The Most Improved Runner Awards (male and female) will be decided using the average of the best age graded scores from qualifying races from each member.  To be included, the member must have at least five qualifying races during the Awards Year.  If the member has more than five qualifying races then the six best scores will count.

To ensure that the races cover a range of distances, the qualifying races cannot include:

• More than four longer races (more than 10k);
• More than four shorter races (less than 10 miles);
• More than five shorter races (shorter than half marathon); or
• More than two races at the same distance.

In other words, for six races to count, they must include at least one half marathon (or longer), at least two 10 miles (or longer), and at least two 10k or shorter.

Unlike the Standard Awards, the races do not have to be at the standard distances (5k, 5 miles, 10k, 10 miles, half marathon or marathon) - any distance counts, as long as the course has a current Certificate of Course Accuracy (see below).

The average for the current Awards Year will be compared to that member's best average in previous Awards Years to calculate the percentage improvement, using the following formula, where AVE_Current is the average percentage for the current Awards Year and AVE_Past is the highest average percentage for that member in previous Awards Years:

Improvement = (AVE_Current - AVE_Past) x (200 - AVE_Past) / (200 - 2 x AVE_Past)

This formula allows for the fact that (for example) an improvement from 80% to 85% (which would score 15 using the above formula) is harder than an improvement from 40% to 45% (which would score 6.667).

The Most Improved Runner Awards (male and female) will go to the member with the highest improvement.

The Awards Year runs from the Monday after the 1st Sunday in December to the following 1st Sunday in December (so from 8 December 2025 to 6 December 2026 inclusive for 2026).

To be a qualifying race:

• you must be a fully paid-up member at the time of the race;
• you must wear Club kit, ie an official Bedford Harriers racing vest or t-shirt, being gold with a diagonal black stripe.  Current exceptions are the London Marathon (where kit representing a charity may be worn) and when the member is representing their country (where national kit may be worn);
• you must be shown on the official results lists as a Bedford Harrier (unless, for example, the results list does not show UK club names);
• the results must be shown on your Runners Page before the published deadlines;
• the race must hold a current Certificate of Course Accuracy to World Athletics standards.  You can check whether a race has a certificate here.

The age graded percentage will be calculated using the chip time (where available) and will be calculated as a percentage of the world best time for a runner of the same age and sex, using the WAVA World Best tables from 1986.  Age graded times for each age, distance and sex can be found here for males and here for females or can be calculated using this table.