Unseasonably cold, local elections going on, lots of tired marathon legs but we still had a fantastic turnout for the May Handicap. There were 24 runners including 3 event newbies (Jane Thomas, Kevin Hutchins and unbelievably Charles Carr) plus 5 other runners making their first appearances of the year. 11 runners managed to meet or beat their handicap and 13 runners enjoyed the thrill of that blanket finish.
Congratulations to our low handicapper, Carrie Oliver, holding off all challengers to complete a fine gun to tape victory. That’s the special buzz of handicap racing, you know they are coming, you know they are faster than you, you can hear them closing-in but no-one has passed you yet….can you hold them off? Andy Costello was our “close but no cigar” fast finishing second place whilst Caroline Carr had the best view in the house following them home in 3rd.
Great to see a few family match-ups last night with the youngsters prevailing in each case :
2 Sansomes (Jack beat his Dad), 2 Carrs (both ran exactly the same net time but Caroline prevailed on handicap) and the 2 Olivers (Carrie was the overall winner, Steve was not). No pressure but we’re looking forward to seeing Mrs Gurney and/or Mrs Grote and/or Mrs Lowy and maybe even Mrs Parky sometime soon!
Fastest on the night was Pete Sansome (6’11) with Andy Costello showing great recovery from his recent 2h51 marathon PB to post a new HH PB (6’22) and climb the honours board to No.29. In total we had 6 runners sub-7 with James Bailey also improving his HH PB (6’44, No.71). Caroline Carr (7’42) was our fastest lady with Liz Marshall second fastest (7’57) and continuing to improve on her comeback trail.
The overall standings are still a bit meaningless and literally anyone could still win the trophy but that said the top of the leader board is starting to have some shape to it now…..James Bailey leads from Ric Pike, Jack Rowland, Kevin Frisby and Steve Oliver.
Another one bites the dust so we’re down to only 7 athletes still in with a chance of achieving the fabled 12 out of 12.
New to this and wondering what it is all about? A monthly handicap race (on the first Thursday of the month) around an urban 1.14-mile loop in the Harestock area of Winchester. In handicap racing, the starts are staggered according to handicap, and the faster runners thus chase the slower runners to the finish…..the fastest in the club and the slowest in the club can literally be racing side by side at the finish line. It’s a bit of fun that fits perfectly as a race effort rep to round off a threshold session or as a pickup interval in a block of tempo work. All are welcome, and all running speeds can be catered for. More info here: Harestock Handicap