Handicap Race Report 2024
Another successful event! Thanks to Tom for handicapping, Sarah for collecting the money, to all the marshals, especially those up high in the cold and the gale. Thanks also to Sarah and the team at St Dunstan`s. A few tweaks to make for timings and reporting procedures for next year when I hope we`ll be able to celebrate the race`s 40th anniversary in style.
Results are posted below.
Cheers, Phil
Handicapper’s report
The job of the handicapper is not all its cracked up to be! But I do take it seriously and review everyone’s form in races and head-to-heads where there is evidence. I want it to be as fair as possible to help ensure the race format works, but it’s an art as well as a science and fair to say the job is rewarded with a bit of grief! Finger in the air anyone?
So how did the handicaps fare this year? 40 people raced and only three beat their handicap time. 35% came within 5-minutes, 55% within 10-minutes and 75% within 15-minutes. I’m happy with that as I was aware that I was pushing everyone’s predictions by around 5-minutes this year (including my own!). The other 10 people may feel somewhat aggrieved, but each of them performed significantly slower than in 2023 and/or their own estimate – clearly how you feel on the day may not reflect your true form, which again is not something that the handicaps can or should account for.
In the end, the handicaps were a reasonable reflection of most people’s ability on the day. The handicap format is designed that anyone can win – not just those that lead the pack. But I don’t think anyone can argue with Mark’s awesome achievement at winning with a sub-2hr time and importantly a 5-minute improvement on his time last year (which he was also penalised for this year with a later start). We should also acknowledge the excellent chase group Joe and Nathanael, who were closer to 2hrs than 5 past. I can’t recall a more competitive set of back starters, though Phil will no-doubt recount some legendary competition from the 1980s when everyone wore lead boots! A great battle between Egg and Rachel as fastest ladies means that both are likely to start together next year if they stay fit. But fastest in the handicap was Andrea Lynes, followed 8 seconds later by Gabby and Anna. Well done all who competed.
As you can imagine, estimating a handicap time for people requesting 3:30hrs or more is challenging, with the predicted versus actual times too unreliable to make for a fair competition. Which is one reason why this year we decided to group them in a mass start at 8:30. The December weather can be pretty brutal and the longer you’re out the greater the risk. 9 ran in this group and most were +4hrs, which is why we start them off early and there was 1:15hr difference in finishing time between them (again pointing to the challenge of handicapping). But it is great that everyone can be accommodated and the early starters all looked like they were having fun.
On reflection Bernard and Andy should have started about 3:15hr instead of the mass start, which is where they finished, both having an excellent run out. This would have meant a 9:15am start rather than a 45-minute head start on the rest of the group. But as they had predicted 3:30hr on the entry form they defaulted into the early group. Food for thought for next year, but we do need to have a cut off for the safety of marshals an fairness for other competitors. Andy would have been top 3 if he’d started at 9:15 and Bernard Top 5 – kudos where its due.
Cheers, Tom
