Target Zero (and The Lark In The Dark)
The 2024 Target Zero took place on Weds 24th July, 2024: race report below. It will return in late July 2025!
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Perth Road Runners is a club not without its quirky and bizarre elements. Target Zero – and its winter counterpart, The Lark In The Dark – are such quirks.
Target Zero is less a race than a challenge of estimation. It is far less a question of “how fast can you run?” than “do you know just how fast (or slowly) you are running?”
The contest dates back to 2002; the 2023 renewal was its 21st edition. In recent years, it has been organised by one of its biggest afficionados, David Stokoe, and is now (2024 renewal) in the capable hands of Lorraine MacPherson. Owing to COVID-19, the 2021 race was moved into the winter, but Target Zero is traditionally a summer PRR fixture.
Broadly speaking, here’s how it works:
+ The organiser selects a course in the Perth area – it can vary from 3 to 8 miles, and may involve a range of terrains and surfaces. But – and here’s the whole point – he (or she) doesn’t announce the course. That would ruin it. The course itself remains a secret.
+ Participants are told only of the start location, and of the time they should be there to start. They may, of course, freely speculate where the course may take them, but the organiser is (typically) no slouch; various routes may/should be possible from that location.
+ On arrival at the start, the organiser will detail the course to the participants. They then have (just) a few minutes to estimate their time over the course and hand this to the organiser. Their estimate is hidden from – ie not announced to – other participants.
+ Runners are not allowed to carry watches or Garmins/GPSs, or indeed, any other instrumentation that will inform time or speed. Of course, mobile phones will do this, and it’s a hard task to force anyone these days to surrender theirs. If carried, mobile phones must be switched firmly off.
+ The race is then run. Runners set off as one mass (and finish in usual speed order).
+ But the winner is not the fastest runner. That would be far too obvious. The winner is the runner who most accurately estimated their actual race time.
History shows that most Perth Road Runners are pretty good at this particular game. Wins over the last few runnings have seen winning estimates differ from actual times by just a few seconds. The ne plus ultra of Target Zero performances was finally achieved in 2021 when winner Rhona Barclay was accurate to the second in her estimation. This will be a hard feat to replicate.
Target Zero 2019
Being a task of estimation, and not one of sheer, all-out speed, Target Zero is equally winnable by males and females alike (that is, there are no separate M and F contests). It is a Club trophy event, with the cup being traditionally awarded at the event and PRR’s awards night in the following Spring.
Target Zero 2016
The Lark In The Dark, as you might well surmise, is a similar caper pitched in the gloom and darkness of the Perthshire winter. It tends to involves forests and other dark places to accentuate that atmosphere. There’s no trophy here: it’s a mention and bragging rights only for this one.
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Target Zero 2024 was held on the evening of Wednesday 24th July. It was held over a 4-mile course around Scone and behind the ‘airport’: see here for the results. An excellent 24 PRRs took part. In comparison with previous years, accuracy of estimation across the field was surprisingly ‘off’ this year (averaging over 4 minutes away). Only one runners managed to predict their run to an accuracy of better than one minute (and, interestingly, he was the only competitor to underestimate his time). The Target Zero 2024 Champion is Nathan Campbell, whose prediction was just 20 seconds from his actual performance (which was also the fastest of the evening). We’ll do it all again in 2025, obviously …
Target Zero 2023 – above: winner Nathan Campbell and organiser-in-chief, Lorraine MacPherson
and below: the Target Zeroists amassed afterwards
Previous years:
2024: results
2023: results and course map plus comedy sketch map by organiser
2022: results and course map
2021: results and course map
2016: results