No Coast Trail Series

With nine Iowa trail races on board with over 20 options for distance ranging from 5k to 100mi, there’s something for everyone! All important information on the series including the sign-up link, info on the races, rules and past results can be found at https://nocoasttrailseries.com/ so please take a look and spend a minute browsing around!

And always, be sure to Share the No Coast Trail Series Facebook page to help spread the word about NCTS!

Rules

If you haven’t signed up yet, click here to do so.

If you don’t sign up until after you’ve completed a series race, no worries! You’ll have the option to indicate which races you’ve already done on the signup form as they occur. The deadline to sign up as a new participant in the series is September 23rd.

Every time you finish a NCTS race you receive points based on the distance of the event and your finishing time relative to the winning time. The sum of all your scores determines your score for the series. You MUST complete at least three (3) races to qualify for race series awards.

Runners will be separated into two distinct distance divisions. The Trail division (marathon distance and under) and the Ultra division (over marathon distance). You receive points for ALL races you complete* but the distance of your longest race finish determines which division’s awards you are eligible for. All participants completing at least one Ultra division race will be automatically scored and ranked in the appropriate Ultra division unless notified otherwise.

*PLEASE NOTE* If you participate in an Ultra division race but would rather be scored in the Trail division, you can choose to forfeit those points by contacting No Coast via Facebook or email within ONE week of the event taking place. If you choose to do so, your points from that Ultra race will NOT be counted towards your total/ranking. The only exception to this are timed events. In keeping with the spirit of timed events, a Trail division runner can run past 26.2 miles in any length timed event and will still earn points based on miles ran but will be capped at a total possible score of 26.2. He or she still needs to contact the series within 1 week to indicate that he or she wants to stay in the Trail division.

Awards will be given to the top male and female runner with the most overall points (in BOTH Trail and Ultra divisions) and then also the top 3 males and top 3 females for two age groups (*age as of first race) in both the Trail and Ultra distance divisions for a total of 8 divisions.

• Open – 39 and under
• Masters – 40 and over

The 2017 NCTS currently consists of 8 events including 20 separate races, in the following order.

Race	Date
Red Shamrock Foundation Survivorship Run (earn 3x points!)	April 1
Hawkeye 50K	April 8
Sunderbruch B&B Trail Races	May 20
Booneville Backroads Ultra	May 27
Schuetzen NEIN! Hour Endurance Run	June 17
Mines of Spain Trail Races	August 12
Pleasant Creek Trail Run	September 16
Swiss Valley Trail Run	October 7
The Runner’s Flat	October 14

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Scoring

The scoring is based on the race distance, and on your time compared to the winning time. The winning time for the race is divided by your time and that percentage is multiplied by the race distance in miles. Points are calculated separately for the men’s and women’s races. Men use the men’s winning time, and women use the women’s winning time to calculate points.

For Example: In 2016 Natalie S. ran 5:54:00 at the Hawkeye 50K race and was the female winner. Natalie would score 31 points for the race. Second place female, Sally B. ran 6:13:20. Sally’s score for the race would be as follows: Natalie’s winning time (354 minutes) divided by Sally’s time (373.33) = .948 times 31 (the mileage) = 29.39 points.

In the case of timed events, the point system will be similar but instead of winning time, it will utilize the winning mileage amount as the primary factor. The only provision to this is for Trail division runners. Their total mileage will be calculated as a percent of the winner’s mileage multiplied by 26.2 (this would be the most a Trail division runner can score and would be possible if he or she won the race). For Ultra division runners, it works the same except their percent of the winner’s mileage is multiplied by the winner’s mileage which ends up being their own mileage.

For Example: Andy B. runs 36.55 miles in 9 hours at Schuetzen and wins the event.  Ryan A. runs 33.15 miles and Shawn P. runs 20.40 miles.
Andy – Ultra – (36.55/36.55)*36.55 = 36.55 points
Andy – Opts to stay in Trail – (36.55/36.55)*26.2 = 26.2 points
Ryan – Ultra – (33.15/36.55)*36.55 = 33.15 points
Ryan – Opts to stay in Trail – (33.15/36.55)*26.2 = 23.76 points
Shawn – Trail – (20.40/36.55)*26.2 = 14.62 points

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Division Placement

The distance of the longest race you compete in the year determines whether you are eligible for awards in the Trail (marathon distance and under) or Ultra (over marathon distance) division. No matter which division you end up in by the end of the year, you still receive points for EVERY race you’ve completed regardless of distance unless you choose to forfeit a race’s points as detailed above.

For Example: Craig T. races the Red Shamrock Survivorship Run, 10k at B&B and 25k at The Runner’s Flat. His longest race was 25k, thus placing him in the trail division. His friend John S. ran the same races as him but ran the 50k option at TRF instead. John would then be placed in the Ultra division. Both of their point totals would be made up of all 3 races they ran.

In the case of timed events, each runners’ final distance achieved determines whether those points count towards the Trail or Ultra division. The winner of a timed event could run enough miles to place his or her points in the Ultra division while another runner could run a shorter distance mileage for the event and would be counted towards the Trail division.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact NCTS via the Facebook page or [email protected]