Pinch and a punch it's the beginning of the month!

And that means a new month for the Reward Running competition!

Reward Running rewards runners who have reduced their handicap score by the biggest margin. Anyone who has run a UKA licensed event has a handicap score between MINUS 6 and 36. Your handicap score is calculated and adjusted after each race that you do. It doesn't just go on the time that you ran but takes into account the difficulty of the course and the weather when you ran the race. It also gives more weight to recent results. In other words, it gives a fair indication of your current level of fitness. The challenge for you is to knock it down as far as you can each month.

At the end of each month from March until October, the winner of Reward Running wins a Polar heart rate monitor. This competition is sponsored by Polar and the runner who improves their handicap score the most through the month of August will receive a Polar RC3 GPS heart Rate Monitor (RRP £249.50).

We have five weekends this month as well as lots of midweek races on the calendar so lots of opportunities to improve! Are you racing this weekend? Good luck for a great start. If you haven't already registered make sure you do and keep your motivation levels high for the month of August!