Handicap League

2008 Results

Race 1 Race 2 Race 3 Race 4

Race 5 Race 6 Race 7

Race 8 Race 9 Race 10

Race 11 Race 12 Final League Table

Handicap Race 1

Sunday 10th February 2008 - 5.8 miles.

Finishing Position	Name	Handicap Time	Race Time	Rate per Mile	Difference
1st	Lance Harris	41.40	38.09	6.35	-3.31
2nd	Jamie Cousins	43.00	40.39	7.01	-2.21
3rd	Matt Anholm	43.00	41.17	7.07	-1.43
4th	Mark Nurse	41.40	40.34	7.00	-1.06
5th	Paul Smith	47.00	46.06	7.57	-0.54
6th	Tony Carter	43.40	43.15	7.27	-0.25
7th	Jeff Copping	48.15	48.06	8.18	-0.09
8th	Tina Anholm	64.00	63.58	11.02	-0.02
9th	Dino Verrecchia	41.40	41.49	7.13	+0.09
10th	Angie Swift	46.25	47.25	8.11	+1.00
11th	Chris Rawlings	43.00	45.32	7.51	+2.32
12th	Kevin Anholm	48.20	51.07	8.49	+2.47
13th	Vito Verrecchia	37.10	40.30	6.59	+3.20
14th	Jim Cranwell	56.30	63.15	10.54	+6.45
15th	Liam Dowling	56.30	63.18	10.55	+6.48

The build up to the first race of a brand new season received plenty of air time on Sky Sports. They talked about nothing else other than Super Sunday and I thought it was rather decent of those nice Sky people to promote our race. Well, what else of any significance in sport was happening that day???

For us humble Withernsea Harriers we have been preparing since the start of the New Year of our “Super Sunday”. There are few local races at this time of the year, so we tend to use our handicap runs to help put a focus on our training. We train every Tuesday and Thursday, meeting at 7.00pm at the lighthouse. We have concentrated up to now on building up our stamina. The speed work comes later on in the Spring. It is important to build good foundations for the busy year ahead. By concentrating on improving our general level of fitness, we will be hopefully in good shape, to tackle all the big local races, which are usually between May and July. We also have 2 members who are running the London Marathon and the longer, less intense sessions help them prepare for this big event.

Our Handicap League starts on the 2nd Sunday in February and runs throughout the year until Grand Final Day in the middle of October. As it’s a long season and probably due the fact it can be a bit nippy for the first race, we usually have a poor turnout for the first handicap event of the season. This year was different. We had a record turnout for this race; with the final figure double what we had last year at this time. This reflects the excellent turnout we have had this year in training. After 6 weeks of solid, hard work, we where all ready and raring to go for the first race of the season.

We couldn’t have picked a better day, weather wise. Glorious sunshine and a breeze that could only be described as gentle, gave us had near perfect conditions to run in. The course was our Hollym to Hompton and back to the finish at The Plough route, which measures 5.8 miles long. The Handicap Committee gave everyone’s average time at this distance as their handicap. The bookies who rarely get it wrong, made the runners training for the London Marathon as favourites and this again proved to be astute bit of business, as 2 of the first 3 home are preparing for London.

The winner was Lance Harris who started at the back of the field and moved serenely through the field to finish over a minute ahead of Jamie Cousins.(who’s a lot quicker than his dad). Lance and Jamie were 2 of 4 new comers, Chris Rawlings and Jim Cranwell being the other 2 debutants. We hope this won’t be their only visit to our handicap races.

In third place was Mathew Anholm, who is also working hard in his preparation for London. Fourth and showing good early season form (for a change) was Mark Nurse. Fifth and sixth where two people who came close to winning last year’s handicap league.

Last season’s runner up Paul Smith, was fifth and Tony Carter who finished 3rd in the league last year, finished sixth. I would expect both these competitors will be up there challenging for the title again this season.

One other item to report. When personally I have reached an age where achieving a personal best is just a distant memory, it is nice to report someone achieving such a feat. Mathew Anholm ran the Brass Monkey ½ marathon on Sunday 20th January in 1 hour 37 mins and thus knocking 1 minute of his previous best time. Sometimes the slog of training for a marathon can be rewarding.

Our next handicap race is on Sunday 2nd March starting at 11.00am from The Plough Inn, Hollym.The route will be 5.8 miles and as always everyone is welcome.

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Handicap Race 2

Sunday 2nd March 2008 - 5.8 miles.

Finishing Position	Name	Handicap Time	Race Time	Rate per Mile	Difference
1st	Jamie Cousins	40.15	38.19	6.36	-1.56
2nd	Tony Carter	43.00	42.27	7.19	-0.33
3rd	Kevin Anholm	49.05	48.45	8.24	-0.20
4th	Lance Harris	37.45	37.30	6.28	-0.15
5th	Matt Anholm	40.45	40.51	7.03	+0.06
6th	Jeff Copping	48.00	48.25	8.21	+0.25
7th	Chris Rawlings	45.15	46.13	7.58	+0.58
8th	Mark Nurse	40.00	41.19	7.07	+1.19
9th	Tina Anholm	64.00	65.49	11.21	+1.49
10th	Jim Cranwell	60.00	61.51	10.40	+1.51
11th	Pauline Steele	61.35	63.40	10.59	+2.05
12th	Angie Swift	46.30	49.48	8.35	+3.18
13th	Paul Smith	45.45	51.17	8.51	+5.32
14th	Liam Dowling	56.30	63.06	10.53	+6.36

On a very windy Sunday morning, another excellent field assembled for the second race of the season. The wind was blowing from a westerly direction, which means the runners would have to run the last mile, full into the teeth of a very strong wind. These types of tough conditions, forces each competitor having to change their approach to the race. If the runner is to run to their handicap time, it will be essential to use the wind to help them for the first 3 miles. If successful, they may have a bit in reserve to tackle the tough 2nd part of the course, where inevitably, the wind will make it very difficult to maintain a speed, to match their handicap time.

This is the only time in the season when we have the same distance for 2 successive races. So for handicapping purposes, the first race 3 weeks ago, can be used as a guide to select a time for each competitor. Those runners in the points after that first race, will have to run at the same rate per mile and a bit quicker, if they are to finish in the top six. These means they will start further back in the field and makes for a close and exciting finish.

In second place was Tony Carter who claimed he had to stop 3 times due to pains in his leg. Despite this extra handicap he still ran 33 seconds under his handicap time. Do I hear The Handicap Committee sharpening their pencils? Next home was that old war horse Kevin Anholm who limped into 3rd place. (Kevin rarely runs these days – just limps)!!!

The next two home where our London Marathon entries. Fourth was Lance Harris with another impressive time of 37 mins 30 secs with Matt Anholm in fifth place. These lads are up to 40+ miles a week as they continue with their preparation for the big event, so a bit of a wind was hardly going to worry them. Jeff Copping completed the point scoring positions by finishing in 6th place.

After 2 races the early pace setter is Matt Anholm on 12 points, with Tony Carter 1 point behind and Jamie Cousins 3rd with 9 points. But very early days.

This season we have changed the format of the Knockout Cup. There are 4 groups of 4 people, with the winner of each group qualifying for the semi-finals. The thinking behind this is to make the Cup winner work a bit harder to win the trophy. With the previous straight knockout format, we have had instances of Cup winners playing only 2 matches in winning the cup. This year’s structure means the Cup winner will have to play 5 matches to win the trophy and so producing a more worthwhile winner.

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Handicap Race 3

Good Friday 21st March - 4 miles.

Finishing Position	Name	Handicap Time	Race Time	Rate per Mile	Difference
1st	Tony Carter	27.00	27.10	6.48	+0.10
2nd	Jim Cranwell	40.50	41.04	10.16	+0.14
3rd	Tina Anholm	43.30	43.52	10.58	+0.22
4th	Kevin Anholm	32.10	32.42	8.11	+0.32
5th	Andy Watson	25.00	25.36	6.24	+0.36
6th	Wendy Hadgraft	34.30	35.07	8.47	+0.37
7th	Chris Rawlings	30.10	30.50	7.42	+0.50
8th	Jamie Cousins	25.00	26.03	6.31	+1.03
9th	Matt Anholm	27.00	28.12	7.03	+1.12
10th	Mark Nurse	27.20	28.46	7.11	+1.26
11th	Pauline Steele	41.45	43.38	10.54	+1.53
12th	Vito Verrecchia	25.00	26.59	6.45	+1.59
13th	Jeff Copping	32.00	34.46	8.41	+2.46
14th	Pete Hadgraft	32.00	35.12	8.48	+3.12
15th	Angie Swift	31.15	34.53	8.43	+3.38

Extra Race

2 Miles No Watch - Good Friday

Finishing Position	Name	Handicap Time	Race Time	Rate per Mile	Difference
1st	Tony Carter	13.00	12.58	6.29	-0.02
2nd	Ian Battye	18.30	18.16	9.08	-0.14
3rd	Pauline Steele	23.30	23.12	11.45	-0.18
4th	Mark Nurse	15.00	14.29	7.15	-0.31
5th	Vito Verrecchia	13.30	12.54	6.27	-0.36
6th	Tina Anholm	21.20	22.05	11.03	+0.45
7th	Wendy Hadgraft	18.30	17.43	8.52	-0.47
8th	Pete Hadgraft	18.30	17.43	8.52	-0.47
9th	Jim Cranwell	20.00	20.54	10.27	+0.54
10th	Chris Rawlings	14.00	15.02	7.31	+1.02
11th	Matt Anholm	16.00	14.42	7.21	-1.18
12th	Kevin Anholm	17.30	16.07	8.04	-1.23
13th	Jeff Copping	19.15	17.43	7.52	-1.32
14th	Jamie Cousins	16.00	14.23	7.12	-1.37

Oh our crazy English weather!!! The first race of our season in early February was run in glorious spring like sunshine. Fast forward to the first day of Spring when the 3rd race of the season was held, we had to contend with artic northerly winds and snow. So much for global warming!!

Despite the tough weather conditions, another excellent field assembled for this race. The course was everyone’s favourite, the 4 mile course. Basically the route starts at The Plough Inn, into Withernsea via Hompton Road and back to The Plough via Hollym Road. This is normally a fast course, but on this day the strong winds made it very tough going. In fact it is not an exaggeration to report that when the runners turned left onto Hompton Road to run into Withernsea, it was like running into a brick wall, so strong was the northerly wind.

When the wind is so strong, those runners starting at the front of the field potentially have a slight advantage. This is because the quicker runners at the back have to work even harder to catch the front runners. This makes the performance of Tony Carter all the more remarkable. He started 4th from the back and managed to work his way through the field to snatch victory by overtaking Jim Cranwell, with a sprint finish over the last 50 yards. In fact all the point scoring positions were decided by sprinting to the finishing line. Jim (2nd) had just managed to overtake Tina Anholm (3rd), who in turn had just managed to stay ahead of Kevin Anholm (4th). Kevin had just enough in the tank to hold off Andy Watson (5th), who had just passed Wendy Hadgraft (6th) with few yards to spare.

After the race an analysis of the results revealed that ¾ of the field were only separated by 75 seconds. Credit must be given to the much maligned “Handicap Committee” for setting such accurate handicap times. If the race was either 30 yards longer, or shorter, there would have been a totally different finishing order. This makes for exciting and competitive racing, as everyone providing they run to their potential, have a chance to win the race. That’s what a handicap is all about.

When a league has finished and the swings and roundabouts over a long season are reflected on, there is usually a defining moment in the season when the title is won or lost. Although we are only ¼ of the way through this season, it is just possible we might have had this season’s defining moment. Tony’s excellent run has put him in a commanding position at the top of the table. He has already opened up an 8 point lead over his nearest challenger, Matt Anholm. He is in top form and looks a good bet to improve on last season’s 3rd place finish.

After the 4 mile race, to show we are glutton for punishment, there was a 2 mile no watch run. This was after declining the offer to run instead a wind assisted 1 mile. They are tough these Harriers. The winner and completing a very profitable morning’s work was Tony Carter, who finished just 2 seconds away from his time. In second place and making a welcome return after 2 years of injury problems, was that old war horse and 2 time league winner, Ian Battye. He finished 14 seconds away his handicap time. In third was last year’s double winner, Pauline Steele, who finished 18 seconds outside her handicap time.

Our intrepid London Marathon runners continued their intensive preparations by running the East Hull 20 mile race recently. This race distance is one of 3 training runs which the London runners need to complete, if they are to have a successful marathon. The race times achieved also gives a good indication of what time they are likely to post in the marathon. For the record their times were:

- Lance Harris 2 hrs 26 mins

- Matt Anholm 2 hr 35 mins

- Pete Hadgraft 3 hr 10 mins

Well done to all 3 local runners.

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Handicap Race 4

Thursday 10th April - 5 miles.

Finishing Position	Name	Handicap Time	Race Time	Rate per Mile	Difference
1st	Lance Harris	32.20	30.09	6.02	-2.11
2nd	Paul Smith	39.30	37.57	7.35	-1.33
3rd	Vito Verrecchia	33.20	32.14	6.27	-1.06
4th	Pauline Steele	53.10	52.06	10.25	-1.04
5th	Jim Cranwell	50.25	49.25	9.53	-1.00
6th	Wendy Hadgraft	43.40	42.48	8.34	-0.52
7th	Pete Hadgraft	43.40	42.50	8.35	-0.50
8th	Matt Anholm	35.00	34.19	6.52	-0.41
9th	Gordon Harker	44.50	44.19	8.52	-0.31
10th	Chris Rawlings	38.10	37.54	7.35	-0.16
11th	Angie Swift	41.15	41.33	8.19	+0.18
12th	Kevin Anholm	41.45	42.40	8.32	+1.55
13th	Tony Carter	33.10	35.19	7.04	+2.09
14th	Jeff Copping	40.25	42.39	8.32	+2.14

At last we are back to mid week races. After 6 long months of running in the dark, we can return to training and racing in the daylight. Usually the lengthening of the days results in the re-appearance of some old faces that we haven’t seen since last October. This Winter however I’m pleased to say that everyone has continued to train hard throughout the long Winter months and so should be in excellent shape to achieve some good times this season.

Another encouraging sign has been the excellent support we have received in our handicap runs and our latest race continued this trend with another excellent turnout. It was also a relief that after the previous 2 races, we didn’t have to fight gale force winds, although by the time the race started there was a rather nippy north easterly.

The race was over our 5 mile course and the winner was Lance Harris. Using this race as a warm down for The London Marathon, as he was the quickest runner in the field, he was last to start. This small detail didn’t seem to bother him as he moved effortlessly through the field to finish 38 seconds ahead of 2nd place. This was Lance’s final run before the London Marathon and all that hard training looks like it could pay dividends for him over his next few races. In 2nd and making a welcome return to a podium finish was Paul Smith. This was his best run this season and he could be approaching last season’s form, which saw him finish as last year’s runner up.

There was an exciting sprint finish for 3rd place. Vito Verrecchia showed that the art of chivalry is finished amongst fishmongers, by just elbowing out the current champion Pauline Steele into 4th place. In 5th place after another steady performance was Jim Cranwell and Wendy Hadgraft managed to occupy the last point scoring place in 6th. A good effort this from Wendy as she has only just started running again and had the additional handicap of having to carry her husband Pete around the course as well.

Despite a slightly disappointing race by his own high standards, Tony Carter remains well clear at the top of the Championship Table. He holds a seven point lead from Lance Harris and Matt Anholm, 1/3rd of the way through the season.

I have 2 other races to report on. First, Hornsea brought back their 1/3rd marathon run on Sunday 30th March. It was good to have this well organised event back on the race calendar. Our member’s times were

Matt Anholm 62.22

Mark Nurse 64.10

Wendy Hadgraft 79.22

Pete Hadgraft 79.22

We also had 3 lads running The London Marathon and it was good to see all their hard training paid off as they produced these times

Lance Harris 3hrs 7mins 53secs.

Matt Anholm 3hrs 29mins 21secs

Pete Hadgraft 4 hrs 38mins 32secs.

What a cracking time by Lance in what was his first ever marathon. A sub 3 hours time is well within his reach. Matt set himself a target of 3.1/2 hours, so he was well pleased with his effort. As for Pete?? Well he was violently ill the Friday before the race and didn’t think he could run it. He had a Saturday night fitness test of keeping down a lasagne, which he did, so I think it was a pretty good effort. However all this hard work may have been too much for him as he left his bag and mobile on the train and is still waiting to be re-united with them, although Tony Carter has been seen with a smart new mobile phone!!!

And finally!!! As you may have gathered by now all our runs start and finish at The Plough, which shows how well thought out our race routes are. The additional bonus to this is that we are well looked after by Steve and Sue. So at our recent Committee Meeting we felt that we should put up some posters around the town to advertise how good The Plough is. So look out for them, you can’t mistake them. They have a picture of the West Ham goalkeeper with the slogan “Save less and visit The Plough”.

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Handicap Race 5

Thursday 1st May - 5.8 miles.

Finishing Position	Name	Handicap Time	Race Time	Rate per Mile	Difference
1st	Kevin Anholm	46.50	46.43	8.03	-0.07
2nd	Matt Anholm	38.50	38.56	7.03	+0.06
3rd	Pauline Steele	60.00	60.33	10.26	+0.33
4th	Angie Swift	46.35	47.46	8.14	+1.10
5th	Jeff Copping	47.30	49.13	8.29	+1.43
6th	Tony Carter	38.10	39.56	6.53	+1.46
7th	Tina Anholm	63.00	65.05	11.13	+2.05
8th	Lance Harris	34.25	36.36	6.19	+2.11
9th	Chris Rawlings	43.30	46.42	8.03	+3.12
10th	Ian Battye	-	56.03	9.40	-

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Handicap Race 6

Thursday 15th May - 5.6 miles.

Finishing Position	Name	Handicap Time	Race Time	Rate per Mile	Difference
1st	Tina Anholm	62.30	59.14	10.35	-3.16
2nd	Ian Battye	54.10	53.07	9.29	-1.03
3rd	Tony Carter	38.05	37.11	6.38	-0.54
4th	Kevin Anholm	44.10	43.26	7.54	-0.44
5th	Angie Swift	46.00	45.24	8.06	-0.36
6th	Pauline	58.20	57.48	10.19	-0.32
7th	Jim Cranwell	55.20	55.08	9.51	-0.12
8th	Paul Smith	42.45	43.01	7.41	+0.16
9th	Chris Rawlings	43.25	43.58	7.51	+0.33
10th	Matt Anholm	37.20	38.36	6.54	+1.16
11th	Lance Harris	34.35	36.25	6.30	+1.50
12th	Rob Swift	44.30	49.32	8.51	+5.02

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