Annual Handicap Race Competition

This challenge consists of a number of 5km (3.1 miles) races, taking place along the same course.

With short spring and mid-summer breaks to cater for annual holidays, all races will take place on Adult Club Nights (Thursdays evenings) between the start and end of British Summertime (March to September).

How It Works (the basics)

The basic concept of a handicap race is to enable runners of various abilities to race competitively against each other. Unlike horses that carry different amounts of weight depending on their ability, time is used as the “handicap” for club runners.

The faster the runner, the later the runner starts. Runners are allocated different time slots relative to their previous performance[s].

For each individual race, runners start at different times (‘go’ times) depending on their pace, the slowest runner starting first and the fastest runner starting last.

Theoretically, if all runners run relative to their previous recorded performances, then everyone should finish the race at the same time. The runner who puts in the most effort and overtakes other runners should be the winner.

As well as adding a little more interest to the Adult Club Runs, the Handicap Race Competition delivers:

• A race day challenge, allowing runners to race other Sleaford Striders with the aim of pushing yourself a bit harder with each race, to pass as many other runners as possible as well as gauging your own progress and perfect pace – a critical skill in getting the best from running.

As far as the handicap race is concerned, the winner of each race is the runner who simply performs the better (scores the most) relative to the other runners.

• A season challenge based on overall performance for the season. On race night, the runner who finishes first is technically the winner for that individual race, discounting the first race, when all runners start at the same time. For the annual handicap competition, performances for each race are recorded and weighted/scored based on the runner’s finish time.

At the end of the season, the best scores from 7 of the 8 races for each runner are aggregated and the highest scoring Sleaford Strider wins.

That’s all there is to it and I look forward to seeing you on the start line.

‘As fast as you can, as hard as you can’,
Bryan