It has been brought to the attention of the executive of the Interior Running Association (IRA) that clarification as to IRA’s role in the running community may be needed. The purpose of this document is to clarify this.
The primary role of the IRA is to promote, assist, and support running in the interior of British Columbia. Due to COVID 19 pandemic, scheduled ‘In Person’ races in 2020 were cancelled. ‘In Person’ races are not organized by the IRA. Each race has its own race director and race organizing committee. In an effort to support the running community and race directors, the IRA approached running clubs and their race directors and offered to organize the Virtual X-Country Series in Fall of 2020. This was a greatly appreciated by race directors and of course the running community and it was for that reason that the IRA offered their assistance in 2021 when the Provincial Health Office (PHO) mandated that there were to be no ‘In Person’ races until later in 2021. The IRA worked with race directors/clubs of the Interior Road Race Series races and created the Virtual Road Run Series which was well attended.
The IRA is now working with the x-country race directors in organizing ‘In Person’ x-country series this fall. It should be noted that race directors provide the IRA with the particulars about their race, including race date, time, location, registration, route, etc.
The IRA organizes the series and promotes the races, provides link to race registration, compiles results for the series and provides awards for the overall series after the last race in the series.
When races are ‘In Person’, the IRA offers the following support:
• Provide guidance to new race directors on organizing, sanctioning, certifying courses, planning and execution of races.
• Assist race directors with Zone4 on-line registration process
• Help timing teams use Runscore program
• Prepare template of race in separate computer folders and e-mail to the race timing coordinator.
• Receive scoring results folders from race timing coordinator and produce overall and age-category results
• Produce age-graded results
• Produce cumulative results by age category and age-graded
• Assist with posting results to IRA website
• E-mail results to BC Athletics, as needed
• Keep statistics (by race from year to year and by age category)
• Obtaining grants from BC Athletics
• Arranging sponsors for road race and xc race series awards.
If a club is not using Zone4 or Runscore, the Timing Coordinator contacts the timing coordinator of the race to ensure the data is captured in the format required for race results.
The IRA offers several awards for the IRA running series.
To be eligible for IRA series age group awards in the IRA Road Race Series, a runner must complete at least 4 of the road races, and scoring will be based on their best 5 IRA road race results. To be eligible for IRA series age group awards in the IRA XC Race Series, a runner must complete at least 3 of the races, and scoring will be based on their best 4 IRA XC race results.
Any athlete who is able to complete all the races in the IRA Road Race series is awarded the IRA Iron Legs Award for the road race series. Similarly, any athlete who is able to complete all the races in the IRA Cross Country Race series is also awarded the IRA Iron Legs Award for the XC race series. Any athlete who is able to complete all the races in the IRA Road Race Series and all the XC Race Series is awarded the IRA Legs of Steel Award.
IRA Runner of the Year Award is based on running success and club/IRA involvement in the current year.
There is also an IRA award for the highest average age graded scores for male (IRA Willis Greenway Cup) and female (IRA Heidi Muckle-Gader Cup) for the Road Race Series.
Finally, there is the IRA Heinrich Spiller Award of Courage to honor the runner (male or female) who best personified courage in the face of physical adversity.
The IRA executive meets a number times per year to discuss and implement actions that support the goal of the IRA, i.e., promote, assist, and support running in the interior of BC. The IRA executive looks forward to input and comments from runners because this helps them to better understand the needs and wants of the running community.
Thank you Cindy – your contribution & continued support of the IRA & all of us interior runners is much appreciated!!
Thanks Bruce:)
Thank you for an outstanding year fraught with many unforeseen challenges ~ we enjoyed all the road races and are looking forward to the xc series. Cheers!