Recognizing Older Runners at the Can Lake 50

The Can Lake 50 is unique event in today’s trail-dominated ultra scene. The race takes its inspiration from two of the race director’s favorite races from the 1980’s: the Lake Tahoe Ultra and the Edmund Fitzgerald 100K. In common with Lake Tahoe, the Can Lake 50 is one big road loop around a beautiful lake. And, like the Edmund Fitzgerald, the event includes a relay race for runners not ready to tackle the 50 miles solo.

Canandaigua Lake is one of the Finger Lakes in Western New York, formed by glaciers during the last ice age. The road loop alternately takes the runner along the lakeshore and then climbs past vineyards and farms to spectacular views before dropping back to the lake again. The loop has some 3500 feet of elevation gain and loss, mostly concentrated in four major climbs. Locally famous Boople Hill is the most challenging with 600 feet of gain in 0.8 mile and a maximum grade of 23%. The race has been won by runners who walked Bopple and by runners who ran every step. The majority of the loop around the lake is flat to rolling and allows for fast running. Despite the big climbs and descents, the event has proven to be a good one for new ultra runners… this year all 15 first time ultra runners were successful in the 50-mile race.

The relay teams (2 to 5 runners per team) start 90 minutes after the solo runners. Most years the fastest relay team eventually catches and passes the leading solo runners at about 45 miles. The slower relay teams finish with the mid-pack solo runners. This year was notable in that the two-man team of ultra runners, Michael Wunsch (1^st in 50 km at the Finger Lakes Fifties) and Yassine Diboun (1^st in 50 km at the Green Lakes Endurance Runs), won the 50-mile relay. Their time, 5:13:48 (6:17 average pace), was the second fastest time in the six years of the relay event... not bad for a couple of trail runners and indicative of the potential for fast times on the course.

For its first five years the Can Lake 50 has recognized runners in conventional ten-year age categories, i.e., awards to the top 3 Open, Masters, Veterans, etc.). Over the years we have seen the usual problems with that scheme. Often there are only one or two finishers in some age groups which makes winning the age group relatively meaningless. Also, the slowdown due to aging is quite significant over a ten-year span, which puts the oldest runners in an age group at a major disadvantage. This year we changed our awards structure with two goals: 1) to motivate every runner in the field to do their best and 2) provide a more level playing field for male and female runners of all ages.

One common tool used by race directors to encourage runners to give their best is to have special awards for all runners finishing under challenging but achievable time goals. The best-known U.S. example is probably the buckles awarded at the Western States Endurance Run (silver for under 24 hours and bronze for under 30 hours). For the race director, the targets are unambiguous and easy to administer… the runner either finishes under the target or not. The scheme is inclusive; every runner who finishes under the target gets handed a buckle of the appropriate color. And, by all accounts, runners take these time targets seriously and work very hard to achieve them.

Unfortunately, a "one time fits all" standard is inherently unfair for female runners and aging runners of either sex. Male runners, on average, have about a ten percent performance advantage over female runners. And, every year after age 35 the time targets get increasingly difficult to achieve. Buckling at 35 is easy compared to running the same time at 55. Age graded scoring can be used to level the playing field.

The age graded scoring tables developed by the World Association of Veteran Athletes (now World Masters Athletics) allow all individuals within a race to be "scored" against each other. Online calculators (e.g., http://www.howardgrubb.co.uk/athletics/wmalookup06.html) make this relatively easy to do after the race. However, we wanted a scoring solution that provided the best of both worlds: unambiguous targets that are easy to understand, easy to administer, motivating for runners and targets that provide an equal opportunity to win for male and female runners of all ages. It occurred to the directors of the Can Lake 50 that we could do that by setting single-year goals for awarding gold and silver finishers medals. Runners finishing in times slower than their silver goal times received a bronze medal.

Following some analysis and modeling of prior race results, we set targets that would result in about 10% of finishers winning gold and 20% winning silver medals. The Gold standard we selected represents 65% of the World Masters Athletics (WMA) standard for each age. It's a tough but achievable performance. The equivalent 50-mile time for open men (age 23-35) is 6:52:18 and for open women (age 21-29) is 7:35:23. The Silver standard is significantly easier to achieve at 55% of the WMA standard for each age. The equivalent 50-mile time for open men is 8:07:16 and for open women is 8:58:11.

Administering single age targets turned out to actually be quite easy. The gold and silver target times for each single age were posted on the race web site: www.canlake50.org/age-standards.htm. The targets for each registered runner were included in the entries list posted on the race web site and were printed on labels for the bib numbers for each runner. As each runner finished, we pulled their bib tag… checked the target times against the finish clock and immediately handed the finisher a gold, silver or bronze medal finisher’s medal. The process was quick, simple, and provided immediate gratification for the runner.

Was the new age graded scoring a success? It was easy to administer. It met the race directors’ expectations for equitable recognition of the efforts of older runners and female runners. Gold medals were awarded to four runners in the 50-mile event: Ed Housel (1^st overall at age 49), Todd Baum (4^th overall and a new 50-59 age record at age 50), William McGovern (5^th overall at age 49) and Jeffery Carr (8^th overall at age 50). Silver medals were awarded to two women and ten men, extending all the way down to Clyde Ferguson (age 57) in 19^th place. You can see the distribution of medals in the results posted on the race web site: www.canlake50.org

Did age graded scoring motivate the runners? One runner e-mailed the following after the race: "The Age graded metals were a great idea. It gave the runners a solid goal to shoot for and something to achieve rather than just a finish, and a metal for finishing. I know it was a part of my strategy." In any case, we expect it will take several years for the age graded scoring to become a part of the culture of Can Lake 50 runners. For more information about this experiment in age graded standards, contact the race directors at tperry01@rochester.rr.com. 

Tom Perry, RD