Bob
Muat Handicap Trophy Series
This is how it works: the Bob
Muat Handicap Trophy is competed for over the course of a year and up to thirty
races are nominated by the Committee at distances ranging from 5 miles to a
full marathon. Traditionally the year
begins in March with the Fleet Half Marathon.
Handicap times will be set in March for the Fleet Half based on recent
Bob Muat handicap races and/or any other event recorded during the last year
(March of the previous year to February of the current year) including Thursday
night handicap races. Following this
the handicap times will only be affected by Bob Muat race times and not by any
other race times.
You will be set a handicap time for each event, based on past
performance, and from this and your finishing time your points will be
calculated. If you equal your time you
will get 12 points (but you will drop 2 points if you’re not wearing a club
vest/t-shirt or that of the charity you’re running for). The minimum points you will be given is 2 so you’ll
get something just for completing the race!
Runners new to the handicap series will get 10 or 12 points (depending
on attire).
Your handicap time for your next event will be influenced by your
performance: a faster finishing time
will give you a faster handicap time at the next race (with a small allowance
for the fluke factor) and a slower finishing time will allow you a small
increase in your time. Under
exceptional circumstances the handicap times may be adjusted to take account of
a particularly hard or easy course.
Your NINE best race scores count towards your final total score and
there are trophies for the top three – these are usually presented at the
post-Fleet Half ‘do’ in a pub somewhere.
The finishing times used are usually the official clock times but it is
still possible to use your own watch time from start line to finish line if
there is much of a difference. However
in this case YOU are responsible for recording your own time and supplying it
to the person compiling the HRR results (currently Ali) and it may be subject
to scrutiny!
Handicap times are traditionally displayed on the upstairs noticeboard and now on the website too. With such a huge increase in races over the
year it may not always be possible to display the times in advance but we will
do our best – check the website for the most current times: www.hartroadrunners.co.uk.
The Hampshire Road Race League consists of a series of ten road races
around the County which are selected for varying distance and location between
September and June of each year. There
are currently 21member clubs from Farnham Runners and Alton Runners in our neck
of the woods to more distant clubs such as Poole AC and Ryde
Harriers. Clubs participate in
individual and team leagues.
Club teams score points through the success of their runners and the
series culminates in awards to the highest placed teams in the leagues. Clubs can have multiple teams and these enjoy
a wide participation of runners of all standards, abilities and ages (from
senior upwards). Individuals score
points from their finishing positions in the races and there are separate
leagues for women and men, both for teams and individuals.
HRRL is divided into two team Divisions – A and B. The A Division has 2 leagues for men and 2
for women – the top 10 teams are in League 1 and the rest in League 2. The B Division is designed to give
non-scoring runners something to compete for and a chance to represent their
club.
If this sounds horribly complicated don’t worry – you just have to enter
a race as normal then turn up and run for Hart – the details will be worked out
by someone else! However, if you are
interested in the nitty gritty go to the HRRL website
– www.hrrl.org.uk where you’ll find rules
and stuff.