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Christmas Handicap 2020

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Entry Details:

Saturday 19th December.  First Away at 1.30 pm 

9.5K of Moorland Terrain over a slightly different route for this year only to enable Covid Compliance.

Start and Finish at Baildon Countryside Centre. 

Aged 16 and Over  – Entry is Free but it’s PRE ENTRY ONLY. 

Christmas themed fancy dress is required, Santa Costumes preferred

Regret it is not possible to put on any refreshments due to Covid Rules. 

To enter or for more details E mail Stephenfry@sky.com.

Race Report:

T’was the week before Christmas and all over the land,

Most people thought that all racing was banned

But thanks to our Becky, who had read ALL the rules, 

Page, and pages, some written by fools!,

We were able to put on our run,

My thanks to Paul Hudson for sending the sun.

Stephen Fry

There was a buzz of excitement as runners gathered on the Shipley Glen for our annual Christmas Handicap race. Due to concerns about being unable social distance from the public on the canal and river sections of our traditional route the course was altered.  Anew section added from Spring wood to Hawksworth and a loop back round to meet the old course at the far end of Spring Woods. I hope you enjoyed the steep descent. 

With the sun shinning it was easy to forget that it had been so wet so I took a short stroll into the first field and had a rude awakening. Ankle deep mud everywhere. This was going to be a tough 6 miles for the 24 runners who had put their feet across the line and the evidence of how wet it had been was clear to be seen when the runners finished. Muddy fun in the sun.

As handicapper I confess to under estimating just how much slower the conditions would make it for everyone. I should allowed everyone and extra 7 to 10 minutes. Also it was very difficult to asses everyone’s form when there have been no races. Added to the fact that our junior runners are just getting better and better mean that in short I made a right Royal mess of predicting their times. That said what a run by Theo Clay to win the race by over two and half minutes from Matthew Warters of Wharfedale who I allowed to run as a guest. Matthew has promised to donate an entry fee to Bradford Soup Run. In thirds place was Alex Flaherty just getting the family honours by catching sister Rebecca in the last field to beat her by 3 seconds. With Training partners Theo’s fine win and Alex and Rebecca Flaherty also giving the seniors a lesson in proper running,  I am wondering if there is something special in the water around Guiseley and Menston. Well done to the three of them.

The results were put on the club’s Facebook site before we actually left the finish area. Thanks to Dave Stephenson for getting them sorted so quickly. They are shown in the below spread sheet. Thanks also to John Capenerhurst who always makes himself available to help with the start and timings and it is a great to know that he is there as a qualified official. The work he does for the club is mostly unseen by the members but he records everything we do and all the minutes of the meeting for the club archives, a thankless task and we the members owe him a great deal of thanks.

Thanks also to all the Marshall’s who gave up their time. I hope they too enjoyed the festive atmosphere. 

Lastly I just need to emphasis again the vital role played by Becky Weight in the staging of this event. I have received lots of texts, e. Mails and FB messages thanking me but actually she is the one who deserves the plaudits.

So all thats left to do is wish you all a Merry Christmas and to tell you to keep training because even if we stay in tier three I will be putting on another pop up race early in January so………watch this space.

Race Results: https://www.bingleyharriers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/ResultsXmas202.png