Your answer to Qu2 removes the need for Qu1 as the Age Grading is not specific to GRG.

However, I am still nosey to know how the membership has increased over time as there seems to be a lot more people running / cycling / swimming than ever, and also using this fantastic site!

Hi Ann and Dan,

Question 2 is easy the age grading doesn't change, its a formula based on how you compare to the fastest runner on the planet of your age. Of course new tables are published as world records are broken but its rare and doesn't change much or often. Its also a bit of a guesstimate as to how the hilliness of the run compares to a flat one and of course underfoot conditions cannot be taken into account.

Question 1 has me confused :-)

Andy

Hi Dan!

Your first question I think sums up what I was getting at perfectly - as in, as the membership increases, has the distribution of runners at each level changed at all and/or have existing members improved their age-gradings over time? Am I over-thinking this?? :/

In answer to your second question - someone please do correct me if I have this wrong - I think that the basic age-grading formula is pretty standard but I think the one used on GRG is slightly weighted to take account of the hilliness of the course involved. My age gradings on GRG for parkrun, say, are always slightly higher than those awarded by the parkrun website itself, which I believe adheres to the basic formula.

Two questions I suppose, or more come to think about it;

1. how has the membership increased since 2009 and what level of runners are they with regards to age grading

2. isn't Age Grading a standard formula across all running websites, or when I achieve 70% age-grading today, if loads of people suddenly join tomorrow who average above 70% and I complete the same distance in exactly the same time, would be my age grading go down?

... Hmmmm..... 

Hi again!

I don't know if anyone else might be even remotely interested in this but here goes.....

.......I was having another read through the age-grading article on the website the other evening and noticed that the graph showing the proportion of members who achieve each range of age-grading percentages in their races related to September 2009 - I just wondered if there was much variation between then and now?

It would be interesting to see if or by how much the levels have changed as the membership has grown and developed over the years. Just a thought.....or am I just a total geek?? (Rhetorical question - no answers please.... :D)