Virtual 5k - 'Michael Page' NWFPAC 2020 Championship - Race #3

And so as Coronavirus put paid to our third Championship Race of the NWFPAC 2020 season, the decision was made to replace it with a “virtual 5k”. On paper this was a pretty straightforward challenge – run 5k at some point in a 3 day period, post your time, see how you get on against your peers. As race weekend approached however, it became clear that the mental challenge would at least rival the physical one.

So many decisions to ponder.

Firstly, the route…

• How can I make sure I finish within 100m of where I start?

• What if I pick a course with zero elevation?

• Will I be castigated by the rest of the group?

• Will any points gained by narrow margins be tainted?

• Will I feel dirty?

• With valuable team points up for grabs, do I care?

• Is Charlie really scoping out his route three times before racing it?

• Seems less Lethargic Hare and more Cunning Fox?

Secondly, the timing…:

• Do I go early in the time window?

• I’d be able to put my feet up for the weekend, but I’m showing my hand to everyone else.

• Do I leave it until Sunday night and see what I need to beat?

• Could I do it Friday morning and then do a re-run on the Sunday night?

• Would that result in disqualification, or accusations of poor sport, or both?

And just when you thought the mental torment might end once you’d clicked stop on your Garmin (other running watches also available), how wrong you’d be. In the immediate aftermath, you had the It’s only recorded 3.10 miles – I’ll cry real tears if that puts me at 4.99km!

Followed by at least one night of waking in a cold sweat with the thought that, lulled into a false sense of security by Dave having given you kudos and commented on your run, you might’ve forgotten to email him a screenshot of the race!

And even when you’d had confirmation from Dave that your 5km run had been received, you then had the nervousness of checking the group runs on Strava to see who else had competed and what time they’d done…

• Sam Vincent’s definitely going to beat my time if he races, but he seems not to be – is he waiting for the 11th hour to break my heart and push me further down the leaderboard in some strange inter-recruiter powerplay, or is he simply training for something else?

• And how would I feel if my namesake beat me by a mere TWO SECONDS?

Thankfully the end of the bank holiday weekend came and went relatively quickly and there was no more running or thinking that I could do, other than think about how I could get some of my feelings across in the race report in the hope that maybe, just maybe, a few others had overthought the challenge just as much as I had.

When the results came through, there had been a fantastic turnout – with over 30 of us posting times. It was also great to see so much kudos, comment sharing and encouragement from those within the group to each other.

In the gentlemen’s race, Byron Edwards took the maximum points by some way with an incredibly speedy 16:22; both Steve Henderson and Michael Mannings went sub-17:30; Charlie Batho edged out Tim Shaw by a matter of seconds, both going sub-18:30; and 6th, 7th and 8th were separated by less than 10 seconds. It was great to see ten runners go sub-20, and the next finisher Chris Carter running a 20:10 PB!

Slightly further back Alan Reynolds secured an extra point by only two seconds from Tim Hayle, whilst Dave Simmons did the same to Rob Dawes. The narrowest margin came towards the back of the pack however with Adam Barnes securing the higher place by a single second from Ian Waddingham. Well done to Adam and to Arvind Mahendran who, like Chris, ran PBs. A special mention too to Ash Richardson and Ian Riggs who both decided to do their races up hills, gaining 176ft and 168ft respectively – kudos to you, gents!

The ladies’ race saw a disappointing turnout, though I’m sure Charlotte, Nicola and Jill didn’t mind as it meant they each secured at least 18 points in the team championship! Charlotte was way out on her own at the front in an impressive 22:55 (claimed whilst also gaining 158ft in elevation), Nicola Boorman ran in 2nd and Jill Hickson in 3rd.

In the team championship, Byron’s win and Jill’s 3rd place secured an enviable 38 points for Run on the Bank. Charlotte’s win and my 8th place meant a pleasing 33 points for Hold the front, Page, whilst Charlie and Gareth’s narrow mini-victories secured Lethargic Hare 31 points. Nicola and Adrian’s runs for Knights that used to say TP scored them 22 points, whilst Adam and Dave scored 5 points for Zut financières. Other teams had to make do with a single scorer.

Special thanks to Dave who will have had a more taxing job than usual pulling the results together – nice one Dave!