Club Handicap — Saddleworth Runners

2024 Calendar

02.04.2024 - Dove Stone Delight
07.05.2024 - The Edges
04.06.2024 - Wild Bank Waltz
02.07.2024 - Cross Keys Killer
06/08/2024 - Marsden March
03.09.2024 - Howard Hobble
01.10.2024 - Last Gasp

Each year the club runs a handicap series, these are run throughout the summer season and is designed to give everyone something to run for, anybody can win! They are with the exception of the final event, all run off road and are a mix of handicap and mass starts. Each run is followed by food, drink and banter at a local hostelry or club members house. At the end of the year there will be an overall winner of the series and the beauty is it can be anyone, from the fastest to the… less fast members of the club!

How it works – one of life’s great mysteries! 😉

A handicap start is a staggered start where the runners are set off in intervals progressing from slower to faster runners, you then have to try and catch the runners in front of you and stay ahead of those chasing you from behind! Once everyone has finished, the times are adjusted to take account of your handicap and then points are allocated starting from 50 points for the winner, 49 for 2nd, 48 for 3rd etc etc… Where the course is slightly longer / slower we do on occasion do a mass start to ensure that everyone gets back before it gets dark.

There are 7 handicaps over the course of the summer, you need to complete 4 to qualify and we take your best 4 scores to give an overall total which is used to decide the handicap winner for the season.

After every run, your handicap is adjusted depending on whether you have finished ahead or behind your expected position, this ensure that you start in an appropriate position at the next run. If you are a new member and have never run a handicap before you are given an estimated start position and at the next run you will have an official handicap time.