Claim your handicap for the chance to win a Polar Heart Rate Monitor

Did you race this weekend? Most of the results are in and if you haven't yet claimed your handicap, now is the time to do it!

The runbritain hanidcap scoring system was launched just over five years ago and each year there has been an average of almost 10,000 signing up as the word and motivation spreads.

The number of sign-ups per year show a peak of 13,264 in 2012. With nine more racing weekends to complete this year, we have almost hit 10,000 for 2015 and are very close to a total of 60,000 since we began. The year-on-year figures are:

2010 - 7935
2011 - 8273
2012 - 13264
2013 - 10173

2014 - 10355

Last week, 283 new runners claimed their handicap taking us ever closer to the 60,000 mark and last weekend was a big one for races so we expect many more sign-ups this week - we could even hit the 60,000 mark this week!

From those results that are in, the biggest races, last week, were:

Morrisons Great South 10 - 13,982 finishers

Bristol - Bath Marathon - 4,129 finishers

Leicester Half Marathon - 2,058 finishers

Worksop Half Marathon - 1,984 finishers

Snowdonia Marathon -  1,845 finishers

Cambridge Town & Town 10K - 1,279 finishers

Jo Pavey (handicap -1.7) ran a World Age Best of 52:44, for ten miles, at the Morrisons Great South Run and reduced her handicap score by 0.2. Jo finished 2nd to Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya, In the same race, Gemma Steel (handicap -2.4) finished 4th and moved herself from 3rd on the National Ladder to 2nd with an improvement of 0.1 for her time of 53:06.

Meanwhile, at the Bristol - Bath Marathon, Adam Holland (handicap -2.4) took 0.8 from his handicap score when he won the race in 2:31:29 whilst Clare Prosser (handicap 4.5), the first female finisher,  took 0.8 from hers for her time of 2:52:50.

Did you run either of these races or any others this weekend? If you haven't yet claimed your handicap or you know someone who hasn't, there's no better time to do it.

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 Reward Runnning competition. This competition, sponsored by Polar, rewards runners who reduce their handicap score. The competition runs from March - October each year.
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 find out where your times put you in the official UK road rankings as well as in your age group and postcode.
5. You can log your training mileage, 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 if you can be our 60,000th claimant! We have a Polar Heart Rate Monitor for handicap claimant number 60,000!