2025 & 40th Fell Handicap Results
Congratulations to everyone that ran today and thanks to all the marshals and supporters on the course, and of course to Phil and Annette who brought us another successful day out. The worst of the weather held off for all but the stragglers, despite bluster and wind chill on the tops that probably caused the support team more grief than the runners.
The trophy was won by Jon Hopper who ran a brilliant time and coming in 9 minutes up on his handicap – and we were pretty comfortable that he started the right time. He just had an exceptional day out and it was well earned. This being what the Handicap is all about. And he was also 3rd fastest today despite starting in 6th. Of course he’ll deeply regret this next year when the new times are set!
Joseph Pickard was fastest by a margin and set a new course record of 01:54:20 despite the temporary extension due to the path closure above the water works. The diversion didn’t seem to cause any major problems to any runners and Nathanael’s prediction of it only impacting people’s normal times by 3-8mins was pretty bang on. Joe can break the record again next year when we revert to the usual route. Worth noting that he was the last to start today and still ahead of our best club fell runners by 14mins.
Well done to Kelly Buckley and Chris Bentley for coming 2nd and 3rd home, both who ran well and gained 6mins on their handicaps – and to Alicia Roberts for being fastest female on the day in 2:26:22.
A quick note on handicaps. Not a year goes by without a discussion post-event. Remember if you are set to run as a pair and run solo on the day you can expect to have your time adjusted. And if you miss the sweetie tree that will result in a 20min penalty – this might be a worthwhile exercise if you’re not having the best day! We’re aware that some people think that the 3:30 limit is unfair and seems not very inclusive. Its not intended that way, but we do have a genuine challenge in ensuring the marshals are not out too long and there is also a much larger margin of error in the handicapping, which in itself can take the competitiveness out of what is a fantastic race if we get it wrong. We will however review this for next year.
That said, Nathanael and I teamed up on the handicapping this year and are happy to report the following: Bernard, David B, Steve and Josh all arrived back within 1 minute of their prediction. 47% were within 5mins and 83% were within 10mins. In fact, 3 of those over 10 mins have not raced it before and the other was having a lovely time taking photos, chatting to sheep and didn’t want it to end. Given that we had a lot of new faces with no form to go on and lots of regulars who have not been racing this year, we’ll take that. We never make everyone happy, but we do try our best to make it a fair and competitive outing! :0) We hope everyone enjoyed it!
Happy Christmas!
Tom Whittington
