I concur totally La Mer. The assessment of sections and in particular how fast or slow they go late, must be made relative to the how fast or slow they went early.

At the simplest level there is a clear relationship between the speed of the first section and speed of the last section, hence overall time. This is something that also changes over various distance ranges due to the balance of early & late distance.

As an example, following is an extract of information from my own database. It shows the average first section at difference pace intervals according to my classificaions, and the corresponding average final section and overal time. The numbers are my rating numbers...the higher the faster.

For races up to 1250m...within a defined class range (data over last 6 years).

Avg S1	Avg S2	Avg RR
69	120	95
80	114	98
90	109	100
100	103	101
110	98	104
120	89	104
130	82	105

The pattern couldn't be much clearer. On average the faster the early speed, the slower the final section and faster the overall time.

Understanding these relationships and having the data automatically appear as part my form for every run where a sectional was recorded is very powerful.



[ This Message was edited by: osulldj on 2003-06-24 13:41 ]

[ This Message was edited by: osulldj on 2003-06-24 13:42 ]