After missing last year, the Tring Park 5K Handicap returned on a sunny Wednesday evening for its third running in four years. It was great to see a good group representing all parts of the club gather on the Avenue.
For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, the theory is wonderfully simple: predict how long everyone will take to complete our hilly 5K course, start the slower runners first and gradually release the faster runners until, with perfect handicapping, the entire club charges down the final Avenue together and crosses the finish line at precisely the same moment.
The theory is simple. The handicapping perhaps less so.
Missing last year’s run meant that part of the challenge was assessing how everyone was doing compared to the 2024 run – then throw in recent parkruns, old race results, OCRs and even some cross countries. Some of you run very similar times every week with loads of 5k data and then others are more elusive with maybe the odd marathon or two. Thanks to Clive for his Wendover event which was quite a good guide to current form. The final predictions were then rounded to 15-second intervals to make the starting process manageable.
Of course, after all that careful preparation, several runners turned up on the evening without a handicap and had to be allocated one using the rather less scientific method of a quick chat and a “sort of” educated guess – usually based on who they think they run like at the club! (Some of those claims may have needed more scrutiny!). Of course with this type of event there are always claims of old injuries needing better handicap times which always takes a bit of judgment to come up with a suitable time – so apologies to those of you where my predicted time might have been a little harsh!
I must admit I do enjoy the reliving of “being an RD for a 5k event in Tring Park” – it certainly brings back the memories. It’s lovely to be back in the park and even lovelier that personally I don’t have to run up the hill! Luckily, back in the day, Dennis was often on Set-Up duty and so thanks Dennis for reminding me where the Start/Finish should be located – Andy Neil will be relieved, as he should have lots of entries in this month’s Strava Segment. Thanks Dennis, Hilary, and Mark for Marshalling out on the course.
Once underway, though, the format worked exactly as hoped. Thanks to Ann-Marie, Tamsin, Christina and Mark who managed the registration and getting everyone in order. Runners were released in their handicap groups at 15-second intervals, with those starting later gradually working their way through the field. By the closing stages, much of the club really was converging, and it was a great sight to see runners of very different speeds all racing down the final Avenue together.
And, remarkably, some of the handicapping was frighteningly accurate. Or perhaps it’s the fact that some were really good at running at their predicted pace.
Paul Stonebrook and Katie van de Linde both ran their predicted times to the exact second. Alison Bill was just one second away, Roger Clarke and Jon Salmon just two seconds, Sandra Mogan three seconds and Maddi Pendrigh five seconds. Here are the perfect pacers:
Overall, 14 of the 46 runners finished within 15 seconds of their handicap, 22 were within 30 seconds and 30 were within a minute. Given that the predictions ranged from around 21 minutes to over 36 minutes, we’ll take that! In fact Paul Stonebrook who was our middle of the field runner – was one of those who was exactly on his handicap to the second – which is a good indicator that the spreadsheet did its job.
Here are the full results:
| Name | Pos | Run Time | Predicted | Diff |
| Sheryl Jared | 1 | 28:34 | 30:45 | 02:11 |
| Keith Henderson | 2 | 27:37 | 28:45 | 01:08 |
| David Dicker | 3 | 22:09 | 23:15 | 01:06 |
| Adrian Fails | 4 | 24:26 | 25:30 | 01:04 |
| Tom Moreton | 5 | 21:27 | 22:30 | 01:03 |
| Andrew Shipley | 6 | 19:44 | 20:45 | 01:01 |
| Jonathan Pinder | 7 | 23:04 | 24:00 | 00:56 |
| Sally Nash | 8 | 22:12 | 23:00 | 00:48 |
| Lydia Vye | 9 | 30:03 | 30:45 | 00:42 |
| John Manning | 10 | 27:06 | 27:45 | 00:39 |
| Murray Carr | 11 | 21:10 | 21:45 | 00:35 |
| Chris Grimmette | 12 | 26:14 | 26:45 | 00:31 |
| Chris Bill | 13 | 30:06 | 30:30 | 00:24 |
| Liz O’Keeffe | 14 | 25:24 | 25:45 | 00:21 |
| Katie Haines | 15 | 29:56 | 30:15 | 00:19 |
| David Leybourne | 16 | 27:43 | 28:00 | 00:17 |
| Clive Cohen | 17 | 25:16 | 25:30 | 00:14 |
| Nick Stallman | 18 | 29:49 | 30:00 | 00:11 |
| Stephen Pendrigh | 19 | 25:50 | 26:00 | 00:10 |
| Jacob Rogers | 20 | 20:52 | 21:00 | 00:08 |
| Maddi Pendrigh | 21 | 36:25 | 36:30 | 00:05 |
| Jon Salmon | 22 | 26:43 | 26:45 | 00:02 |
| Alison Bill | 23 | 34:14 | 34:15 | 00:01 |
| Paul Stonebrook | 24 | 28:45 | 28:45 | 00:00 |
| Katie van de Linde | 25 | 27:45 | 27:45 | 00:00 |
| Roger Clarke | 26 | 21:02 | 21:00 | 00:02 |
| Sandra Mogan | 27 | 31:48 | 31:45 | 00:03 |
| Richard Long | 28 | 34:20 | 34:15 | 00:05 |
| Clare Murphy | 29 | 35:27 | 35:15 | 00:12 |
| John O’Keeffe | 30 | 22:44 | 22:30 | 00:14 |
| Rob Pargetor | 31 | 30:36 | 30:15 | 00:21 |
| Chris Olley | 32 | 21:22 | 21:00 | 00:22 |
| Len van de Linde | 33 | 28:55 | 28:30 | 00:25 |
| Helen Page | 34 | 32:43 | 32:15 | 00:28 |
| Ros Cranston | 35 | 32:31 | 32:00 | 00:31 |
| Angelo Lucatello | 36 | 24:37 | 23:45 | 00:52 |
| Richard White | 37 | 30:45 | 29:30 | 01:15 |
| Steve Morgan | 38 | 28:04 | 26:45 | 01:19 |
| Voirrey Holmes | 39 | 25:36 | 24:15 | 01:21 |
| Pam Stonebrook | 40 | 37:27 | 36:00 | 01:27 |
| Mary Ward | 41 | 28:19 | 26:45 | 01:34 |
| Richard Murphy | 42 | 31:13 | 29:30 | 01:43 |
| Shirley White | 43 | 34:33 | 32:30 | 02:03 |
| Andy Collings | 44 | 32:19 | 30:15 | 02:04 |
| Alex Drew | 45 | 28:07 | 25:30 | 02:37 |
| Ashley Mitchell | 46 | 38:55 | 36:15 | 02:40 |
Naturally, some runners hadn’t read the script.
First across the line was Sheryl Jared, who had received one of those hastily calculated on-the-night handicaps and proceeded to demonstrate the dangers of trusting the handicapper with only a few minutes’ notice! Sheryl ran 28:34 against a 30:45 prediction. Well done Sheryl and welcome to TRC!
Keith Henderson was second across the line and the first of those whose handicap had benefited from the full pre-race analysis, running an excellent 27:37 against a prediction of 28:45.
So well done Sheryl & Keith.
Some extra awards for the evening
Nick wins “Most Competitive start”
Clare wins “Happiest at 4km”
Helen wins the “Birthday Girl” award
Newcomer Jacob wins fastest “finish line sprint”
There were plenty of other impressive performances and some great sprint finishes! Thanks to Zack and Amelia for the accurate Timing.
I must admit when everyone sets off over a period just over 15 mins, I always question whether we will see you all back at the same time but as these photos show – lots of club members coming down the Avenue together made for a great finish to the evening.
A big thank you to all the volunteers who helped make the event possible, and to everyone who ran and entered into the spirit of it. It was great too, to see a big group at the Kings Arms afterwards.
Over on our Facebook I have posted the full set of pictures – I think it is one of my favourite sets of club pictures – A super location, lovely weather and great to see so many from the club taking part.
I’ll now retire with my spreadsheets for another year ready to do it all again next time!!
Andy