Road Running Best Performances since 1997

Male Best Performances
Female Best Performances
(Excel Spreadsheets - Updated for 2009)

Explanations, Notes and Caveats etc

The All M and All F sections show the best performance and the next two best performers & times, irrespective of age group.
(NOTE: The individual with the best performance may have more than one time better then the next best performer)

I’ve worked out the best three performerr  for each Masters age group in 5-year age bands. (Road races tend to work in 10 year age bands.)
.. and for some junior age groups (U15, U17, U20).

The M35 “Masters” age group was only introduced for T&F in 2005, so details are only based form 2005 onwards. Many (most) road races haven’t altered their definition of Male master age groups to reflect this..

For Masters the age group is based on age on the day of the race. (It’s more complicated for juniors)

The club is 30 years old, but I’ve only gone back to 1997.

Qualification for inclusion is based on club membership, plus the regulars in the Sunday morning group which started in 1997, and which was branded as Pentland Runners in 2002.

Official race distances covered are Marathon, Half, 10k and 5k. Also included are the local Rigg Race (just ove 9.5 k) and the club pursuit handicap, 10.7 k downhill (point-2-point course) which was first held in 2005.

Simple arithmetic shows that many folk will have run the first part of a 10k quicker than many of the recorded best 5k times, however without an official time for 5K, it doesn’t count as a  best performance.

Some races have questionable distance measurements, (eg Forthside Half, Dechmont and a couple of others) however I have to trust the organisers.

I've made no distinction between point-to-point courses, which sometimes have a net downhill gradient, and courses that start & finish at the same place.

A best performance shown in italics indicates that there is a better time in an older age group, (who technically holds the record.)

These are all based on details I’ve got, but I expect there are many performances I’ve not seen. So if anyone has updates then please email me the details: race, year, age on race day, detailed time, and web-site with results (if it exists). … and remember, it’s based on performances as a club member.