Grantham Running Club has held an annual 10K handicap race since taking over the event from Grantham Athletic Club, whose members continue to participate both as runners and officials.
Having been held for several years at Long Bennington on the Summer Solstice 10K course, in 2017 the event moved to Ropsley on a rolling course ending outside the Green Man pub, which provides a most convenient and convivial venue for a post-run drink!
The aim of a handicapped race is to stagger runners’ start times based on their estimated times for a 10k such that the runner with the quickest predicted finish time sets off last. Predictions are made based on a runner’s best recent 10K time or, where not available, another recent run or failing that, a guestimate.
In theory, all runners should complete the race simultaneously, though in practice, this never happens.
The winner of the Handicap is the runner with the biggest variation (improvement) over their predicted finish time, so it may well not be the first person to get back that has the greatest variation. All good fun!
Historic GP results are available in the downloadable file below.