As we prep for our big winter goal, the Chilly Half, we are hitting our favourite local sufferfest in the proccess- the Run Waterloo Re-Fridgee-8er! This is going to be our biggest 8er yet with 50+ athletes from the team racing including a whopping 30 in the 8-Miler alone.
The 8-Mile H+P Team Challenge
Why so many in the 8-Miler this year? Well, in part it is because Run Waterloo dropped the gauntlet on H+P with a team challenge. It works as follows:
- Split the H+P athletes up into teams of ~6
- The team with the lowest average overall finish position among it’s top 5 athletes wins.
- Prize: $120 cash split evenly among all athletes on a given team (even if you’re not in the top 5, you probably still helped by beating OTHER H+P athletes).
It’s just that simple!
So how do the teams stack up? Check the out below along with their current 5K equivalent or on the battle page on our rankings page HERE.
**It’s important to note that this page will show the average finishing time, not the average finish position- these two things may not produce the same ranking. It is average finishing POSITION that matters the most (aka sprint finishes matter)!
Team Graham
| Rank | Athlete | Rank Time |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Graham Stonebridge | 16:23 |
| 39 | Reza Saputra | 19:12 |
| 52 | Janice Cooper | 20:07 |
| 59 | David Wan | 20:35 |
| 104 | Cathy Derksen | 25:26 |
| 110 | William Spaetzel | 26:50 |
Team Ian M
| Rank | Athlete | Rank Time |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Ian McCreery | 16:59 |
| 34 | Peter Van Driel | 18:56 |
| 56 | Rebecca Kruisselbrink | 20:28 |
| 78 | Anne Aschwanden | 21:49 |
| 131 | Heather Heij | 39:27 |
| NR | Michael Diaz |
Team Luke
| Rank | Athlete | Rank Time |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | Luke Ehgoetz | 17:58 |
| 31 | Merzi Dastoor | 18:49 |
| 43 | Vicki Zandbergen | 19:22 |
| 76 | Greg Pogue | 21:42 |
| 87 | Tyler Dalton | 22:54 |
| 115 | Jennifer Tomlinson | 28:39 |
Team Dave
| Rank | Athlete | Rank Time |
|---|---|---|
| 20 | Dave Rutherford | 18:10 |
| 28 | Andrew McAlorum | 18:38 |
| 46 | Antoine Gauthier | 19:40 |
| 68 | Kayla Ng | 21:11 |
| 92 | Mike Hewitson | 23:38 |
| 109 | Andrew Heij | 26:44 |
Team Ian G
| Rank | Athlete | Rank Time |
|---|---|---|
| 17 | Ian Grzegorczyk | 17:55 |
| 26 | Thaddeus Homewood | 18:33 |
| 38 | Jan de Visser | 19:12 |
| 83 | Lindsay Howes | 22:13 |
| 84 | Olasunkanmi Mabifa | 22:40 |
| 111 | Meredith Hunter | 27:06 |
How were the teams selected?
WELL, we probably spent too much time on this. In order to make the teams as fair as possible, we did as follows:
- We took each athlete’s ranking 5K equivalent and converted it to an estimated 8M time.
- We then made known (conservative) adjustments for factors such as injuries, using it as a training run, going hard and fitter than ever etc.
- We then took those times and saw what each individuals average finish position would have been over the last 3 years for the 8-Miler.
- Then, we mixed and matched until we had an average finish position among the predicted top 5 and top 6 that was within 1 point for each team.
Despite our best intentions, as we all know, so much can happen on race day. Athletes fall apart, bonk, get sick etc. Some of these teams may not even field a full 5 athletes if they hit roadblocks over the next week. Some teams may have athletes who have races of their lives and put our predictions to shame. But, that’s why we race!
Who do you think will take it? Who is likely going to out-perform our predictions?
Good luck to all, we can’t wait to see the results!
#cantwontstop
