[UK-CONTEST] Road races---No, this is NOT off topic!

[Alex G3ZBE]

Has there ever been an RSGB contest with a handicap system?

I do a bit of running and at my work place there is a running club with
a membership of about 20.  However there is a wide range of abilities
and age ranges. Some people can quite literally run at twice the speed
of others, over say a 3 mile course!  I am very much at the slow end of
the range and getting slower  :o(

We wanted to run a series of competitive races through the year but of
course the same people would win all the time.  We used a handicap
system which means that the winner of each event was the person who
IMPROVED the most since the last event.  The same system is used for
deciding the overall winner of the yearly series trophy.  This has run
for over 10 years now and still maintains interest each year, with both
new and experienced runners fighting it out to very close finishes!

It strikes me that this is not unlike the situation with radio contests,
some operators say there is no point in competing as they have no chance
at all.  Others who may be more experienced simply don't or can't have
the necessary antennas/site/power.

Now, I don't necessarily subscribe to that way of thinking, I think
winners  win because, generally speaking, they make the most effort!
Even if you can't have the facilities you can of course compete within
your own group or against your last score.  However in the running
example I quote, it has undeniably kept the interest level high for many
years as runners have come and gone within the company.  New members of
staff who had never thought of running have become confirmed runners and
the fast runners are continually presented with a new challenge.

Perhaps some sort of handicap contest once a year would help get people
in and hooked?  Exactly how you do the handicapping is another
discussion of course, but there are ways.

Alex

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Member of:
RSGB, ARRL, CDXC, GMDX group, G-QRP(10455), RAOTA(1739), Lichfield
A.R.S.
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