The 2023 PRR Championship has (effectively) finished. Click here for the provisional final tables, both men and ladies. Technically, marathons can still be run and marathon points may change. However, it is impossible for those marathon performances to change the table positions which are:
Men’s Champion: Elliot Collins; runner-up: Dean Abberley; 3rd: Alan Rigby.
Ladies Champion: Rhiannon Laing; 2nd: runner-up: Lisa Aikman; 3rd: Caroline Duffin.
M40: Barry Campbell; M50: Alan Rigby; M60: Alan Bothwell.
F40: Caroline Duffin; F50: Tessa Ward; F60: Sue Bothwell.
Congratulations to them, and especially also to all other season finishers!
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The Championship is Perth Road Runners’ Blue Riband internal race series. That’s Blue Riband as in “of the highest quality; first-class” rather than “shonky-quality, soggy wafer coated in milk chocolate of questionable status” (sue, Nestlé, I dare you…).
The men’s and ladies’ Championships started in 1993 and 1994 respectively and have always represented the pinnacle of the club’s challenge and competition.
It has traditionally been an almost-all-road/tarmac series, with few exceptions (the Ballater 10, with its forest tracks, being one such; the trail-based Crieff 10K has also occasionally featured). It requires participants to compete and complete over distances from 5K to the marathon, with seven of the season’s ten races typically (but not always) occurring over 10K and half-marathon (HM) courses.
Season completers (see below for rules) win the Jim McAndrew Championship Medal, named and awarded in memory of one of the founders of PRR.
Races vary from year to year. It is very seldom the case that a race chosen for the Championship in one year also features the next year (a race postponement might cause this, eg Braemar HM 2022 and 2023). Races can be chosen across all of Scotland (Skye, Arran, Mull and Cumbrae have all featured since 2010) and the use of Brampton-Carlisle in 2022 represented the club’s first foreign Champs foray.
See here for the list of races used in the PRR Championship since 2013.
The Championship season typically starts in March (often with the Inverness or Alloa HM) and, in a year not struck by race cancellations, typically finishes in September or October (to try to minimise race clashes with cross-country fixtures).
Rules
+ To receive a Club Championship medal, you need to complete 7 out of 10 nominated championship races (as per the list below) or 6 of the nominated races plus a marathon.
+ However, to compete for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place in the Club Championship, you need to complete at least 7 out of the 10 nominated Championship races plus a marathon. That is, maximum points will be derived from running those 8 races.
+ In the Championship age categories, it is possible for the trophy to be won without completing a marathon, but this is unlikely; any any athlete who tackles a marathon has an extra 100 points available to them!
+ Age categories awarded with winner’s trophies are Veteran (M40 and F40), Super Veteran (M50 and F50) and Vintage Veteran (M60 and F60). Starting with the 2023 season, the male and female age categories are now the same (previously, female categories were F35/45/55).
+ If chosen, the marathon shall be of the athlete’s own choosing and consist of any worldwide marathon, including one which is part of a triathlon, and must be properly accredited with verifiable results.
+ Full rules, scoring etc appear at 3 here.
Club Championship 2023
| Race | Date | Link | Reserve Race used if race lost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alloa Half Marathon | Sunday 12th March | RESULTS - here | LONG |
| Cupar 5 miles | Saturday 18th March | RESULTS - here | SHORT |
| Round The Houses 10K, Grangemouth | Sunday 16th April | RESULTS - here | SHORT |
| Babcock 10K (Scottish Champs), Glasgow | Sunday 14th May | RESULTS - here | SHORT |
| Blairgowrie Half Marathon | Sunday 4th June | RESULTS - here | LONG |
| Kirkcaldy parkrun (5km) | Saturday 1st July | RESULTS - here | SHORT |
| Isle of Cumbrae 10 miles | Sunday 30th July | RESULTS - here | LONG |
| Forfar 10K | Sunday 20th August | RESULTS - here | SHORT |
| Braemar Half Marathon | Sunday 10th September | RESULTS - here | LONG |
| Glen Clova Half Marathon | Saturday 11th November | RESULTS - here | TILLICOULTRY 10K |
Races – notes
- Do note that some races sell out fast; sign up quickly if you wish to race. This is particularly true of the Round The Houses 10K and Babcock 10K.
- It is particularly particularly true of the season showdown race at Glen Clova. Entries for this race typically sell out inside 60 mins of opening. That will be doubly true in 2023 as Dundee Runners have also included the race in their Grand Prix. If you wish (or need) to run this race, you will need to be ready at a phone or computer to enter on entries day (just as being at that start line itself requires similar planning). We will seek to remind Champs contenders nearer the time of entries opening.
- Note also that, being so late in the season, the Glen Clova HM will have its own Reserve Race (see below).
If a race is lost…
If series races are ‘lost’ (cancelled or even postponed), replacement races are used (rather than a reduced requirement of completed races). Under the rules, those races must be pre-nominated. We are again using the new system here (introduced in 2022). In the past (and still in the Rules, this section soon to be re-written!), regardless of the distance of race lost, it would be replaced by the first nominated reserved race; the second race lost by the second reserve. Thus, it was possible that a 5K could be replaced by a HM, or vice versa.
In 2022, we adopted/trialled a system of Long and Short Reserve races. Two Long Reserves and two Short Reserves were nominated/listed. Under this system, if a race of less than 10 miles is lost, it is replaced by a Short Reserve race; if 10 miles or longer, it is replaced by a Long Reserve. The Long and Short Races are employed in the order shown (race 1, then race 2). We will use the same system in 2023. The table of races above shows which Reserve Race will be used if that race is lost.
Short Reserves
Short Reserve 1: Scottish 10K, Musselburgh – Sunday 24th September – details here.
Short Reserve 2: Giffordtown 5K, Sunday 8th October – details here.
Long Reserves
Long Reserve 1: Path of Condie HM, Sat 28th October – details here.
Long Reserve 2: Templeton Ten, probably Sun 5th November.
Special provision for Glen Clova Half Marathon
The Glen Clova HM falls late in the year, after all of the above Reserve races. This creates its own complications. However, we (and many others) regard this race highly enough that, for the first time in many years, we return to it. If Glen Clova should be postponed or cancelled (very unlikely), it will be replaced by the Tillicoultry 10K which occurs just after Christmas, normally the 27th or 28th of December. Ideally, we’d replace a HM with another long race, but there are few contenders at that late stage of the year.
Note that the reserve races only come into play if any of our nominated 10 races are lost. They cannot be used for the Championship unless this occurs.
The 2022 Championship – a very short report
It was a season of fewer Championship competitors than usual but great competition between those that took on the series.
The new ladies Champion is Rhiannon Laing, placing ahead of Lisa Aikman and Lou Ella Cole in 2nd and 3rd (resp).
The Men’s Championships went down to the final mile of the final race in Carlisle, where Stuart Robertson secured the men’s title by a single point from Kevin Riddell, with Jimmy Fotheringham taking third place overall.
Down to the wire: Stu vs Kev on the roads into Carlisle
Age group winners also emerged, as can be seen in the results link below. All were crowned and awarded at the PRR presentation night in March 2023. See also here for some photos from that evening.
Previous results
2021 and 2020 – not held owing to COVID-19
NB: for greater detail and breakdown of the 2013 to 2019 series (all of Champs, SS and HA), the previous results tool (click link) provides more detail. This was discontinued from 2019 owing to the change in format of the SS and HAA.