Handicap league

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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”.