A TOTALLY FREE & AFFILIATED RUNNING CLUB IN HERTFORDSHIRE
The Stevenage Phoenix
Personal Achievement Awards
What are the Personal Achievement Awards?
The club’s Personal Achievement Awards are a way of recognising individual club members’ achievements during the year based on their WAVA age graded performances. On achieving a particular award level (see details below) the individual is presented with a trophy, or certificate, to mark the achievement.
The awards year runs from 1st November to 31st October (with the exception of 2025, which will run from 1st January to 31st October), we then hold an awards ceremony during our Christmas social in December.
Award level accrual is reset at the start of each year. Once you have achieved a particular level of award you cannot achieve it again. The exception to this is CLUB which you can be awarded each year, and comes in the form of a certificate.
Who can take part?
Any first-claim member of the club can take part in the Personal Achievement Awards. For a race result to be considered for inclusion towards a members Personal Achievement Award that individual must be a member at the time of the race.
How do the Personal Achievement Awards work?
The Personal Achievement Awards are based on an individual‘s performance across a range of 7 distances based on their Age Graded times. We use the Age Grading system so that runners performance can be compared on an ‘even playing field’. Using the WAVA system we can compare performances of men v ladies, a 30 year old v a sixty five year old etc on a fair and equitable basis. We use the following calculator: MLDR Road age-grading calculator, which is maintained by Alan Jones. In 2025 we will be using the 2020 factor.
The awards system works across seven distances - 5k, 5 mile, 10k, 10 miles, half marathon, 20 miles and marathon. The Personal Achievement award is based on a minimum of 3 race results across those distances with no more than one to count at any one distance. The one exception is the CLUB award where a member has to submit at least 4 race times but they can be any combination of the seven race distances (eg three 5Ks, one 10k or two 5Ks, one 10k, one 5 mile etc).
To achieve TIN award or above the race must be a public attended race with a measurement certificate and a minimum of 15 finishers. The race time used to calculate a members age graded times will be the lesser of the ‘gun to finish time’ or the ‘chip to chip’ time.
The club maintains a full set of race results, including the clubs handicap 5k events and it is these that are used to determine Personal Achievement Awards. It is up to members to ensure that their race time are included in the club results. All race times can be submitted at runners@stevenagephoenix.org.uk
Parkrun times cannot be included. For the CLUB award where multiple 5k times could be submitted to count, a maximum of two of the four can be a club handicap 5k.
There are 12 achievement levels:
CLUB - 4 races at any distance.
TIN - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 50%
BRONZE - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 55%
SILVER - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 60%
GOLD - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 65%
DIAMOND - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 70%
PLATINUM - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 75%
CRYSTAL - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 80%
EMERALD - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 85%
PAINITE - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 90%
SAPPHIRE - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 95%
BLUE DIAMOND - 3 of the 7 race distances greater than or equal to WAVA 100%
There will be 1 award presentation evening at the end of the year and members will be presented with a trophy showing the highest level they have achieved at that time.
Illustrative examples
Example 1
Johnny runs the following races:
21/1/23 5k 23:56 58.65%
3/3/23 10k 49:12 57.63%
1/6/23 10 miles 86:23 53.21%
10/10/23 parkrun 22:56 59.78%
He is eligible for a TIN Personal Achievement Award because he has achieved 50% WAVA at three different distances.
Example 2
Sarah runs the following:
8/1/23 parkrun 33:45 48.92%
10/3/23 parkrun 35:21 47.89%
21/4/23 10k 1:01:44 45.78%
28/5/23 5k handicap 34:42 48.34%
12/7/23 5k handicap 34:03 48.56%
10/12/23 5 mile 52:56 48.54%
Sarah has ran four qualifying runs (the two 5k handicaps plus the 5 mile and 10k) so can claim a CLUB level award. Note how the parkruns cannot be counted but the 5k handicaps can be for CLUB level award.
Example 3
Edward runs the following races:
12/7/23 handicap 5k 21:43 70.67%
10/10/23 10 mile 73:45 69.87%
24/10/23 half marathon 1:31:56 71.23%
12/11/23 parkrun 21:36 71.12%
10/12/23 5 mile 38:05 67.21%
Edward can claim a GOLD level award. Although he has run three races at over WAVA 70%, one of those was a parkrun so he hadn’t quite reached the DIAMOND level. One more race at 70% or higher before the end of the year would enable Edward to claim his DIAMOND level award.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.