• News
  • News Archive
  • RSS Feeds
• Mailing List Digest

Serpiesphere Virtual 5K – Week 5 (9th to 15th May 2020)

Last week we had some great performances not just in London but much further afield.  We had our first American entry by Dan Mancini from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. Once again Carol Wu ran in the Alpine town of Sankt Anton am Arlberg in Austria (see below). There aren’t many more inspiring locations to run than these. Even more impressive is that given the geography, they both found relatively flat locations to run a good 5k. More on them below.

Well done to others who are running in other parts of the UK as well – like Gary Eaborn in Durham, and James Brown McNally in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. We have received lots of photos from your runs – thank you, please keep them coming! I will be showing the photos in our Saturday 11am Zoom café, with the best one picked for this weekly email (Note: by uploading your photos you have given us and the Club permission to use them). https://www.dropbox.com/request/DAXAB7cOY3l0rrJEKbKn.

Last week’s Virtual Podium

Congratulations to these runners for their Virtual Podium performances in the handicap race:

1. Anthony Lee – one of our trail-running regulars found form this week around Kensington Gardens with a time of 25:59 (handicapped final time 55:14 – an improvement of almost 5 minutes);
2. Carol Wu – our Alpine representative calmly ran into second place with a time of 29:17 (handicapped time 57:47);
3. James Turner – his route in Greenwich Park worked like a treat with a time of 21:08 (handicapped time 57:53).

Also, our fastest performers of Week 4 are:

• Fastest Male: Chris Wright – 16:17. Now only 17 seconds away, is he going to be our first sub-16 man in Serpiesphere?
• Fastest Female: Emilie Isaacs – 18:53. Another strong performance around Battersea Park.
• Best age-graded performance: Dan Mancini – 18:45; at 82.4%. Submitting late Friday night (his afternoon), our man in California described his own performance: “…Half a world away, lurking in the weeds like a black mamba* ready to strike …Mancini snatched away the victory in the 11th hour on a warm and sunny San Francisco afternoon while London slept”. Lacking a hard workout since the “shelter-in-place” order (Lockdown for Americans), this was a “rust buster” and he “had to dig deep” in the last mile. A well-deserved victory here. London – you’d better watch out!

(*Those who were in the Wednesday Zoom quiz should know the reference.)

Full results here: https://www.serpentine.org.uk/rdb/showvirtual5k.php?race=13484.

Well done to you all!

This week – How to submit your time

Thanks to most of you who have submitted time and evidence correctly. Just want to clarify one issue – submitting the screenshot on Dropbox does NOT mean you are on the results’ list. You need to self-add your time on the Serpentine website; we don’t use your screenshot to add your time (the website doesn’t really allow us to do so). Instead we check your time using the evidence you have submitted – like I emailed some of you last week to ensure your time and evidence match up.

To submit your time:

• Enter your time before 23:59 on Friday 15th May via this link: https://www.serpentine.org.uk/rdb/showvirtual5k.php?race=13485. Click “self-add result”, then scroll to find “Serpiesphere Virtual 5K” and choose “9 May 2020” (which includes all performances from 9th to 15th May).
• Take a photo or screenshot that shows your time and distance, this can be a screenshot of your Strava / Garmin result page, or a picture of your watch. Anything that shows your time and distance would be fine.
• Submit the photo or screenshot at this link (also before 23:59 on Friday): https://www.dropbox.com/request/DAXAB7cOY3l0rrJEKbKn (this link can also be found in the same page as the “self-add result” page). Click “Choose Files” or “Choose from Computer”. You do not need a Dropbox account. This will just ask for your name (so we can correlate your performance with the time submitted) and email address (so you’ll get a confirmation of upload).

Email me if you are unable to do so, I’m here to help. As long as the distance is a minimum of 5.00km (or 3.11 miles) and it shows a finish time, it will be accepted.

All members who haven't done the race yet are welcome to join - you'll be a scratch runner this week so you won't be on the Podium; from next week onwards you will have a chance to win!

The Lockdown Championship

Quick recap of the scoring system:

• Handicap race position: The Top Ten each week will get 20 (the winner) to 11 points (10th place). The rest will be given points in tiers – from 10 points down to 3. 1 point for a scratch run.
• Net time position: Top 5 positions in men, women and age-graded performance, scratch runners included. The winner will get 5, runner up 4, down to 1 point for a 5th place finish.

We will soon publish and update the points on the website, in the meantime here are the current top 10:

Matt Williams is still out in front with two Virtual Podium finishes – not bad for a high jumper! But with the chasing pack closely following and a couple of fast guys up there as well, we are a long way away from crowning the Lockdown Champion. Keep running – it could be you!

Serpiesphere Virtual Café – Saturday 16th May

Next Saturday we will once again be at the Virtual Café at 11am to chat, to catch up, and to announce the next Virtual Podium. Zoom meeting details will be shared later this week.

Once again thanks to my co-organisers Sarah Maisey, Nic Barberis and Pete Mackintosh. Any queries about the race, please contact me or one of us.

Happy running,

Hans Ho

Participation Representative (participation@serpentine.org.uk)

Submitted: 10 May 2020

Back