The last Thursday of each month is a handicap race run by running club The Stragglers, who are based just outside of Kingston. Sharon and I helped out last month and tonight was the first night I actually ran it. Its a 5.17 km course near to the running club and is actually really enjoyable - especially as I’ve never raced in the dark before! There were just under 40 of us running this evening - many members opted for just a casual run and not the handicap race, and I guess it was quieter because its half term at school as well.

The handicap is run as follows:

“This is a 5.17 km (3.21 mile) race starting and finishing at the YMCA Hawker Centre, Kingston. Handicaps are allocated on the basis of previous performances- the slowest runners start first and if everybody ran exactly to form, we would all finish together. This has not yet happened.”

Anyway, I ran the course in 21:27 which I was happy with and based on my estimated finish time (I thought 21 minutes), I was really close to pace. Now that I’ve run the race once my handicap will be adjusted in time for next months race.

I tried not to kill myself by running too fast (although my hear rate did average at 179bpm, which is around the same at the Saturday time trials that I run). The overall results of this race and more detailed information about the handicap can be found at the Stragglers website.