As regular readers of Sea Legs Girl's blog, you are aware that in the past year she has given up junk mileage in favour of a structured training program set out by SR. The plan, by her own admission, has paid off huge and she is setting personal bests (PBs) all over the place - she recently set TWO PBs in one race! On May 23rd she will run the Copenhagen Marathon on a flat, fast, snow-free course without a baby jogger and without (hopefully) having run a million miles, or done a marathon swim the week before, she even promises to have her shoelaces tied. How fast can she run? I invite you take part in the SLG Marathon Prediction Contest. Legal, Italian performance enhancing drugs to be awarded to the winner (mmmmm pocket coffee).
The rules are as follows:
1. The winner is the contestant whose score is the smallest, the score is first determined by the absolute value of the difference between the contestant's guess and the time SLG runs e.g. if a contestant guesses 3:10:00 and SLG runs 3:09:30 that contestant's score is 30. Equally if SLG runs 3:10:30, that contestant's score is also 30. After the initial score is determined, some time bonuses and penalties are applied as described in the subsequent rules.
2. Each contestant may guess up to a maximum of five times where each subsequent guess replaces the last however every time a contestant changes a guess there is a 5 second penalty applied to their score e.g. if a contestant guesses 3:10:00 on their 5th guess and SLG runs 3:10:00, that contestant's score is 25.
3. To add an element of strategy, for every day IN ADVANCE of the marathon that a person guesses, they are given a 1 second bonus e.g. if someone guesses 20 days in advance of the marathon, 20 seconds will be subtracted from their score. So...one can wait until SLG has run her 50 km and her half marathon to gather more information but waiting has its disadvantage. Note that the time bonus is applied to the contestant's FINAL guess only.
4. Contestants may guess the same time.
5. In the event of a multiple winners, a maximum of three prizes will be awarded where precedence is given in order of the date of a contestant's first guess.
6. SLG & family MAY participate.
Post your guesses by commenting on this post.
Before submitting your guess you may want to review her last marathon, her progression, her recent feat of two PBs in one race, and a not-too-shabby recent long run.
