ACT Riders Go Hoofin'

Team name

Yes, we're ACT riders.  When entering the Berbee Derby we needed a name for the team that would reflect our heritage and our attitude, with a built-in cheer.   Several folks are legitimate runners, while not everyone can actually jog for more than a few minutes at a time - so we'd better just say that we're hoofin' since that doesn't really specify running, jogging or walking.

Team members

Here are some pictures of the magnificent seven after the completion of the Berbee Derby on Thanksgiving Day 2006.

• Here's a regular pose, with the team smiling.

• Here's the posterior view, displaying our cool team shirts.

• Here we are giving our team cheer - Arrrrrrrrrgh!

Berbee Derby results

While the initial team results showed the ARGH team in 17th place, additional analysis of the data revealed more remarkable results.

Years ago I was hired by UW as a computer programmer.  My first job was with the budget group - we were responsible for the care and feeding of budget systems, which included collecting data and producing various reports.  It wasn't too far into this job that I learned that producing the reports wasn't too difficult, but getting the results that the users were looking for often involved careful selection of the data to be analyzed.  Given a pile of data, it was amazing how one could tune the answer by diligent definition of the criteria for selecting which data to include or exclude.

In this era, the late 70's, many people would refer to accountants as "bean counters" - and the perjorative implication was that these were not the most creative or open-minded folks.  Whoa! Jump back, Jack!  Given a pile of data, a computer and enough time... well, pretty soon everybody had a spreadsheet and varying amounts of skill in manipulating data.  Remember Enron??  From a perspective of "revenge of the bean counters" - my theory was that GAAP, formerly known as "generally accepted accounting principles" morphed into "gonzo alchemistic accounting perversions" as the frustrated "bean counters" decided to salve their wounded psyches with "we'll show you creativity" shenanigans.  Enron was one of the manifestations of their revenge.

So, you will see that it is relatively easy to demonstrate that team ARGH finished in first place at this year's Berbee Derby.  The team results show ARGH as #17 of 24, but, hey... that's before a more complete analysis of the data.

http://www.berbeederby.com/images/stories/5KTeamAwards.txt (Gone - irreplaceable ??)

Their data shows the time for the top 5 runners on each team, the age and gender of each runner, and the team's average time.   OK - not bad, if you're willing to accept such a primitive scoring method.

What about the ages of the runners?  Everybody knows that, although it's not a linear function, in general younger runners can run faster that older ones - so we need to adjust the metrics to factor in age.  How about dividing the team's average time by the team's average age?

The first place team (using primitive stats) had an average time of 17:06.0 - which is fairly impressive until you realize that the average age of those 5 runners was 22.6.   If you compute AAAT (age-adjusted average time) as AAAT = avg. time / avg. age ... well, we cleaned their clocks:

Verona CC Alumni: 17:06.0 / 22.6 = .7566
ARGH: 28:38.7 / 54 = .5305
Eat our dust... Come back in 2038 and see what your AAAT is!

While calculating some more AAATs, I ran into another factor to consider - gender distribution of the teams.

The alleged #3 team... Amy's Playgroup: 19:23.9 / 43.8 = .4429
but hey, 5 males, 0 females.
That's not remotely close to a gender balanced team...

So, I'll just give you a sample of some of the teams who were not disqualified for having only males in their top 5.

#2 Fleet Feet (3M, 2F) 19:20.5 / 28.6 = .6763
Pretty "fleet" - but come back in 2032...

#10 Mendota Rowing Club (3M, 2F) 25:26.5 / 24.8 = 1.026
Throw down your oars; get your butts onto bikes!

#11 Old Fartleks (3M, 2F) 25:38.5 / 31.4 = .8166
Yeah, right "old fartleks" - first 3 were 18, 18, 20.
Should the Name Integrity Commission investigate?

There are others, but nobody came close.  Once you get past #17, our "primitive" place, it's hard to match a 54 year average when nobody on the team is even 50...

Among others, we handily beat the Mother Cluckers and wiped out the Noze Runnerz.

Any way, we might not get our AAAT medals - but we know who really won that race.

Future plans

We welcome new members.  Contact any of the 7 charter members:  Sparky, Demi, John, Judy, Pete, Jeanne or Jim with the team cheer -Arrrrrrrrgh!