Paddock Wood Half Marathon

A fast accurate course on roads through the hop fields and orchards of Kent. Ideal as a warm-up for 'London'. Kent's largest half marathon with excellent facilities including ample parking, supervised baggage store, refreshments, physiotherapist, results on the internet immediately after event and full first aid cover. Regularly voted amongst the best races in Runners World Top 100. Start & Finish Chip Timing. Results can be received by text message after the race. Memento and goody bag to all finishers. Minimum age limit for half marathon is 18 on the day.

Entrants must be 18 or over on race day.Sorry – the course is not suitable for wheelchairs.

What is the UKA Licence Scheme?From 1st April 2008, the England Athletics registration scheme for runners was fully implemented. This replaced the previous unattached levy and entitles registered runners to a discounted race entry fee. As the scheme stands now (October 2008) only club runners can be registered; however, some clubs have decided to operate schemes where individuals can choose to be licensed or not. So, even if you are a club runner, you may not be licensed! The definitive test is whether you have a valid England Athletics Competition Licence card and registration number. If you don’t then you are not licensed and not entitled to the discounted rate. For more information (when available) please visit www.englandathletics.org. Similar runners’ registration schemes operate in the other Home Countries.Understanding Age Graded ResultsAge Graded Results (AGR) are based on the Open Class Standard produced by The World Association of Veteran Athletics (WAVA) which Sports Systems have incorporated in their RaceMaster98 race management software. An AGR gives runners their result expressed as a percentage, where the value shows how well they did regardless of their age and gender. This allows for easy comparison of relative performance across age and gender. With AGR it becomes easy to see, for example, if the 25-year-old in 26th place (AGR 65%) ran better than the 57-year-old in 113th place (AGR 72%). To find out more about the mathematics behind this process we have a more technical answer to AGR.Gun Time / Chip Time DefinedAt many races, we are asked to produce two times. The first is what is called the Gun Time. It’s the official race time and is the time that the runner takes to complete the course from the time the gun was fired. Of course, if you take say thirty seconds to cross the line this additional time is part of your race time.We can also produce a Chip Time (or Chip to Chip Time as it’s sometimes referred to). This is the time that the runner actually takes from the time they crossed the start line (even if they took thirty seconds to do so from went the gun was fired) to the time they crossed the finish line. However, this time has no relevance to the results whatsoever and is used for information purposes only.As far as the rules of athletics are concerned the Gun Time is an important time, and this is what the results and prizes are based on, otherwise the race becomes a time trial where the winner need not be the first person to cross the finish line.At some events, it is not possible to produce Chip Times because of the constraints of the course. For example, the race may start on a road where there is no legal road closure and so setting up the timing equipment is impossible. However, we always have timing equipment at the finish which enables us to produce Gun Time results and prize lists quickly and efficiently.  What is my Race Category?Most races have races for people of different ages. These are commonly referred to as Categories. UK Athletics normally divide into ten-year groups although some races and championship events use five-year categories.Standard ten year categories from Men are:Junior Men – Under 19Senior Men 19-39Veteran Men 40-49Veteran Men 50-59Veteran Men 60+Standard 10 year categories for Ladies are:Junior Ladies Under 19Senior Ladies 19-34Veteran Ladies 35-44Veteran Ladies 45-54Veteran Ladies 55+Veteran categories can also be referred to as Masters.