Lovely conditions on the first of the “dark night” handicap events and we had 24 runners out including 4 event newbies (Ben Anscombe, Lucy Chilcott, Becky Hutton, Tom Hansen) plus Will Hadley making his first appearance of the year. Lovely to see so many new faces and a real challenge for the handicapper to sort out the truth in amongst all the “I’m not that fast” posturing. In the end the blaggers won the day but conditions helped as 17 runners beat their handicaps and 13 runners were in the blanket finish which was tonight centred 5 secs under par.
Such was the soft-hearted mood of the handicapper that newbies made up the whole podium. Our winner was Ben Anscombe, second was Lucy Chilcott and third was Becky Hutton. Thankfully Aimee Lister in fourth was on her second attempt at the event….the handicapper eventually catches up!
In the excellent conditions we had 6 runners sub-7 and 5 ladies sub-8 which is itself something of a record. Performance of the night came from our fastest female….Amber Price recorded 7’00 to become the 7th fastest female of all time!
Amber now sits at #110 on the sub-7 honours board and at #7 on the ladies sub-8 list. Our other sub-8 notables included Becky Hutton (7’19 on debut and in at #17), Aimee Lister (7’20 and climbing to #18), Liz Marshall (7’50) and Karen Hazlitt (7’53).
Fastest on the night overall was Tom Hansen (6’27 a fine debut and straight onto the honours board at #41), Sam Peters (6’29, improved his PB and climbs to #47) whilst Matt Grote (6’35), Andy Costello (6’36) and Bracken Dawson (7’00) made up the other sub-7 runners.
In the overall standings of course it remains open and anyone of a few could still win our coveted trophy. However as we enter the embargo period the usual names are towards the top…..Paul Oxley (2023 winner) has nipped ahead of John Mills (2022 winner) with Steve Oliver, Ric Pike and Matt Grote in close attendance. The leading lady is Liz Marshall. With two races to go that’s all we’ll say on the subject till the prize-giving other than to encourage everyone to get involved in the last two races….the more runners we have the more upsets can be created.
In the perseverance stakes we’re down to the same three stubborn old codgers (Messrs Grote, Pike and Oliver) who are still hanging on and 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