Front/middle/back runner

When do you become a Front runner, Middle of the pack, or Back of the pack runner?

i reckon

1st 20% front runner

20% - 80% middle of the pack

last 20% back of the pack

just been discussing this with another runner on the bus

10% front 80% pack 10% back

Dunno??

by time or by number?

I think that by time the front of the pack is far more closely bunched than the same percentage of runners at the back of the pack. I'm not sure I'd have an even distribution. Possibly 10% front, 10 to 70% middle and the rest back.

I'm at the back pretty much no matter how you cut it, but I get there - eventually.

Its not where you start it's where you finish, lots start at the front but dont know what that really means.

They think that as long as you get a good separation between them and the rest their sorted.

Not neccesarily so.

If you ever manage to beat the guy who shoots off in front and they turn round and say "oh i wasnt really racing"

They are lying and you can under UKA rules belt them one!

How long's a piece of string?  In 2009 I won two races... and came 75th out of about 90 in the first leg of the National 6-stage road relays.

Phil, a piece of string is six inches long.  All guys know that anything we don't know the length of is six inches.  So on that basis, you're a fast runner.  Quod Erat Demonstrandum.

Hmm, never considered the whole 'where am I in the pack' question.  A true philosophical debate!  Even the runner who finishes last in a large event is probably ahead of 90% of the sedentary population.  But perhaps it can only apply to the particular event you're in...