BHAA Standards

The BHAA standard table shows the expected time that our organisation assumes runners of a specific standard will complete various distances in. By assigning a runner a standard, it allows us to group runners of different ages and genders for the purposes of team and individual league prizes.

Based on analysis of the race results from the past 18 months, the committee and race organisers have decided to adopt a new standard table for the start of the Winter League 2010/2011. The key aim with new standard times is to ensure all all BHAA runners can be catered for within the 30 standards while also adding a level of transparency to the process by which a runners standard is assigned and changed. 

The fundamental change is that the expected time to run one kilometer for each standard had been increased. The previous system had a max time of  5 minutes for a Std30 runner, the next system moves this upper limit to 6min 30seconds. The expected times for longer distances also increase.

In an attempt to bring greater transparency to the standard process, the following actions will be implemented from now on

• The expected standard times will be published before each race to allow runners a specific target on the day.
• Every runners standard will automatically be reviewed after each race.
• The standard can only change by one up or down per race.
• If a runner has not run a race in the last individual league, their standard for their first race is considered to be blank. Their first race time is then used to apply a new standard. (This is to ensure all runners get quickly processed against the new standard table).
• The standard times will not differ depending on course conditions.
• The standard times are gender independent.

We will update this page with questions and answers as they arise, and please use the forum to post your questions. We will host a Q&A session at the prize giving at the teachers race.