After some deliberation about whether or not it would be feasible to hold Harry's Handicap this year, we decided to make the race...wait for it...VIRTUAL.

If you're new to the club or haven't run Harry's Handicap before, this is the one race where EVERYONE has a chance to win, because runners are assigned a handicapped time based on ability, so slower runners get a head start. The goal is that all participants cross the finish simultaneously in a big group! This race is named after our club founder, Harry Murphy, and has been a club tradition since 1977.

Now, if you HAVE run this before, you may be asking yourself: "What's the point in this handicap race if we CAN'T all end together in a big finish line shoot, freezing our tuchuses off, and feeling dubious about the RD's method of collecting bibs in a big stack to determine the order of finishers?" The point is this: we're doing our best to hold on to some of our traditions and sense of community by organizing our annual event with safety in mind (and a few twists). Here's how Harry's Handicap will work this year:

RULES & LOGISTICS:

• Each runner will be assigned a handicap (X min) which will be revealed to them via email on the morning of Jan 1. This number may or may not mean anything to you; we suggest not thinking too hard about it.

• You must run 1 loop of the park and submit your time before noon on Jan 1.

• The start and end of the course is located on West Drive, just inside from the Bartel-Pritchard Square entrance

• In the spirit of virtual racing, you may run this solo or informally in a small group at your discretion and comfort level.

• RDs will take your race time and automagically determine awards for the categories below.

PRIZES/MEDALS:

• Top 5 finishers

• Top 5 closest to predicted time

• The youngest finisher

• The "grandest master" finisher

NEW YEAR's DAY ZOOM:

• Sadly, we can't have a pot-luck this year, but we can have a New Year's Day zoom (time TBD) for the awards ceremony, traditional telling of Harry stories, and a toast to a better year ahead.

Registration will be coming soon! As per tradition, we'd like to cap this event at 150 participants.