The format of Cambus Canters is obvious to those of us who have taken part regularly, but for the uninitiated a brief explanation of how Cambus works follows below.
Based on running history, the handicapper gives new Cambus runners a predicted time and associated start time. For old hands at the start of a new season the predicted time is generally based on the previous years best Cambus results tempered by a winter leeway element.
On the night at Cambus Canters runners then set themselves off using the “start clock” on a staggered basis according to their assigned start times (slowest first).
The challenge is to try and catch runners ahead of you while avoiding being caught by the faster runners coming up behind.
If everybody were to run precisely to their predicted time they would all cross the finish line together. In practice the runner making the biggest improvement on their predicted time will cross the line first, followed by the runner with the second best improvement and so on.
Points are awarded on finishing order. If you run faster than predicted, this becomes your new predicted time (handicap) for next month.
First home is awarded 50 points, second gets 49 and so on. The overall winner at the end of the season is the runner with the highest score calculated from their best 4 results out of the six possible runs. This favours runners making significant continued improvement throughout much of the season.
The Deeside Runner with the most points also gets a very nice Capercaillie trophy to look after for 12 months.
For further information, a handicap, or to submit a virtual run time email David at djst.oliver@btinternet.com