Final Handicap and Club Championship

age group handicap
It felt like a summers days at the Queens Park as the sun shone on the Club Championship and final handicap races of the Winter 2012/13 series.  Before the races commenced Club President Keith Geddes presented club stalwart and birthday girl Mary Payne with a celebratory bunch of flowers.  Mary has been a committed time keeper at the club handicaps for many years and without her help, and others like her, the races simply couldn’t go ahead. Many thanks Mary.
The junior race and hidden handicap produced some fantastic performances, full results will be posted soon.  James Geddes continued his stellar form with a superb time of 7.42 for the 1.4 mile Canal Park/Whin Park course to win the race by a commanding margin.  The clubs super computer is still calculating the handicap points and will post the results as soon as Keith finds out how to switch it on.
The Senior race provided plenty of twists, turns and cuts.  There were short cuts, long cuts and Billy Skinners navigation skills almost earned him a Fiona Mackay uppercut.  The race was contested over the new 5 mile course (5.2 if you were Billy Skinner, Charlie Maclennan and Fiona Mackay), and it offered runners an eclectic mix of road, trail, mud and water features, the kind of course Alex Sutherland dreams of and Jenny Bannerman has nightmares about.  The early pace along the Canal Bank was set by Ross Nixon with Finlay Maclennan close behind. These two fought shoulder to shoulder for the first 3.5 miles before Nixon managed to make a gap on the final climb and pull away to take the title by 30 seconds.
Interviewed by Oprah Winfrey shortly after the race, Nixon thanked everyone who had contributed to his success, he said “I could never have won the race today without the help of my friends and training partners, I have to thank Donnie, Paul, Andrew, Stephen and Sean for their help, thanks to them not turning up today I managed to secure the win”
In the race for 3rd were Tom MacWilliam, Jenny Bannerman and Kenny Steele who all fought round the 5 mile course in impressive fashion with Tom 3rd, dipping on the line to beat Jenny by 53 seconds.  Jenny was 4th retaining her women’s title with a  31.54 and 5th was Kenny Steele who will no doubt be a close contender for the handicap title once the adjusted figures are returned from the IAAF.
Andrew Gordon, Lorna Fyfe and Ross Fraser (all of whom completed all 5 races) had great performances over the testing course with Lorna delighted to win the female handicap element of the race.  Dedication Award went to Fiona Mackay who travelled 17 hours from Lerwick by ferry, train, and car especially for the race.  Imagine her delight when Billy Skinner took her and Charlie Maclennan the wrong way thus adding almost quarter of a mile to their race.  Averil Lamont continued her impressive form and was notable in the fact that her actual race time and the handicappers predicted time were exactly the same.
Well done everyone and thank you to the army of helpers, marshalls and cake makers for their contribution to making the Handicap series such a success.
Final Handicap results to follow shortly
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