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parkrun thread

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Meep Meep Oct 2023 9:17pm, 10 Oct 2023 2 posts	Quote Pin Meep Meep And they also go down to 4 on the parkrun tables. If they did not, 4 year olds would not be able to receive an age grade.
paulcook Oct 2023 9:46pm, 10 Oct 2023 3,374 posts	Quote Pin paulcook Scratch that, they do go down to 5yo on the excel tables on the Howard Grubb website Thanks. I’ll take a look.
larkim Oct 2023 9:50pm, 10 Oct 2023 22,290 posts	Quote Pin larkim Yes, Meep, but they could be identical to the age 5 ones.
Foxy Oct 2023 9:57pm, 10 Oct 2023 34,442 posts	Quote Pin Foxy if any one gets the chance can hearily recommend Cornerstone Lakes on the outskirts of Chicago - pristine lakeside two lap course.
paulcook Oct 2023 9:58pm, 10 Oct 2023 3,375 posts	Quote Pin paulcook Remarkably there doesn’t seem to be much difference between 5 and 9 year old times. He ain’t no World Record holder yet but mainly I’m delighted by his initial enthusiasm anyway.
Meep Meep Oct 2023 10:12pm, 10 Oct 2023 3 posts	Quote Pin Meep Meep "Yes, Meep, but they could be identical to the age 5 ones." The parkrun age grade tables have been reverse engineered. They are simple copies of the 2006/2010 WMA tables, but with values for 4yo added (weird ones at that; they do not fit the curve.)
larkim Oct 2023 10:16pm, 10 Oct 2023 22,291 posts	Quote Pin larkim That's very odd! I knew the tables were the old ones (though HQ themselves on the website denies they are strict copies, which is false unless they are talking about the real extremes of under 5 and over 100) but how they make the maths wrong for 4yo is weird.
JJJ Oct 2023 10:28am, 11 Oct 2023 291 posts	Quote Pin JJJ How do they know it's a 'world record' for a 9 yr old? As far as I know parkrun don't show the records anywhere - has someone skimmed all events for the JM10 record, or is it available from the API?
Meep Meep Oct 2023 10:36am, 11 Oct 2023 4 posts	Quote Pin Meep Meep The only way to know 100% for sure would either be for someone to have scraped all of the data from the website, and also reverse-engineered everyone's age by using the age grade figures; or alternatively they may have emailed HQ asking the current record. However, HQ would be unlikely to answer questions with regards to "records" for children because of their policy that children should only run for fun and should not be pushed to performances. I'd guess this wasn't done and they've simply browsed around to find what they think was the current "record". Only a couple of authorised parties have API access. They haven't allowed anyone new for a very long time.
larkim Oct 2023 10:37am, 11 Oct 2023 22,297 posts	Quote Pin larkim I'd guess they've checked this out with HQ, especially given the publicity it has generated. It was even on the Radio 1 breakfast show this morning.