Club Handicap
Boxing Day
Snow, ice and below freezing temperatures and not a lady in sight. 13 men seek to burn off the Christmas Day excess, mainly by moaning at the new computerised handicapping system.
Tony deemed the normal route too dangerous and an off-road variation was quickly devised. This involved calf deep semi-frozen mud in the farm between Styal Mill and Altrincham Road. The shorter distance also threw out the finely calculated handicap system as did the fact that 4 of the 13 runners did not in any of the four races used in the calculation.
Paul Saunders, standing for an hour in the freezing cold, counted them out and counted them back in. He was rewarded with an exciting finish as Mike (Cooper) took Trevor over Twinnies Bridge to sprint home in first place.
1 Mike Cooper 51:34
2 Trevor Faulkner 51:57
3 Stephen Feber 53:27
4 John Porteus 54:18
5 Roy Pownall 54:53
6 Richard Parris 56:15
7 Peter Carne 56:19
8 Tony Hulme 56:57
9 Rob Downes 58:21
10 Graham Taylor 58:24
11 James Smith 58:26
12 Rod Coombs 60:50
13 Michael Halman 62:01
Running Bear generously donated the prizes. Two pairs of socks to the winner, one to all other competitors. The advantage of finishing higher up the field was getting a pair of your own size.
A unique feature of the race was hanging-around waiting for Mike Halman to cross the line in last place. However if we strip out the handicap, he started 21mins. 9 secs. after Trevor, he did a little better. The fastest time over the course, however, went to Rob, 37:38