A reasonable turn out of 12 hardy runners showed up for the CRR Handicap Race 5 inaugural Annual Mountain Climb despite the fact that there were so many clues dropped on the website in the preceding week that even Blind Freddy could work out that the course might have a bump in it called Mt Beerburrum.  Even more surprising to us was that Anja and Bill B turned up to join in after stellar performances at the Gold Coast Marathon last weekend.

Discussing the handicap course on Saturday after a smacking on Macca’s Gate Run we thought that it might be a bit damp on the walk up to the top and a bit dangerous.  But inspecting the trail on Sunday morning, course setters Parso and Mappo carefully considered every aspect of the weather including wind direction, cloud cover, exposed sunlight, ambient room temperature, dew point, rainfall, and the track itself in terms of its incline, construction, maintenance and general aesthetic appeal, as well as the previous nights Lotto numbers and the price of pork futures.  All this was done at the bottom of the path of course and they didn’t actually walk up it themselves but an informed decision was nevertheless made along the lines “Ah stuff it, let’s make the buggers go all the way up anyway”.  (And thanks for doing the timing too Mappo.)

In the heat of all this cerebral consideration, Parso misread the GPS and  fed Mappo some dodgy figures to compute the overall distance.  The good news was that the loop was only 4 kilometres, not 5.  The bad news was that it still included that flamin’ hill.

Parso just headed Macca after the turnaround on top of Mt Beerburrum and on the descent started to form a vague suspicion that not every one was enjoying this run as much as he was.  It could have been the fact that Will threatened to push him off the path and down the steep hillside, or the incredulous “Nice one” comments from people passing on the way up but Robyn E clinched it with her statement “What were you thinking?”.

What indeed.  Certainly wasn’t thinking that Anja would be right at the heels of the lead runner on the second loop and in outright second place.  An amazing effort by Anja after last weekends race and more than enough to give her a well deserved handicap win in the 10k.  And we hear that on Sunday night after the run she entered a 24k option at Glasshouse in 2 weeks!  Some people never learn.

If you have a look at the results too you’ll see that I calculated an (Reigl) equivalent 10k and 5k time from the short course measurement so that all our results are recorded on the same basis.

In the 5k Ian McC took the honours with another determined run from Hazemeister in second place followed by Laidback Laimon who took photos all the way around.  Great run though by young Thomas to make it all the way up just ahead of Mum who was suffering from the dreaded lurgy and Dad contemplating his part in next weekends Kokoda Challenge.

And welcome Nick to his first handicap event.  What an introduction!

All the numbers here or below including your Best 3 races to date.  There are 3 events to go and your final point total is made up of your best 6 races for the whole series.

Will we do this run again?  Well did you pick up the subtle hint in the opening sentence?  BTW the hill path itself is 700 metres long and you gain something like 200 metres over that distance, so the incline is somewhere around 28%.  Ouch.

Finally, let Parso know what day you want to run in August as the current date of Sunday 15^th clashes with The Lakes College run.

5k	Points Race 1	Points Race 2	Points Race 3	Points Race 4	Old Handicap	Race 5	5k Equiv	Diff	New Handicap	Points Race 5	Total Points	Races	Best 3
Ian McC	46			50	00:26:54	00:30:02	00:38:03	00:11:09	00:27:24	50	146	3	146
Thomas	38	46	50		00:24:50	00:31:11	00:39:30	00:14:40	00:25:20	41	175	4	137
Brennan	50	50	37						00:22:00		137	3	137
Francis	50	33	46	38					00:23:03		167	4	134
Laimon	43	40	38		00:21:39	00:26:50	00:34:00	00:12:21	00:22:09	43	164	4	126
Robyn E	40	43	36		00:29:20	00:38:17	00:48:30	00:19:10	00:29:50	40	159	4	123
Judith	38	39		46					00:41:40		123	3	123
Steve H		37	40		00:20:46	00:25:36	00:32:26	00:11:40	00:21:16	46	123	3	123
Glen	41	36	39						00:22:13		116	3	116
Dave		38		40					00:18:07		78	2
Cameron		32		43					00:31:51		75	2
Gundars	39	35							00:27:58		74	2
Kirsten		32		41					00:34:27		73	2
Leah		32	41						00:25:11		73	2
Wendy			43						00:20:27		43	1
Caroline		41							00:22:09		41	1
Tami				39					00:31:36		39	1
Jennifer				37					00:41:20		37	1
Matt F				37					00:33:35		37	1
Tim F				37					00:33:49		37	1
Debbie			35						00:37:10		35	1
Liz			35						00:25:57		35	1
Jo C		34							00:29:21		34	1
Art		32							00:35:54		32	1
Bradley		32							00:48:30		32	1
Charmaine		32							00:35:20		32	1
Chrissie		32							00:49:21		32	1
Clarissa		32							00:52:00		32	1
Clay		32							00:31:25		32	1
Harry		32							00:48:31		32	1
10k	Points Race 1	Points Race 2	Points Race 3	Points Race 4	New Handicap	Race 5	10k equiv	Diff	New Handicap	Points	Total Points	Races	Best 3
Anja	46	40	50	46	00:49:00	00:56:02	01:10:59	00:21:59	00:49:30	50	232	5	146
Bill B	41	46	43	50	00:48:17	01:04:00	01:21:04	00:32:47	00:48:47	40	220	5	139
Will	50		41	43	00:42:49	00:57:00	01:12:13	00:29:24	00:43:22	43	177	4	136
Mark P	40	38		50	00:41:07	00:51:00	01:04:37	00:23:30	00:41:37	46	174	4	136
Tahnee	37	50	46						00:52:23		133	3	133
Steve M			37	39					00:47:45	50	126	3	126
Iain McK	43	39	39	40	00:39:56	00:56:22	01:11:24	00:31:28	00:40:26	41	202	5	124
Sean		41	38		00:47:07	01:03:07	01:19:58	00:32:51	00:47:37	39	118	3	118
Robyn G	38	50							00:49:09		88	2
Russell	39	43							00:46:06		82	2
Sandy		37		41					00:47:09		78	2
Audrey			40						01:03:14		40	1
Nick						01:07:35	01:25:37	00:00:00	01:26:28	38	38	1