All parkrun events use age grading to allow athletes to compare results.
Age grading takes your time and uses the world record time for your sex and age to produce a score (a percentage). This score allows you to compare your personal performance against other people's performances even though they might be a different age and a different sex to you - the higher the score the better the performance.
The scores can also be compared across different race distances - to allow you to, for example, compare a 5km time against a marathon.
Age Grades are calculated to allow rough comparisons between all our participants, and should not be taken too seriously. For example, age grading makes no allowance for different weather conditions or the varying terrains of our courses.
We do not share the actual table used to perform the calculations but it is loosely based on the tables produced by WMA, previously known as WAVA.
Age graded Percentage | guidelines as stated by the WMA |
Above 100% | Usually, at least, a record setting performance for that age and distance |
100% | Approximate world record level |
Above 90% | World Class Level |
Above 80% | National Class Level |
Above 70% | Regional Class Level |
Above 60% | Local Class Level |