Weekend results now live
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!
From results already in of road and cross country races, the biggest races this weekend were:
Age UK Leeds Abbey Dash - 9,033 finishers
Brooks Brighton 10K - 2,740 finishers
WestRun London 10K - 2,343 finishers
Gosport HM - 1,541 finishers
Plymouth 10K - 1,414 finishers
St Neots HM - 1,321 finishers
Did you run any 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.
The Age UK Leeds Abbey Dash incorporated the final race in the runbritain Grand Prix and the England Athletics 10k Championships.
The weather was wet and very windy, which hampered the runners for the first 5 km, running into the teeth of the wind. Times were a little slower than 2014, but racing was still fierce and handicap scores were improved. In both men's and women's races there emerged a three-way battle with podium places only decided in the final run for the line.
Dan Studley (handicap -4.9) pictured, Dewi Griffiths (handicap -5.6) and Jacob Allen (handicap -4.9) all took turns at the front with a delighted Studley winning the drag race for the line in 29:44 from Griffiths (29:47) and Allen (29:50). Nick Swinburn (handicap -4.6) finished in 4th with Andy Maud (handicap -5.1) 5th. There times were 29:56 and 29:57. All five will receive 100 Grand Prix bonus points for their sub-30 clocking.
Charlotte Arter (handicap -0.9) prevailed over Faye Fullerton (handicap -1.0) and Stevie Stockton (handicap 3.0) in 33:03 to 33:11 and 33:12 with Lauren Deadman (handicap -0.8), 4th over the line.
Meanwhile, in the south of the country, conditions were just as bad where the Brooks Brighton 10k took place with driving rain lashing the sea front where the race is run. The Leeds Abbey Dash was given an SSS rating of 1.0 and the Brighton 10k was given 1.2 suggesting that conditions were slightly worse in Brighton. A delighted Stephen Scullion (handicap 1.2) won the race in 31:46 and took 1.6 from his handicap score whilst Emma Macready (handicap 1.6) took 0.4 from her score with a clocking of 35:31 and first female across the line.
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 seven 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
We have a Polar Heart Rate Monitor to give to the 60,000th claimant and last weekend another 159 runners signed up, taking us closer to the 60,000 mark.
Some of the benefits of the runbritain handicap scoring system:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- You can find out where your times put you in the official UK road rankings as well as in your age group and postcode.
- 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 hope to bring you updated Grand Prix standings soon on this link: