Big half marathon fields ahead of the Cardiff Commonwealth extravaganza

With the Commonwealth Half Marathon Championship approaching this coming weekend in Cardiff, four of our biggest events were over the classic half marathon distance last weekend. Glasgow was the biggest of these but there were impressive events at Ealing, Windsor and Cheltenham too. 

A great weekend of racing saw the biggest events on the roads of Glasgow, where Chris Thompson (handicap -6.6) was on top of the podium in the Half Marathon, with an impressive supporting 10k too! There were over 15 000 athletes who completed the Glasgow events. 

Adam Craig (handicap -4.2) ran an impressive PB of 29:43 with Gemma Steel (handicap -0.9) winning the women's event in 34:00, just 12 seconds ahead of Mhairi MacLennan (handicap -0.4).  

The Commonwealth Half Marathon Championships will take place in Cardiff, on Sunday, alongside the mass participation event. Further details on the Welsh Athletics website here.

Did you race this weekend on the road, trails or cross country?  Most of the results are in and it's time to check your handicap score and your ladder position.

The top races from last weekend were:

*Provisional results

The runbritain handicap scoring system was launched just over seven years ago and each year there has been an average of almost 10,000 signing up to the system that tracks race and parkrun performances and gives every runner in the UK a handicap score that reflects fitness and commitment levels.

The number of sign-ups per year show a peak of 13,264 in 2012. With five more racing weekends to complete this year, we are heading towards a total of 100,000 since we began.

Some of the benefits of the runbritain handicap scoring system:

1. It’s a unique handicap system for running. Just like golf you get a handicap from 0.0 – 36.0 giving runners of all abilities the chance to benchmark their progress and compare their results across a range of terrains and distances. The score automatically updates each time you race (once you have claimed) and rewards regular racing as well as automatically factoring in a degree of difficulty on races that are multi-terrain, hilly or windy.
2. You can be a part of the European Athletics Innovation Award winning #clickyourclock competition. This competition rewards runners who reduce their handicap score. The competition runs from March - October each year. Last year, #clickyourclock was presented with the overall prize for innovation at the prestigious European Athletics Golden Tracks awards night,
3. You can be part of the National Running Ladder and check out where your handicap puts you compared to every other runner in the UK, e.g. does your 5k time put you higher than your friend’s half marathon and marathon times?
4. You can check out where your handicap puts you in your age group and postcode.
5. You can find out where your times put you in the official UK road rankings 
6. You can  watch your progress graph rise and check out head-to-heads with your training partners.

All the information you need is on the runbritain rankings site. Sign up today and see your handicap improve as you target your fitness goals.

Remember there are numerous training programs to help you via our training wizard that will ask you to enter your target distance, training focus and your training load (easy, moderate, hard).