Age classes & entering big events
Age class based competition
Used to running colour coded courses but not sure how these relate to courses by age category? Worried that there might not be a course for you at the bigger events. Fear not!
Overview
All senior age-based competition is at the highest technical difficulty level of five ('TD5'), except for the newcomers' courses of M21N and W21N (see below), which are at Orange level.
Many people have not progressed as far as TD5 or may not have the fitness to do the Short course for their age class. Fortunately, most events have the usual courses from White up to Light Green available, and often at a fraction of the price of the age-based classes, with entry on the day available to boot!
What course can I run?
The following is a rough approximation between age classes and colour coded courses. Don't necessarily expect your course to be a similar length to what you're used to locally- in a middle distance competition, it will be shorter. While in a long distance one (like JK or the British Champs), it could be significantly longer than what you're used to.
| Course | Male age class | Female age class |
|---|---|---|
| Black | M21 | |
| Brown | M35, M40 | |
| Short Brown | M18, M20, M21S, M45, M50 | W21 |
| Blue | M16, M35S, M40S, M55, M60 | W35, W40 |
| Short Blue | M18S, M20S, M45S, M50S, M65 | W18, W20, W21S, W45, W50 |
| Green | M55S, M60S, M70 | W16, W35S, W40S, W55, W60 |
| Short Green | M65S, M75, M80, M85 | W18S, W20S, W45S, W50S, W65, W70 |
| Very Short Green | M70S, M75S, M80S, M85S | W55S, W60S, W65S, W70S, W75, W75S, W80, W80S, W85, W85S |
| Light Green | M14, M16B | W14, W16B |
| Orange | M12, M14B, M21N | W12, W14B, W21N |
| Yellow | M10, M12B | W10, W12B |
| White | M10B | W10B |
The above allocations were used at the 2017 Springtime in Shropshire weekend.
White through to Light Green are open to all.
Those who excel are permitted to run 'up' a class e.g. a W65 running the W50L course. But conversely a W50 cannot choose to run W65
Key
The suffixes denote the level- up to the M/W70 or 80 classes, there is generally a choice of two courses:
- S- denotes the short course for any given age
- L- sometimes used to denote the longer course, sometimes omitted, as above
- N- newcomer i.e. adult beginners on the Orange course
- B- the shorter or easier junior course.
- A- sometimes used to denote the harder or longer junior course, but again, sometimes omitted, like above
- E- for elite runners only