Durham City Harriers’ Club Handicap is held on the second Tuesday of every month. It’s an individual, handicapped time-trial split into a Summer and a Winter series with an award going to the outright winner of each. The event is a TIME TRIAL, not a race, and it’s not marshalled. Runners need to be responsive to potential hazards including vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, street furniture and surface conditions.
All sessions are timed by timekeepers who are volunteers from within the group. Be nice to them as the role often involves standing around in unpleasant weather. Timekeepers record the gross time and position of each athlete. Results are published as soon as feasible. The organiser however, reserves the right to apply ‘common sense’ in correcting obvious mistakes in timing or position!
It’s the runner’s responsibility to be aware of their start time and appear at the start line at least 15 seconds beforehand. Depending on respective handicap times, timekeepers will try to call out names ahead of time and count down each athlete but it’s not always possible. Points are awarded down to 20th place (20 points for first; 1 point for 20th) based on the finishing order across the line on the night.
Series Format
Both the Summer and Winter series aim to have six rounds each – one per month. To encourage participation, points are awarded in every round. A series might, occasionally, comprise the ‘best 5 runs from 6’. This would normally happen to allow volunteers to skip an event without losing points and would be confirmed before the series starts. If an event is cancelled (normally due to winter weather) the series totals will take that into account. The Summer course is normally an undulating 5.5 km. The Winter course is a flatter 5 km.
Virtual Runs
Individual runs outside the normal club session can be accepted at the organiser’s discretion. Any such run must be over the official course confirmed by GPS evidence (Strava etc). The run must completed and submitted before the results for the round are published.
Handicaps & Predicted Times
Runners who have competed in a previous series will have a predicted time calculated from their previous result. For runners who didn’t competed in the previous series, the handicap administrator can, at their discretion, use a recent ‘race effort’ performance. The time predicted will be the runner’s ‘time trial’ performance and a handicap will be calculated based upon the differences between individual predicted performances. Any runner without a handicap will be allocated a start time based on their own estimated time but won’t be eligible to score points on the night. Their net time on the night will be used as a ‘time trial’ to set a handicap for the following event, when they WILL be eligible for points.
In subsequent events, handicaps are calculated with reference to the best time an runner has recorded in the series (initial predicted times are ignored once a ‘competitive performance’ has been recorded). The organiser reserves to right to determine what counts as a ‘competitive performance’ to avoid runners deliberately recording slow times.
Summer Handicap Course
Route map for DCH Summer Handicap by Durham Cow on plotaroute.com
Handicap Standings (Summer 2026)
Event 1 |