The Recurring Handicap

The Recurring Handicap is a club road race held quarterly over a distance of 5.33 miles with a staggered handicap start.

Race - Date - Winner

 1 - 4 Sep 08 - Kate Knight - Results
 2 - 4 Dec 08 - Gail Donaghue - Results
 3 - 5 Mar 09 - Ray Sullivan - Results
 4 - 4 Jun 09 - Amber Turan - Results
 5 - 3 Sep 09 - Annette Helliwell - Results
 6 - 3 Dec 09 - Ray Sullivan - Results
 7 - 4 Mar 10 - Gill Stalley - Results
Handicap Allocations Sep 08 - Mar 09
Handicap Allocations Jun 09 - Dec 09
Handicap Allocations Mar 10

The provisional date for the next event is Thursday 3 June, with first starter off at 7pm.

Any member wishing to run in a Club Handicap Race simply has to turn up on the night; no pre-registration is necessary. If you have already run any previous Club Handicap Race, then a handicap time will have been calculated for you. There is no fee.

If you have not run one before, please e-mail Andy Stalley so that he knows you are coming and can calculate a handicap time for you. As the handicap system is complicated and requires the use of an internet tool, he cannot calculate a time for you on the night.

Any non-member who is thinking about joining Collingwood AC and would like to take part in a Club Handicap Race to get a feel of the club before joining, please e-mail Andy and he will give you all the details of the event and calculate your handicap time for you.

Future provisional dates

8 - Thur 3 Jun 2010

How It Works:

Your handicap time is calculated by looking at your race results shown on the club website over the last three months, for races up to 10km.

Using the race distance, your age, gender and results, an age-graded percentage is worked out for each race using an internet tool.

All your age-graded percentages are averaged and used in another internet tool to predict your time for a 5.33 mile road race. That predicted time is then compared to any time that you have recorded in any previous handicap race, previous predicted times and previous handicap times. Weight is given to more recent predicted times, handicap times and actual race times.

A handicap time is then calculated for you.

Based on handicap times, runners are set off at intervals. The runner with the slowest handicap time starts first and the runner with the fastest handicap time starts last. The aim is that everyone crosses the finish line at the same time.

The winner of the handicap is the first runner home.

The Route