Thursday Run Handicap

Handicapping Explained

The handicap system tries to achieve a level playing field with everyone coming across the line at once, although with people involved we know it will never be achieved.  There is a different handicap for the 5km and 6km events.

The 5km target handicap time for anyone to try and beat is 32minutes.    So if you have a scratch (0 minutes) handicap, you should be aiming to run 32minutes for 5km and if you have a 10 minute handicap you will be trying to run 22minutes for 5km.    The 6k handicaps are figured out based on the 5k handicaps times 6 divided by 5, rounded to the nearest 30 seconds, eg: if your 5k handicap is 7 minutes then 7×6/5=8.4, therefore your 6k handicap is 8min 30sec.    So the back markers have further time to make up, but they have a longer distance to do so.     So the goal handicap time is 32mins for 5k or 38:30 for 6k to progress up the ranks.

When someone runs for the first time they do not have an official handicap for the first run and will receive one afterwards.  Changes to ones handicap generally take place only after a championship run.  There are championship and non-championship races throughout each season that are published at the start of each season. This enables you to target certain races as an all-out effort to score as many points as you can in the handicap championship.

If you finish in the top 10% of any championship run your handicap is likely to increase.   Sometimes promotions will occur without the 32 minute mark being broken, this will happen on very difficult courses where a good time might be over a minute slower than on a flat course. Demotions to slower groups will only occur if there is a trend toward consistently finishing low in championship runs. You won’t get demoted if you are just running slow because you are doing something like jogging with a friend.

Check the list below for your handicap