• Harestock Handicap – June 24

    The June Handicap attracted 23 runners who generally filled their boots with no fewer than 15 runners meeting or beating their handicaps. We had 3 event newbies (Sam Peters, Aimee Lister and Dave Morgan) plus Cathy Kinnear and Gill Goodwin making their first appearances of the year. We again had 13 runners in the blanket finish.

    Congratulations to our winner, Sam Peters, sweet-talking his way to a soft handicap and then returning a a sparkling 6’34 on debut…..that is not 21min parkrun pace Sam! Paul Oxley (2nd) and Bruce Ayling (3rd) led the chasing pack.

    Fastest on the night was Andy Costello again improving his HH PB to (6’16) and climbing the honours board to now sit #24. It was a fast night and we had 5 runners sub-7 including of course our winner Sam Peters (6’34) who comes straight in at #51. We also had 5 ladies going sub-8 with Vanessa Monteleone our fastest and posting a new HH PB of 7’20, #17 on the ladies board. Other notables included a HH PB of (7’51,#30) for Cathy Kinnear and for Aimee Lister (7’52 and new onto the board at #32).

    Halfway through the year and, whilst anyone could still win the trophy, the usual suspects are rising to the top…..James Bailey leads from John Mills, Ric Pike, Jack Rowland, Paul Oxley and Melissa Callister.

    We are however down to only 5 athletes still in with a chance of achieving the fabled 12 out of 12….it’s not an easy thing to achieve.

    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