The new club handicap season starts this coming Wednesday 13th July and there are some changes afoot that will not only make the finish area safer but also make the competition more inclusive to everyone within the club. You may have read in the latest new letter about how the course will now start and finish in Pine walk, this is not actually the case, the course will now start and finish in thew Byeways. This will help ensure that the finish straight is a little less busy with traffic meaning an all together safer finish area. The monthly race will now start towards the bottom end of the Byeways and set of towards the Roystons and turn left onto the original course. Each runner will complete 2 laps of the usual Berrylands loop before turning back up the Byeways and finishing around 30 meters short of the Crest at the top of the road. 

In addition to the new start / finish lines we are also introducing a higher base time of 40 minutes meaning those who struggle to get round in the usual 35 minutes will have a better chance of doing well in the annual competition. This will mean that everyone’s start times will adjust by 5 minutes so if you usually start around 11 minutes you will now start at 16

With the start slightly further away from the club and with the base time increased to 40 minutes this will mean that in order to start the handicap on time we will need to ensure that everyone is registered by 7:20 latest and first runners are ready at the Byeways for the 7:30 start. Please note that turning up late to register on the start line does cause problems so if you are running late and want to take part please do message us to let us know.

We look forward to seeing a good turnout for this season first handicap and ask that anyone not able to run to come along to help pout as the event cannot take place without volunteers. And remember if you are coming along on Wednesday to run your first club handicap all you need to know is your current 5K time so we can give you a first start time. For those wanting to know more about how the handicap works please see the handicap page -> here <-