Atomic wrote:OK - so are you saying the earlier statement that the only fixed rule was M21E should be 90-100 minutes and all other courses are then a simple multiple of that distance is misleading?
When I started, there were defined "expected winning times" EWT for each course. But what happened was that planners got panned when the "actual" winning times were different - even when the field was weak. Also, it was hard for a planner to understand how other age groups might cope.
So, David May did a big analysis of relative speeds of different age groups, and multiplied those by the old "expected winning times" to produce a handy table for how course lengths should relate to M21E. I don't believe there was any intention to change the lengths, just to save every diligent planner going through the same process. BOF stopped publishing the EWTs, and so only the M21E's could know what to expect.