Example of Points Calculation

Example of Points Calculation

In the first race of the 1998 Series, the Ascension 50 km in Hamilton, Howard Parker placed 27th in a field of 39 starters.

In any OUS event of ultra length^*, each finisher gets points for both place and distance.
The points for distance is simply the length in kms. In the case of Ascension 50 km, every finisher gets 50 points for distance.

For any OUS event the overall winner gets 100 points for place. All the other finishers get a percentage of 100 points based on their relative finishing position compared to the number of starters.

In the Ascension 50 km example:
Winner gets (40-1)*(100/39) = 100 points for place.
Second place gets (40-2)*(100/39) = 97 points for place.
Howard, 27th place, gets (40-27)*(100/39) = 33 points for place.

Add 50 points for distance and Howard gets a total of 83 points for this race.

Effect of DNFs
Let's say there were 54 starters instead of the actual 39 at Ascension but the same 34 people finished. So instead of 5 DNFs, there were 20 DNFs. In this case each of the finishers, except the winner, would get more points for place.

Winner gets (55-1)*(100/54) = 100 points for place.
Second place gets (55-2)*(100/54) = 98 points for place.
Howard, 27th place, gets (55-27)*(100/54) = 52 points for place.

So if you finish a race in which there were a lot of DNFs and did not win overall, you get relatively more points than if there were fewer DNFs, no matter what your position.

*Bruce Trail Survival Run is less than Ultra length but finishers get points.

For the 2001 season only, a Rule change was made:
Points for men and women were calculated separately such that the top woman and top man in a race each gets 100 points for place.
For the other runners, points for place were calculated by the number of men or number of women in the race.
(In 2002 the OUS reverted to the previous rules.)