The Lakeland Classics Trophy does not use a standard points based results system as seen
in other series such as in the English championships. Races in the series often see varying
field sizes, e.g. when a race features in the British or English championships, or with the
relative popularity of Borrowdale or Three Shires. So, to negate the effect this would have on
a points system, a time relative / percentage based system is used. This, along with various
other aspects of the system such as age categories is explained here.

SPORTident sponsorship:
As you will see below the percentage system easier to state than it is to explain, and indeed
much easier than doing the calculation. As such we are extremely grateful to SPORTident
for sponsoring the LCT as of 2024, putting a very considerable amount of work into the now
automatic results system,
https://www.sportident.co.uk/results/LakelandClassicsTrophy/2024/Series/ .
As an indication of the complexity of the calculation, and the amount of work it required to
automate, it proved much tricker to implement than SPORTident’s equivalent for the English
championship. Again we are very grateful to SPORTident for doing this, making the series
much easier to see and navigate, and an end to getting frustrated with spreadsheets!

Calculation:
For each race the winner is awarded a score of 100. Then for every other runner the
percentage time gap relative to the winner time is calculated, and deducted from 100 to give
their score. This is done separately for the open and women’s competition.

E.g. if the race is won is 4 hours, and a runner takes 5 hours, then they have taken 1 hour
longer, which is 25% of the winner’s 4 hours, and so they will score 75.
The scores are calculated to 2 decimal places to be accurate enough to avoid ties, 1 second
equating to approximately 0.01% in a 3 or 4 hour race.
Astute readers may have realised that a runner taking twice as long as the winner, has taken
100% longer, and so will score 0, and that any longer would result in negative scores!
However, it has been decided this would be rather unfair and 0 is the limit!

Open and women’s category:
For the first 20 years of the LCT trophy there was simply one calculation, however in 2023 it
was decided that this does not reward the female race winners. Indeed, a woman could win
a race, but score less than a competitor might at another race, despite the competitor not
winning the women’s race there. The founding principle of LCT the trophy is to encourage
participation, and so I’m sure that you’ll agree that a runner turning up and winning, even if
this were in a ‘slow’ time, should be given full credit. As such the women’s calculation is now
done separately.
However, women had often contributed to the teams, and many women liked knowing how
they had done relative to the men. And so instead of calling it male and female, it was
separated into open and female. This way women still feature in the open for comparison.

It must be made clear that the women’s LCT will be decided on the female points.
(Some of you may have noticed that that relative positions of the women aren’t always
consistent between the two…)

Teams:
At each race the team results are determined by taking the average of the first 3 runners
scores from each club. The overall series is then determined the same way as the individual
series.
This would be equivalent to adding up the times, or the total score of the 3 runners, but an
average is in keeping with the score being between 0 and 100.
For consistency with how the LCT was previously calculated women may feature in the open
teams, but not the other way around of course.

Overall series:
The overall series, for teams as well as individuals, is determined by a runners best 3 races,
which must include at least two ‘super-long’ races. To be clear, this means runners MUST
do at least 3 races, again including at least 2 ‘super-longs’.
As mentioned before, the founding principle of the LCT is to encourage increased
participation across the races, and so the requirement is to do the minimum number of 3
races for consideration in the overall series.

‘Super-longs’ vs ‘longs’ and the rotation of the ‘long’ races:
The requirement to do 2 ‘super-longs’ is because these are the harder and historically less
popular races that were most under threat when numbers started to dwindle in the past. It
could be argued that Duddon is similar in time, or indeed quicker than Borrowdale, however
its status as a ‘super-long’ reflects its relative popularity to Borrowdale and its position in the
calendar. The calendar is then nicely split into 4 ‘super-long’ then 2 ‘longs’. If Buttermere or
Wasdale are cancelled it has then been known to promote Borrowdale to a ‘super-long’.
With the reintroduction of Buttermere in 2016 and its place as a historical long race it was
added back into the series. As there were then 7 races it was decided to rest one of the
‘long’ races each year to maintain a 6 race series. So each year one of Borrowdale, Three
Shires or Langdale is rested. See website or FRA handbook for details each season.

Prizes:
The overall male and female winners are awarded the prestigious Lakeland Classics
Trophies. There are also trophies for the open and female teams. These impressive chunks
of rock are quite possibly the heaviest trophies in fell running! They are presented at the at
the annual FRA dinner at the end of the season. We also award vouchers and/or the famous
LCT mugs, in both the male and female categories for each, to the following:
– overall winners (£100),
– runners up down to 5th ,

– first three in each of the U23, V40, V50, V60, and V70 categories,
– first in the complete series, i.e. scores across all 6 races,
– most improved (biggest score increase from previous years, some interpretation here),
– team contributors who have also completed the series themselves.

Age categories:
Finally, age categories can be tricky to determine fairly and consistently. The gold standard
would be to always use age on the day, however this is tricky to keep track off across the
season and doesn’t give clarity as to who runners are competing with. (It’s also for this
reason we decided not to use recalculated vets points like the female points).
As such we are using age as of the first race, Duddon, each year.
Having kept track of mid-season age category changes it seems to be quite rare it affects
anybody, especially with it being every 10 years, and all the ‘super-longs’ being within a two
month period. However, if you feel you will be unduly affected, e.g. changing age during that
two month period, and could get your two ‘super-longs’ in as a higher age category, please
get in touch. Same applies in opposite direction to U23’s.