GRAND PRIX RACE SERIES

The South Coast Grand Prix is the club’s annual series of twelve races where members score points based on their age-graded performances. The highest net score wins the Lois Edds Award at our annual Recognition Banquet.

  • The South Coast Grand Prix (SCGP) was started in September 1994 by Mike Friedl with a goal of providing an incentive for members to compete in the Race of the Month. Scoring is based on race performance, as explained below, but Mike’s primary aim was to create a system heavily weighted to participation. “Show up and don’t get zero” became the Grand Prix mantra.

    The age-graded SCGP scoring system provides a level playing field for disparate ages, genders and distances. Each season ends in June so that awards for the top finishers can be distributed at the annual Recognition Banquet.

    Scoring is fairly simple: Each June, before the season starts, we get an updated list of American Road Records (ARR) by gender and age groups from USATF. For each Club Race, the ARR is divided into the participating member’s finish time then multiplied by 1,000 to provide a whole number of points. A time equal to the ARR would earn 1,000 points. A time exactly double the ARR would equal 500 points and so on.

    The best 9-of-12 format allows a runner to miss or drop only three races each year (the number of points after dropping races is called the “net points”). That requires planning and injury avoidance.

    An unexpected benefit of SCGP scoring is the cycling of runners through age groups as they enter the Masters ranks. “Aging up”, which happens for birthdays ending in 0 and 5, matches a runner’s performances against an older, and presumably slower, ARR. This provides a boost in point scoring for the first year or two in a new age group, settling as that runner progresses through that age group. This results in a healthy churn of peaks and valleys.

    Winning the SCGP is incredibly difficult. One needs to be fast relative to his or her age group and competitive in at least nine races each year. Over its history the Grand Prix has had a number of repeat winners that range in age from teens to 70s, both women and men. No matter who ends up on the top of the podium, everyone has fun and supports one another because the true competition is between a runner and the ARR.