each race. These points are totted up after the last race and medals awarded to the first three in each age category overall.

The points scoring is as follows:

Points awarded for the best 5 races out of the 6 – runners can “drop” their worst race score.

“Position” points to the top 25 runners in each category remain – 1st gets 25 points down to 25th gets 1 point.

In addition, in the age categories, there are points for attendance, which are cumulative (1 point for doing 1 of the races, an additional 2 points for the 2nd, etc up to 5 points for the 5/6th race). In total a runner could get 15 points by doing 5 races (1,2,3,4,5). The attendance points will only apply to age categories (not the open category)

All races will score the same (no additional points for the longer races)

The attendance points system means that, even if you’re not a “fast” runner, you can still rack up points and climb the rankings.

DON’T FORGET: Race Licences and selecting ‘Essex Qualified’ when entering are required to take part! This is really important as WRC has missed out on medals in the past as a result of not selecting Essex qualified.

What does Essex qualified mean?

The criteria is to either have been born in Essex or have been an Essex resident for at least 9 months. In addition you cannot have competed in another county’s championship in the same year (eg. Suffolk / Kent, etc). Race licences are also a must.

Link to Road Championship page on Essex Athletics Site

Let’s get racing!

Natalie & Adam
Team Captains