Choosing your course in ACT League events

ACT League events differ from Saturday Metro, Summer Twilight and Wednesday lunchtime events in offering additional courses which are more difficult navigationally and physically. These ‘Hard’ courses are often comparable in challenge with the courses set for championship events.

With pre-entry currently required for ACT League events and no opportunity to view the courses before you enter, it is advisable to check carefully the course length and any advice provided by the course planner before entering. Don’t assume that, because you can comfortably complete the longest course offered at a Saturday Metro event, you can do the same at an ACT League event.

For ACT League events, five Hard courses are usually planned in addition to the Moderate 1, Moderate 2, Easy and Very Easy courses offered at a Saturday Metro event. As a broad guide, the physical difficulty of a Moderate 1 course at a Saturday Metro event should be comparable with a Hard 4 or Moderate 1 course at an ACT League long distance event. The physical difficulty of a Moderate 2 course on Saturday should be comparable with a Hard 5 or Moderate 2 course at an ACT League long distance event. The Hard 5 and Moderate 2 courses should also be planned to avoid terrain or obstacles which older, less fit competitors may have difficulty negotiating.

While comparable in physical difficulty, Hard 4 and Hard 5 courses offer greater navigational challenge than the Moderate courses of similar lengths. The Hard 1, Hard 2 and Hard 3 courses are more difficult both physically and navigationally than any courses offered at other regular events. If the lengths of these courses appear to be short, this probably means that running speeds are slow due to steep or rocky terrain or dense vegetation (or a combination of these).

In terms of both physical and navigational difficulty, the comparable championship A classes generally appropriate to each course are as follows: