Owen Trophy 2026

Now that the cross-country season is drawing to a close this can only mean one thing…..road season is upon us.

Central to the road racing season is our club’s Owen Trophy competition. Everything is detailed below and I’ve no doubt many of you will be tempted into lacing up for some road races over the coming months.

** Please enter races early, all entry links are below. Races are filling much earlier than in previous years and in particular the Sri Chinmoy events who’s permitted races have been reduced in number this Spring/Summer by the powers that be in Battersea Park **

Owen Trophy – What is it?

The Striders Of Croydon ‘Owen Trophy’ competition is for first-claim members, which incorporates the races below, plus your choice of one half-marathon and one marathon.

The Owen Trophy was introduced by the committee in 2003 when Alan Dolton and Chris Morton came up with a competition designed to encourage 1st claim club members to participate in local road events and compete alongside fellow Striders more or less on an even basis and is awarded each year to the runner who has shown consistent improvement throughout the road running season, regardless of age, your running ability or which pace group you would normally run in on a Wednesday night. It is simply based on your own running improvements.

Please see below all details and the races which will count towards scoring in the 2026 competition.

Runners will need to pay their own entry fee for these races.

Owen Trophy – A bit of history on the trophy

A bit of history…..the trophy is named after Steve Owen who was our club’s first chairman from 1982 to 1991 and was responsible for introducing our tradition of ‘looping back’ (something which other local clubs didn’t do at the time)

Owen Trophy – How does it work?

The Owen Trophy scoring system is based on your personal 10k ‘base time’. This makes the competition available for anyone to win! You don’t have to be the fastest runner, it’s about improving over the racing season, regardless of what pace group you normally run in at the club. Your initial ‘base time’ is your fastest 10k time recorded on Run Britian or Power Of 10 while as a first claim member for Striders in the period 01/09/2024 to 12/04/2026 and this value is used to calculate your bonus times for each race. If you haven’t run a 10k for Striders since 01/09/2024 then you won’t initially have a ‘base time’ and therefore you won’t have target times for this season, however you will still score for completing a race and you will be setting a benchmark for the following year.

Using that ‘base time’ a multiplying factor is applied to each race to give you a ‘target’ time and a ‘bonus target’ time which will be published a couple days before each race.

Scoring is based on completing the races, beating the target & bonus target times, and beating times from the previous year (if you raced them). From the total of 10 available races, your best 6 scores will count. At the end of the year, the Strider with the best score from 6 races is awarded the Owen Trophy.

Owen Trophy – Points scoring

– 20 points for a completed race

– 1 point for finishing quicker than your personalised ‘target’ time

– 1 point for finishing quicker than your personalised ‘bonus target’ time

– 1 point for finishing quicker than your time for the same race last season (if the race was included in 2025 and you completed it)

– 1 extra point for completing a marathon

– 1 point for bettering your previous year’s Road Ranking time (5k, 10k, 10 miles, half marathon, full marathon). There is no extra point available for the Elmore 7 Mile (note: no Elmore 7 in 2026)

It is your 6 best scores out of the 10 races listed below. Only your best marathon and half marathon score, you don’t score for multiple of these events.

*NB – For your half and full marathon targets the time is based on your initial ‘base time’ of the Owen Trophy season.

**NB – The qualifying period runs from 1st November to 31st October each year

Owen Trophy – Races for 2026

** Please note that the 2026 Owen Trophy will now consist of 7 specific races instead of 8, as the Elmore 7 is not taking place. It should be back in 2027. So for this year the competition will be decided on your best six scores from nine races **

This year the Owen Trophy offers you 2 x 5k, 3 x 10k, 1 x 10 ml, 1 x half plus your choice of 1 x half-marathon and 1 x marathon.

Race 1 – Sunday 19th April – Sutton 10k – Entries HERE Target factor 1.0197, bonus target factor 1.0095

Race 2 – Sunday 10th May – Ranelagh Harriers Richmond Half Marathon – Entries HERE Target factor 2.25, bonus target factor 2.2275

Race 3 – Sunday 7th June – Dorking 10 miles – Entries HERE Target factor 1.76, bonus target factor 1.742

Race 4 – Sunday 21st June – Ranelagh Harriers Richmond 10k – Entries HERE Target factor 1.015, bonus target factor 1.00485

Race 5 – Sunday 19th July – Elmbridge 10k – Entries HERE – Target factor 1.015, bonus target factor 1.00485

Race 6 – Tuesday 15th September (6:30pm) – Sri Chinmoy Hasty Hare 5k – Entries HERE Target factor 0.49, bonus target factor 0.4851

Race 7 – Tuesday 29th September (6:30pm) – Sri Chinmoy Kangaroo Hop 5k – Entries HERE Target factor 0.49, bonus target factor 0.4851

Owen Trophy – How to take part?

Keep an eye out for a separate email from me over the next couple weeks with the spreadsheet to which you can add your name if you want to take part in this year’s Owen Trophy. Please add your name to that spreadsheet and your race target times will be calculated & published a couple days before each race. Only enter your first and last names in the columns provided, leave the ‘race base time’ column and all other columns blank, I will complete those.

Best of luck to everyone taking part in road races this season!