Eno Equalizer - 2009

The eighth running of the Eno Equalizer race took place in Eno River State Park on Sunday January 18. Thirty runners and seven volunteers braved the 35-degree conditions but the rain/sleet held off and running conditions were good. The handicap system was a little different this year as we used a countdown watch for the start (thanks to Gary) and so the handicaps represented actual handicaps (slowest runner gets the largest handicap). As in previous years, each team was given a team handicap time but the runners were allowed to choose their own individual handicaps, so that the sum of the three individual handicaps for each team equalled the team handicap that they were assigned. Most people figured this out correctly, but John Jewell started out seven minutes ahead of his own declared handicap time, so his time was adjusted for the results below.

In the results below: "Hand." is the runner's individual handicap time; "Finish" is the time he or she crossed the line; "Actual" is the elapsed time from start to finish and "Predicted" is the time predicted by me before the race (that was used is determining the team handicap time). The official time for each team is the slowest of the three Finish times. Thus, the team consisting of Silas Hill, Mark Rhoades and Patrick Pearson won with 24:59, two seconds ahead of Darice Witherspoon, Mark Dessauer and Jason Figge. Since Darice finished more than 6 minutes in front of Jason, there was plenty of scope for that team to have won had they chosen slightly different individual handicap times. In all, just 62 seconds separated the official finish times for the first eight teams.

Individual fastest runners based on actual times: OM Jason Figge; MM Harold Hill; OF Katie Smith; MF Ann Miller.

Many thanks to the volunteers: Aline Lloyd, John Lloyd, Scott Herman-Giddens, Supatra Campbell, Gary Schultz, Barbara Hindenach and Tom Kirby.

Richard Smith, Race Director

Name                Age Hand.  Finish Actual  Predicted

Silas Hill           15   9:00  22:33  31:33  30:00
Mark Rhoades         40  12:00  24:34  36:34  40:00
Patrick Pearson      34   8:30  24:59  33:29  34:30

Darice Witherspoon   35  30:30  18:39  49:09  53:28
Mark Dessauer        41  10:30  24:20  34:50  35:20
Jason Figge          36   0:00  25:01  25:01  27:36

Mike Walsh           ??   8:00  24:49  32:49  32:18
Jim Hotelling        61  12:00  24:50  36:50  35:57
George Retsch-Bogart 56  10:00  25:09  35:09  36:17

Patrick Bruer        50   6:30  24:54  31:24  29:50
James Hoke           ??   9:00  25:06  34:06  35:24
Jerry Surh           69  15:00  25:30  40:30  40:09

Katie Smith          34  10:00  22:39  32:39  33:30
Ann Miller           52  11:00  23:58  34:58  36:45
Carolyn Huettel      44  13:00  25:39  38:39  38:54

Heiko Rath           39  10:00  23:39  33:39  34:06
Richard Wolfe        70  35:00  24:12  59:12  59:22
Doug Hensel          ??   4:00  25:40  29:40  30:34

Greg Sousa           39   4:00  21:53  25:53  29:15
Christopher Boyce    34  10:00  24:49  34:49  33:56
Karla Henderson      59  16:00  25:42  41:42  42:10

Susanne Willis       34  10:00  24:19  34:19  34:00
Harold Hill          40   5:00  24:20  29:20  31:00
John Jewell          52  14:00  26:01  40:01  39:10

Owen Astrachan       52   5:30  23:54  29:24  29:07
Ed Leydon            64  13:00  25:18  38:18  36:08
Trevor Johnson       35  13:00  26:59  39:59  41:30

Kate Kohler          34  12:00  27:49  39:49  37:30
Chris Gould          64   8:00  27:50  35:50  32:31
Ray Dooley           56   9:00  27:50  36:50  34:15