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.