The How’s behind the Why’s (... contd.)

I begin with apologies. In my previous post I promised a lot in the next post (this one). But this post doesn’t tread that far. However, I will make up by doing so over the next two posts. In that previous post, I talked about what I would look at when deciding whether to go to a particular event. This one will outline how I these factors stack up for individual events. So, here I go…

When I first thought of rating the various events I have participated in, I poured over literature (available freely on the internet) on statistics to arrive at a suitable mechanism. As per the advice I needed to develop a complex formula involving calculus, logarithms & arithmetic. Except the last one, I had found the others difficult even during the days when I was supposed to have studied those. Also in tasks such as this one, there is always a risk of being reviled despite the hard work you have put it (Mr. Duckworth & Mr. Lewis would readily testify to this). Moreover, we runners are simple beings. We just put one foot in front of the other repetitively & feel proud about it. So I went for the KISS (not the Emran Hashmi kind) so that the entire process is easy to understand (by readers of this blog) & easier to work out (for me).

So I simply decided to rate all parameters on a scale of 0 to 5. As some are more important than the others I assigned a weight to each (a total of 100). And calculated the weighted average score. Simple & serves the purpose too.

I consider Start Time, Hydration/Fuel & Traffic management as the most important criteria of success of a mass running event. These are also inter-linked, for a delayed start increases the need for hydration and also makes it more difficult to manage the traffic. Handled well, these will ensure the runners return year after year. I assigned 18, 17 & 15 respectively to these.

Next, we have route, weather & crowd support, which go to create the magic around the event. These give a distinct character to each event. Going along areas lined up with heritage buildings or rivers or coastlines elevates the running experience compared to running through the urban jungle. Again, crowd presence not only makes us feel so important, even the slowest ones feel proud when they find themselves outnumbered by people leading a sedentary lifestyle. I weigh them with 11, 10 & 9 respectively as they are almost equal in importance.

Post-run refreshment is something I value very much. I can hog on anything after having run 21K. But, one can find so much to eat in any habited town. Thus, this one had to settle with a weight of 7. Route markers end up with a weight of 3.

All of the above add up to only 90. Because I have added another criterion to my assessment scale – Overall Experience, with a significant 10. Yes, all of the rest make up for the experience, but this one is for the intangibles that are difficult to express.

The events I am going to rate over the next posts are: Spice Coast Marathon, Kochi (Nov. 2015), Zendurance Nasik Spirit Run (Nov. 2015), Daman Wind Marathon (Dec. 2015 & Dec. 2016), Rajkot (Jan 2016), Vadodara International Marathon (Feb.2016 & Feb. 2017), Goa River Marathon (Dec. 2016), RunGandhinagarRun (Jan. 2017) & SoleFest, Vadodara (Mar. 2017). I have tried to be unbiased in this evaluation & hope you too find it so. More in my next posts…