Summer Handicap, 29th July 2024
It was a hot and humid evening as we took a break from watching the Olympics in order to compete in our own major event, the summer version of the quarterly club handicap.
There was a good turnout with 41 runners and a full complement of marshals and officials, well organised by Laurie Johnson. The course was dry, but the paths over the hills were quite challenging with a lot of bumps and holes, particularly on the lower slopes of the first hill. A machete may also have been useful on the path through the trees which was quite overgrown, though thankfully the “dead” bus had been moved off the path before the runners emerged onto Grandstand Road.
Rose Hawkswood, somewhat of a specialist in fooling handicappers, was first to start and never looked like being caught. In fact, the gap between Rose and 2nd place grew as the race developed and she romped home more than 3 minutes ahead of her nearest rival, Niamh Garratt. Niamh also had a comfortable cushion over Michael Teasdale in 3rd and defending champion Giovany Orozco, who finished 4th.
With Jack Shawcross an absentee due to work commitments, the knockout cup final was between Anton Mirafsari, Roberto Marzo and the fast-improving Cate Walker. Anton ploughed through the pack, taking Cate on the Great North Road for a hat-trick of cup wins. Roberto squeezed past Cate at the very end to come 2nd, but may be wondering what might have been had he not run 10K before the start!
Anton (quote: “1 year of carefully gaming the system isn’t easy!”) will be able to go for a 4th consecutive victory when he competes in the autumn final against Jim Crinnion, Janet Palmer and Anneliza Andreadi. Whatever happens then, his run will be over as he is not amongst the 8 qualifiers for the winter cup semi-final in January.
Jonathan Gilroy was fastest on the night in a great time of 17:59, from Harry Mawdsley (18:18) and Roberto in 19:09. Fourth quickest, and fastest female, was Sarah Kerr (20:19), with Holly Porter (22:06) and Sonja Fenske (22:23) being the other speedy women.
After the run, we took our sweaty, smelly bodies over to The Carriage to refuel with pizza and drinks and for the presentation of the prizes. The traditional biscuits for the top two not having been purchased, they were replaced by crisps, which is probably just as well as the chocolate would have melted!
Thanks to Laurie, Anna Round and everybody who gave their time to help make the evening a success.
Results can be found here