ANNUAL CLUB HANDICAP

The annual club handicap is a mixture of fun & serious running, and is usually held on the second Sunday in November. The route used is the red route from the Wyre Forest Visitor Centre at Callow Hill ~ officially measured at 5.2 kms according to the WFVC. There is no entry fee, and trophies are awarded to the first man & lady to cross the line, and to the fastest man and lady on the day. The course utilises wide forest paths as well as muddy tracks through the trees, and will be marked with red & white tape throughout. There are a couple of short sharp climbs after a long downhill start, before the course levels out as it crosses through the forest. Then, of course, there is the final uphill climb back to the Visitor Centre and the finish.

2006   :   Sunday November 12th, 2006.  10.30

For the second year running, the annual Club Handicap was blessed with pleasant autumn sunshine and reasonable conditions, both with regard to the temperatures which were nudging 13 degrees, and the underfoot conditions which were relatively dry. Just eleven members came and ran, with MARTIN CHILDE, CRAIG and SARAH LEWIS helping to marshal.

Russ Fauset kicked things off with his walking boots and his sticks, and cam very close to being the first man home. However LINDSAY PULLEY took this honour, while ELLIE HOOPER was the first lady across the line. Our new member IAN HALL proved to be the fastest runner on the day starting 9th and finishing 3rd, with RACHEAL MOSS taking the trophy as the fastest lady on the day, starting 10th and finishing 7th. Racheal was also third overall in actual times. Actual finishing positions, actual time positions, and the all-important distance from the predicted times are all included in the table below.

POSITION	TIME	NAME		START POS	HANDICAP	TRUE TIME	TRUE POS
1	41.48	LINDSAY PULLEY		2	9.00	32.48	6
2	42.32	RUSS FAUSET		1	-----	42.32	11
3	45.20	IAN HALL		9	20.00	25.20	1
4	46.20	GERRY SANDERS		8	19.40	27.20	4
5	47.09	ELLIE HOOPER		7	19.24	27.45	5
6	47.27	CORIN ELLIOTT		11	21.30	25.57	2
7	47.28	RACHEAL MOSS		10	21.00	26.28	3
8	50.05	HEATHER HARRISON		3=	13.00	37.05	9
9	50.05	MONICA GUISE		3=	13.00	37.05	10
10	52.55	ADAM CHILDE		6	17.30	35.25	7
11	53.06	GLEN CHILDE		5	16.15	36.51	8

2005   :   Sunday November 13th, 2005.  10.00

A fabulous winter's morning greeted the 2005 Handicap on November 13th, with blue skies & sunshine overhead and a relatively dry course underfoot. The twelve who had previously advised their predicted times were increased to fifteen on the day, as two new members CHRIS GIBSON and FIONA FOWKES came along to join in the fun, and we persuaded JOHN AMOS to run the Handicap rather than head out on his own training run with Ingrid.  Our club's true spirit came through again as    members struggling with injuries, illness or race fatigue turned up to marshal on the day. Our thanks to ELLIE HOOPER, JANE PYE, MARTIN & HELEN HOWLES, COLIN LUCAS, CORIN ELLIOTT, GERRY SANDERS and ROSIE & JULIET ARMSTRONG.

This year, runners predicted their own individual times (saved me the work and the complaints afterwards) and the main winners on the day were those whose actual running time was closest to their predicted time. Incredibly, nine of the 15 runners finished within one minute of their predicted times, with FIONA FOWKES (17 seconds) and DAVID PYE (THREE seconds) winning the rather attractive trophies on offer. First across the line was TAMARA CARSE, followed in by the first man CHRIS GIBSON - these two taking the trophies for first lady & man to finish. A procession of athletes coming up the hill resulted in 12 runners finishing within three minutes of each other. Actual finishing positions, actual time positions, and the all-important distance from the predicted times are all included in the table below.

Thanks to all the athletes and helpers who turned out at short notice to make this year's Handicap a success. Next year's date will be decided at the next committee meeting, to give everyone plenty of advance notice.

2004   :   Sunday November 7th, 2004.  10.30

Well done to the 16 who took part in this year's Club Handicap race at the Wyre Forest Visitor Centre.  A special thank you to MARIANNE and HELEN who took the times, PHIL WOOD who marshalled at the one really dodgy turn with his dog, and CRAIG LEWIS who ran the course a second time collecting tape and signs. 

SARAH ARMSTRONG was the fastest lady on the day, beating Faye Evans' 2003m time by just under three minutes. SARAH was also the first lady across the line, pipping SARAH LEWIS by just 8 seconds.  BRIAN HUMPHRIES was the fastest man, just 8 seconds down on last year's time, with MARTIN HOWLES the first man to finish (and indeed first athlete to cross the line).  Martin started 13th to finish first, while Sarah went from 14th to 4th, Craig Lewis from 15th to 2nd, and Brian from 16th to 7th.

  More problems on this year's Handicap as the fastest four men go the wrong way and miss a left hand turn that takes you off the main path and into the avenue of trees that runs almost parallel and eventually leads onto the main path further up the hill. The four in question started off over 3 minutes behind any other runner, and were no doubt heads down pushing hard when they missed the turn - despite red & white tape wrapped around several marker posts leading into & out of the turn. Past decisions suggest there should have been disqualifications, however a quick meeting decided that the slightly shorter route they took was probably no more than 1/4 mile or so, and they would still have been the fastest runners on the day as 5th place was over two minutes behind. Therefore the result stands and BRIAN takes the trophy for fastest man on the day. We are sure 5th place Mike Warren would not have wanted this trophy by default, and in any case MIKE took the first man to finish trophy. SIMONE was first lady home, with FAYE the fastest lady trophy winner.

Whew - hope above is OK and everybody is happy.        Here's the results.

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