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Titus
or Unitas?
Who
was better Marciano or Ali; Koufax or Clemens; Orr or Gretsky; Russell
or LeBron; Unitas or Brady?
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Race
winner and age grade percent winner Titus Mutinda of Lowell, MA.
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It's difficult
to compare athletes from one generation to the next, but tonight that's
what we attempted at the Good Times' Elizabeth Cady Stanton 5K. Using
the Good Times' super computer and an age/gender algorithm we compared
runners from different generations to see who would perform the best.
For those
of you interested in the technical side here's how it works. Using an
Age Graded algorithm based on WAVA
tables, we produced a new time for each individual based on the age-grading
(see agegrad
column). These times are derived by the age and sex of the participant.
It allows the different ages of men and women to be compared on a level
playing field for their sex. However this still has the men and women
separated by the standard time difference. So to score the men and women
evenly, instead of age-grading based on time, we used an Age Grade
Percent so that males and females are scored together with no adjustment
needed. The person with the highest percentage, meaning the one closest
to the Age Standard for that age, gender, and distance is the age-grade
winner. Okay got that?
Lowell's
Titus Mutinda proved he's a great runner regardless of the generation.
The 44-year old won both the overall race and the age/gender graded race.
His time of 16:57 translated into an age graded time of 15:32 putting
him in the 82.97 age/gender graded percentile. Anything over 80-percent
is considered a national class runner. Joining Titus in the national ranks
was Marshall Randolph (82.03%). Marshall's time of 19:32 translated into
a 15:43 age graded time and set a new PR for the 60 and over division
at the Good Times Series. Not a bad night's work. On the female side,
Westford's Liane Pancoast ranked third overall with a regional class ranking
of 77.67-percent. Her age/gender graded time was 19:03.
In the battle
for the Good Times championship, Tim Burke remained atop the leader board
despite an unplanned detour and fence climbing. Erica Paton also held
onto her top spot on the female side.
Want More?
Then check out the Good Times on our website,
our forum, our
Facebook
page or our Good Times Blog.
Next Up
Next week is our Carnac the Magnificent 5K. This is a predict your time
event, so come ready with a predicted time in mind. The top runners closest
to their predicted time will win. No watches or any timing devices of
any kind will be allowed on the course. And as always, we can't guarantee
you will run a fast time, but we promise you will have a good time at
the Good Times Series.
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