The formation of the Association of Road Racing Statisticians has been welcomed with enormous enthusiasm. As one member put it, why did we not
do this ten years ago!
There is a saying, “There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come!”. ARRS is very definitely an idea whose time has come!
ARRS has already attracted support from major road running figures, three of the IAAF Road Measurement Administrators, John Disley, Dave Cundy and Bernie Conway as well as the former Americas Measurement Administrator, Pete Riegel. These key figures are committed to ensuring that road records are placed on a sound technical base. Pete Riegel declared “Without such a base,
road records cannot be credible.”
President of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians [ATFS] , Paul Jenes is also an ARRS member as are several other notable ATFS members. Paul, like many others, sees ARRS as a way to promote and record accurately the rapidly developing sport of road racing.
Paul Jenes stated that “The formation of ARRS marks the beginning of a new era in the way that Road Running is perceived. The association has the potential to revolutionise the collection and dissemination of information on the sport.”
With representation from every continent, except Antarctica, and most of the major road running nations represented, ARRS is already set to make a major impact on the sport.
Its website is at http://www.arrs.net can perhaps be considered the first truly international site; its information pages have been translated thus far into 12 different languages, including Dutch, English, French, German, Russian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish.
Within ARRS, working groups are being formed to focus on processing results for the already massive ARRS database, creating rankings for a wide range of events from 3km up to ultra distances and on researching the history of the sport.
The ARRS website, built on the pre-existing Analytical Distance Runner website, already has 350,000 performances in its data base, with national and world rankings, records and the results of over a hundred long running events.
One of ARRS’ key objectives is to ensure that road records are kept on a sound basis, and that the necessary technical requirements are met. By insisting that the separation between start and finish is less than 30% of the total race distance and a course must not drop by more than 1 metre per kilometre, ARRS will ensure that aided marks do not dominate the record list.
By giving marks made in all-women races priority, once again ARRS will prevent aided marks from forcing out performances achieved without outside assistance.
By insisting on proper validation of pending road records, ARRS will ensure that rigorous scrutiny and checking is undertaken before the acceptance of a performances as a world record.
ARRS wishes to work co-operatively with other bodies within the sport for the good of road running. Already its existence has unleashed great enthusiasm and commitment.
The association is open to all who are willing to make a contribution to the work of ARRS in some way, either in collecting and collating results or in the disseminating of the work of the association.
ARRS is an idea whose time has come!