England Athletics Virtual 5k Champs

Sam clocked 19:02

 

Four members of Grantham Running Club joined nearly 3,000 other runners for the England Athletics Virtual 5km Championships. The virtual race was run over a 3 day window with an array of limitations including; no track runs, no more than 3 laps of any route and no more than 10m net elevation loss.

Tommy's time was 25:12

Sam Jepson-Rivers and Andrew Pask decided to meet (socially distanced) and try to re-create some actual race-like conditions. Starting from the Crown & Anchor in Welby the pair aimed to work off each other down Church Lane and back. The contest however was over from the halfway turn point with Sam now pulling ahead of Andrew and gaining more and more confidence. With his first sub 19min 5k insight, Sam pushed hard through the final 800m to narrowly miss the sub 19 mark but still post a PB time of 19:02. Andrew now out of sight finished with a solid enough 19:49.

Next was Warren Stark, a man who loves the 5k distance and is sorely missing parkrun which has not been run since the March lockdown. His time of 23:26 was some way of his best but he will take it as a step forward after recent injury struggles.

Finally it was Tommy Napier who chose the quiet Harrowby Hall Lane/Turnor Rd for his attempt. Tommy’s time of 25:12 was within range of his 2019 best and strong enough to place him 85^th in the M55 category, the highest age finish of any GRC runner.

GRC Virtual Series Round 4, 5 miles

Tommy was delighted with his 39:32

Series 1 of GRC’s virtual series has drawn to a conclusion. Some incredible results were posted in the 5mile final round.  The best 3 scores out of the 4 races were needed for the series so some people could afford to sit this one out whilst others were chasing the points to wrap things up.

Matthew Williamson whilst chasing a top 3 finish on the overall leaderboard posted the fastest time of the round with an incredible 28:57. His time came as a huge surprise for Matthew as he was chasing a sub 30mins time for the first time during his charge around the Manthorpe Estate. Guest runner and new GRC member Elly Ellison stole the show with his ground shifting 31:19. This time represented a gigantic leap in form for the runner who’s recently celebrated his 50^th birthday and was enough to take the overall age grade win with a brilliant 76.83%.

Jenny McBain having already tied-up the series win could afford to sit this round out but sportingly decided to finish the series on a high. Her time of 33:35, her only attempt at the distance for 3 years was enough to cement the outright ladies and VF40 win. Holly Durham, another ever present for the series took 2^nd overall with an impressive 35:44, her first attempt at the distance.

Further down the field some standout performances were run across all age and gender categories. Michelle Parczuk jumped to 3^rd in the overall series with her outstanding 37:24, a time 13s inside her official PB. The fast improving Naomi Jepson-Rivers was another to grab the attention with her 38:24, a time over 1min 30s inside her official PB. This adds to her PB times in previous round for 5km and the 1 mile. Naomi will without doubt be relishing the prospect of series 2 where she’s sure to go even faster. Tommy Napier was delighted with his time of 39:32, his first under the 40min mark and his strongest score of the series.

Other category winners who were:

Stefan Latter – VM40, 34:22

Caroline Davies - VF50, 38:47

Paul Jepson - VM60, 38:30

Full results:

Andrew Pask 32:49, Sam Jepson-Rivers 32:55, Joe Diggins 32:56, Paul Rushworth 35:20, Alan Carley 35:24, Mark Hillson 37:09, Ben Mason 39:47, Vicki Ball 40:35, Warren Stark 40:38, Helen Brown 40:40, Stuart Baty 40:44, Keith Measures 41:12, Anthony Boyle 41:16, Sarah High 42:51, Mark Rice 43:50, John Nevard 44:10, Fraser Marshall 46:15, Gordon Geach 46:24, Tracy Webb 49:55, Stephen Fay 51:51, Yvonne Buckley 56:42, Becky Rice 59:13, Simon Hartley 1:01:20.00.

In the overall series standings, the top two remained unchanged after Round 4 with Jenny McBain holding 1st and Gerry Hyde retaining 2nd place. Michelle Parczuk jumped up to take a share 3rd place with Caroline Davies. Congratulations go to our Series 1 podium finishers.

1. Jenny McBain 599

2. Gerry Hyde 595

3. Caroline Davis 588

3. Michelle Parczuk 588

GRC Virtual Series Round 3 – 1 mile

An impressive 49 members took part in the penultimate challenge of the GRC Virtual Series bring total participation so far to 71 members. The challenging and teasing classic distance of the mile allowed members to really open up the pace without worrying too much for endurance. With most runners choosing a point-to-point course, many fell victim to the strict no greater than -30ft descent rule meaning they had to go again on another route. Having two weeks to complete the distance, runners were often seen having multiple attempts at the challenge.

Grant Davies stole the overall win with a track attempt during the final hours of the challenge with a national standard 4:40.  In second place was the rapidly improving Matthew Williamson in a time of 5:07 followed by Sam Jepson-Rivers in 5:21, running what would have been a PB had it been an official race.

As with the previous two rounds, the first lady was the incredible Jenny McBain in a time of 5:40. This was enough to cement 2nd place in the points leaderboard for the round and secures her positon at the top of the overall standings after 3 rounds. The next fastest lady was GRCs Ultra lady, Holly Durham with an impressive 6:15, a time Holly was rightfully proud of. Then it was the very fast veteran Caroline Davis in 3^rd with a jaw-dropping 6:48.

Some standout performances from further down the results include Vicki Ball and Julie Gilbert. Vicki, a graduate from GRC’s 2018 10 weeks to 10k course continues to improve at an impressive rate. Her 6:51 for the mile was a giant leap in standard and just reward for all of her ‘lockdown’ training. Julie competing in the VW50 category was anther to show a giant leap in form with her impressive 7:27 and finishing 8^th lady and clearly delighted with her time.  

Next up is the final event of the 4 race series, the 5 mile challenge. The same rules on social distancing will apply as per previous events.

Overall results: 1 Grant Davies SM 04:40, 2 Matthew Williamson SM 05:07, 3 Sam Jepson-Rivers SM 05:21, 4 Joe Diggins M35 05:29, 5 Gav Meadows M35 05:40, 5 Jenny McBain W40 05:40, 7 Gerry Hyde M55 05:45, 7 Andrew Pask M35 05:45, 9 Jack Dodwell SM 05:48, 10 Ben Hatherley M40 05:49, 10 Cameron Hoggan SM 05:49, 12 Richard Payne M35 05:58, 13 Sam Dodwell SM 05:59, 14 Alan Carley M50 06:02, 15 Stefan Latter M45 06:03, 16 Holly Durham W35 06:15, 17 Paul Rushworth M40 06:25, 18 Mark Hillson M50 06:27, 19 Warren Stark M45 06:38, 20 Caroline Davis W50 06:48, 20 Craig Drury M45 06:48, 22 Naomi Jepson-Rivers SW 06:51, 22 Vicki Ball SW 06:51, 24 Michelle Parczuk W45 06:52, 24 Paul Jepson M65 06:52, 26 Keith Measures M65 06:57, 27 Tommy Napier M55 06:58, 28 Helen Brown W40 07:10, 28 Ben Mason M40 07:10, 30 Stuart Baty M45 07:11, 31 Edward Jepson M35 07:21, 31 Kristofor Blake M35 07:21, 33 Mark Rice M40 07:22, 34 Anthony Boyle M50 07:23, 35 Fraser Marshall M45 07:25, 36 Julie Gilbert W50 07:27, 37 Rosalind Sadler W45 07:31, 37 Jacqueline Anderson SW 07:31, 39 Rachel Pattison W50 07:35, 40 Vicki Hardy W35 07:39, 41 Phillip Crowcroft M45 07:46, 42 John Nevard M45 07:55, 43 Stephen Fay M55 08:20, 44 Kate Marshall W45 08:34, 45 Tracy Webb W50 08:51, 46 Sara Pask W35 08:53, 47 Yvonne Buckley W55 09:45, 47 Becky Rice W40 09:45, 49 Simon Hartley M50 10:52.0

After three rounds the series leader board is as follows..

1 Jenny McBain W40 599 points,

2 Gerry Hyde M55   595 points,

3 Paul Jepson M65 581 points