Virtual 10 Miler - 'Michael Page' NWFPAC 2020 Championship - Race #4
- Claire Richardson, Mazars
- Jun 21, 2020
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 9, 2020
As the COVID-19 lockdown continues, as well as the endless cancellation of races, it seems more and more likely that virtual races will become the norm for the rest of 2020. However, let’s all stay hopeful that we can soon have some normal racing conditions and scenarios – even if that does mean waiting in the dreaded portaloo queues!
Our fourth race of the NWFPAC 2020 Championship was due to be Race the Train from Bury to Rawtenstall that would have included a climb of over 700 feet over 10.5 miles. Of course, this had to be switched to a virtual 10 mile race, which could be done wherever you want during the weekend of the 20th /21st June.
The key rule was we had to run it on your own (i.e. no utilising another runner to help with pacing or to provide a race element) which to be honest wasn’t a problem for me, having spent the majority of lockdown up in the North East where I don’t know another runner for many miles! Despite that, I did have a few people to interrupt my run, bringing my elapsed time to 1 hour 40 instead of 1 hour 21 minutes – gutted!
As this was my first NWFPAC virtual race, I now know for the next one to ignore everyone who tries to speak to me or phones me during the run! Although, saying that, the weather was very hot and humid, so the chance of a ‘rest’ was highly welcomed!
When the results came in, a healthy total of 23 runners took part in the race, although this was slightly less when compared to over 30 runners for the previous month’s 5km – maybe the idea of running 10 miles on Father’s day weekend in the heat was a reasonable excuse for skipping this race out for a lot of the men?!
Out of the women’s group, Charlotte Haworth took the fastest time award with a very impressive 1 hour 17 minutes, and Nicola Boorman took the largest elevation award with 673 feet of elevation gain, mimicking the Race the Train elevation very well!
Out of the guys, Byron Edwards took first place for a smashing time of 59.49 and Richard Lamb took the greatest elevation gain with a monstrous climb of 1,224 feet! Sam Vincent came very close to Byron with a second-place time of 1.02.58, followed next by Stephen Grice, who won the three man race who all achieved finishing times within 25 seconds of each other; Stephen Grice 1.06.12, Charlie Batho 4th place with 1.06.29 and Tim Shaw 5th place with 1.06.37.
In other close battles, Adrian Rogers edged 8th position with 1.12.13, with Dave Simmons finishing 45 seconds behind him on 1:12:58 and Alan Reynolds only 5 second behind Dave on 1:13:03. Alan Budenberg, Tim Hayle and Leo Bunge had their own three man race for 12th to 14th positions, finishing within 19 seconds of each other – Tim beating Leo by only one second with a time of 1.16.45.
In the team championship, Byron’s win and Jill’s 4th place secured a fantastic 37 points for Run on the Bank. Charlotte’s win and Gareth Davies 6th place meant an enviable 35 points for Hold the Front Page, whilst Nicola and Adrian’s runs for Knights that used to say TP scored them an impressive 35 points.
Well done to all those who ran last weekend and we hope to see you for race #5 in July!