Steel City Striders’ Parkrun Cup 2023-4

As the nights start to draw in and we contemplate digging out the high-viz, it can only mean one thing – the much anticipated (three people have asked me about it) return of the club’s annual parkrun cup competition. For those who are new to the competition or have forgotten the mechanics of it, it goes something like this…

Basically, it’s free entry to all first claim club members. To enter all we need is your name and your 5k PB since 1st January 2022. Find the link below to enter.

Each round will take place at one of the city’s different parkrun events – see below for the precise details of which events and when. For lots of us it’s a chance to visit some of the city’s fabulous events that we don’t get to so often.

At each round we draw you to race against another club member. You then get in touch with your opponent and decide which Saturday you are going to race. you will then use your respective times and PBs to have a handicap race-off. Let’s say Neil Schofield has 20.30 pb and Nick Burns has 21.00 pb. At the race if Neil runs it in 20.45 (15 seconds slower than his pb) and Nick runs it in 21.10 (10 seconds slower than his pb) then Nick wins. Hopefully their friendship doesn’t end there!!! It’s worth noting that if you improve your PB during the competition, that will become the new time your handicap is calculated from.

At each round there will three to four weeks to complete your race – see below. We’ll keep an eye on results and publish the winners after each round on Facebook. We end up with a final round where the winner will be crowned. It’s a straight knockout with all the finalists trying to beat or get as close to their PBs as possible. After last year’s really closely contested final at Millhouses, this year we will see the championship decided at Hillsborough. Last year 124 club members took part – it would be great to match or even exceed that number this year.

Here’s the running order, for this year…

Round 1 – Concord – 21st October, 28th October, 4th November , 11th November

Round 2 – Castle – 18th November, 25th November, 2nd December

Round 3 – Graves – 9th December, 16th December, 6th January

Round 4 – Millhouses – 13th January, 20th January, 27th January

The Final – Hillsborough – 3rd February