The Kenilworth Runners Newsletter may have died a death somewhere at the beginning of 2010 but by popular demand the end of year road race rankings - a feature of the December Newsletter for the past two years - has been saved for 2010.
The format remains largely the same. With much number crunching I've produced lists for the most commonly run road distances: 5 miles; 10km; 10 miles; half marathon and marathon. Cross country or off-road races have been ignored as their claimed distances are often an approximation.
Additionally for 2010 and thanks to the admirable Parkrun initiative, lists for 5km have been included for the same time. Whilst the free weekly Parkrun events are not strictly races, the courses are certified as accurate and the times are used by UK Athletics on their excellent Power of 10 Website.
Furthermore, this year I've attempted to implement a WMA / WAVA grading on each athlete's best performance at each distance to attempt to show an equivalency across the club's age ranges. Aside from the 5km table, where I've used Parkrun's own gradings, I've used the WMA/WAVA age grading table as implemented by a web page created by Howard Grubb (He was top on a Google search for such a table). Male and female performances have been combined for these listings for no other reason than that I see no reason why they shouldn’t be.
As with previous years, there is an important caveat to remember with the compiling of the following lists - they are almost certainly not exhaustive or 100% correct as they are largely based on race reports that feature on either the club website or the athlete profile on the Power of 10 website. I am sure that there are a number of events that have slipped my attention. Finally, the results were compiled up to the 13 December. Any races held between 14 December and the end of the year will not be registered here.

5km Race Rankings

5 Mile Race Rankings

10km Race Rankings

10 Mile Race Rankings

Half Marathon Rankings

Marathon Rankings

To repeat what I’ve surmised for the last two years:  Statistics cannot do justice to the hours and hours of hard training that every club runner has put in to achieve the times in these races, not forgetting of course, that they and others have performed tirelessly over cross country, the fells, in club races and in running themed events such as Orienteering and Triathlon. They fail to show the sacrifices each runner has had to make in order to run to the maximum of their potential at that given moment; the numerous demands that are placed on them through work, family, injury, and health. They also ignore that whilst the distance may be 5 miles, for example, one road race may be very different in terrain to another, making absolute comparison difficult. Finally, I'm mindful that many of our performances from our veteran athletes are not done justice by the mere mention of time, and would require an age compensation to make a more accurate comparison.
I’m happy this year to have partially addressed the section crossed through. The inclusion of WAVA grades has shown some star performers not necessarily apparent through looking at times alone. Martin Belcher has had an excellent year across a range of distances, and it has given recognition to the likes of Mike Johnson, Mick Williams, Joan Mason and Pauline Dable who are performing at the top of their age groups.
The choice of my male athlete of the year is undoubtedly the hardest in the three years I’ve compiled these end of year stats. Asides from those mentioned above, there have been a number of athletes who’ve enjoyed a particularly good 2010. I’m sure I’m missing a whole host of notables but I’ll mention a few: Pete Bryan has racked up a succession of strong results and personal bests, as has Pete Matthews, who broke some significant personal targets. Rod Goodwin has improved markedly over the year, culminating with an excellent PB at the Bedford Half Marathon in December. We’ve also seen Connor Carson completing four marathons and new member Jon Mettyear firing in with results just outside the top ten in a couple of distances.
 With more entrants than the Grand National I’ll allow a mention of my fourth placed finisher (Even if I am embarrassed to say it is me!) I’ve enjoyed my best ever year of running setting competitive times in most distances, despite the ‘joys’ of travelling the world several times over, which did at least allow me to be the most convincing winner of an F1 championship in 2010 (Sorry Seb..). Whether I can improve in 2011 is unclear (As I write this my right leg is a bit of a mess) but I’m determined to give it my best shot.
Last year’s runner up Phil Gould, slips one place to third, despite having, time wise and in terms of significant victories, a better year than in 2009. Phil was particularly strong over 10km and worked hard to improve his half marathon time. Phil ultimately fell short of the top two because their performances across the spectrum of distances were either his equal or slightly stronger (And Phil is yet to add the marathon to his repertoire).  
That leaves us with two runners: Stuart Hopkins and Richard Simkiss. They’ve both had superlative years and to split them is difficult. In terms of distances they’ve both run in Rich leads 3-1, but, statistically, the five mile PB Stuart ran is the best age graded performance of the year and I’ve already highlighted Stuart’s marathon leading time as arguably the performance of 2010.
There is no possibility of a tie however and I’ve decided that in second position is: Stuart Hopkins. He has undoubtedly had a superb year, more than making up for any disappointments in 2009, and the word is that there is more to come in 2011. Ultimately what has, in my opinion, split him and Rich this year, is that Rich has ranked first or second in every event he has competed in, whereas Phil pipped Stuart to second position in the 10km, and the gaps in the three events Rich topped – 5km, 10km, and half marathon – were significant over Stuart.
This leaves Richard Simkiss to defend his title and is my male athlete of 2010. The huge gains he made in 2009 have been amplified in 2010 to see him flourish into one of the best athletes Kenilworth Runners has ever seen. With age on his side there is no reason not to expect Rich to improve for many years to come. Moreover Rich has offered much to the club in his new role as Club League Organiser and has given up time to offer his coaching skills to other club members. Congratulations Rich!
As with previous years, to find a lady athlete who consistently excels across the range of distances is not as easy as with the men. New club member Imogen Peace has run excellently over the half marathon, but it is the standout athlete of 2009 Ros Matthews who is my female athlete of the year once again. She set fastest times in the 5km and 10km, was second fastest with a big PB at the half marathon and her marathon time would have been much faster were it not for the mountainous terrain and foul weather. Ros is set to become the new Ladies Team Captain and I hope she can continue the sterling work performed by outgoing Captain Pauline Dable in encouraging ladies to go out and race regularly.
2010 was undoubtedly one of the strongest years in the 24 year history of Kenilworth Runners. From my personal experience we are matching the achievements of those running at the turn of the century – perhaps not as strong over the marathon, five miles and ten miles, but beating them over the ten km, half marathon and, thanks to Parkrun, the 5km. My hope is that, for the twenty-fifth anniversary of the club, we have our best year yet in 2011.

Matthew Kingston-Lee
Kenilworth Runners Press Officer