John Roberts Summer 5K handicap race instructions

11 July 2016 - By James Kennerley

The last of the summer 5K race series takes place on Thursday and luckily for me, I am able to plagiarise Marc’s post from last year almost word for word! This race is a handicap which means that the slowest expected runner starts first and the fastest runner starts last with the start time differences set so that in theory everyone crosses the line at the same time. Therefore it’s a bit different to any other race you will run in, and is a lot of fun!!! The ‘tortoise and hare’ scenario also manages to help some people push themselves to limits they wouldn’t normally reach, so PB’s are common in this race.

76 seniors and several juniors have run in one of the first three races, and it would be really good to see a lot of you taking part. You can still run in the race if you haven’t completed one of the previous races, but you would be ineligible to win the trophy should you win the race.

However at the same time as encouraging you to run, we still need marshals and more people than normal on the finish line due to everyone crossing the line at virtually the same time. Therefore if you can’t run, or don’t want to, I would be very grateful if you could volunteer to help. Please try and let me know in advance, as it is useful to know how many marshals I have so that I can plan who does what.

The club awards a trophy to the first senior male and female to cross the line. To be eligible you must have completed at least one of the first three races, and have been a member from the start of the membership year.

To calculate the handicap times, I have used your fastest times from any of the previous three races. In consultation with some of the coaches, we have adjusted some of the times to try to ensure everyone is fairly handicapped. It goes without saying that the decision of the ‘handicap committee’ is final!

We will present the summer 5K series trophies shortly after the handicap race, and it would be nice if you can all congregate outside for the presentations. We will be presenting the following prizes:

• John Roberts Summer 5K Handicap race winner male
• John Roberts Summer 5K Handicap race winner female
• John Roberts Summer 5K series winner male
• John Roberts Summer 5K series winner female

The summer 5K series trophy is based 50% on finishing positions and 50% on improvement. To be eligible to win this prize, you must have taken part in at least three of the four races. Going in to the handicap race, there are still seven ladies and 28 men who can potentially win these trophies.

In order to ensure that we have time to calculate the winners and then present the trophies on the night, the race will start at 7:30 based on a runner taking 35 minutes. If you run around 25 minutes you will start around 7:40, and those expecting to take around 20 minutes will start around 7:45. I’d be grateful if people could therefore try to register by 7:15 and please try and bring your numbers from previous races if you have them – Marc, Heydon you will need a new number each as there is a clash with two other runners.

Please ensure you are at the start line in good time – it’s a 5 minute jog / 15 minute walk down to the start. It would be great if everyone can be down at the start to see the first runner off (expected around 7:31 – 7:35 depending on who is running). As there could be a lot of people at the start and there are clusters of runners who will start within seconds of each other, I would ask that you congregate about 10 metres back from the start line. I will call the names of the next runners to start in small groups, and it would be useful if you could then quickly approach the start line ready to set off when instructed.

I’m hoping the itinerary will be something like this:

7:00 – 7:15 – registration

7:30 – the clock starts

8:05 – blanket finish!

8:25 – 8:30 – trophies presented

8:45 – food served in the pub

Thanks, James