The Serpiesphere Virtual 5k is back! The Autumn series, race 2, has started

After a brief break following the Lockdown Championship series, the Serpiesphere virtual 5K is back for an Autumn series - and race 2 has started! This race will operate on the same basis as before, but will take place every fortnight instead of every week (so you have a 2 week period in which to record your best time!). The series will finish on Christmas day making it an 8 race series.

As with the previous series all participants (except scratch runners) will have a shot at a podium place for each individual race, as well as building up points which could get them a place on the podium for the series as a whole. Regular pariticaption is therefore recommended as points can be gained simply by participating.

How to submit your time

  • Enter your time before 22:00 on Friday 2 October for race 2 via this link: https://www.serpentine.org.uk/rdb/showvirtual5k.php?race=13528  Click “self-add result”, then scroll to find “Serpiesphere Virtual 5K” and choose “19 September 2020” (which includes all performances from 19 September to 2 October).
  • 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. 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.
  • Submit the photo or screenshot at this link (also before 22:00 on the cut-off day): https://www.dropbox.com/request/DAXAB7cOY3l0rrJEKbKn (this link can also be found in the same page as the “self-add result” page). Click the “+” sign on the page to ‘Choose Files’. 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. The handicap times of all runners who took part in the previous lockdown championship series will be used in this series.  If you haven’t done any of the previous series of races yet you are still welcome to join - you'll be a scratch runner for the first time week so you won't be on the Podium, but from next week onwards you will have a chance to win!

The Autumn series Championship – scoring system

The scoring system for this series will be based on both Handicap race position and net time. The caluculations will be done as follows:

  • Handicap race position: The bulk of the points are awarded here, with each week’s winner claiming 20 points, runner-up 19 points, down to the tenth place with 11 points. The rest will be given points in tiers – the top 10% outside of the Top Ten (i.e. Positions 11 to 19 this week as we had 98 finishers) get 10; the next 10% (Positions 20 to 28) get 9, and so on; until we reach the last 30% who all get 3 (hence the minimum you get for taking part is 3 points). Scratch runners get 1 point.
  • Net time position: These are bonus points for runners in the top 5 positions (men, women and age-graded performance) for net running time, scratch runners included. The winner gets 5, runner up 4, down to 1 point for a 5th place finish. Each runner can only get points in one category, so for example if someone is 3rd in age-graded and 5th of all men, the 3rd place in age-graded will count (with 3 points), and the men’s 5th place point (1 point) will go to the next fastest person.

Finally…

Please keep sending us your running pictures (which can be placed into the same Dropbox folder as above https://www.dropbox.com/request/DAXAB7cOY3l0rrJEKbKn). We will show these when we announce the results on the Facebook page and by email. The pictures we recieved during the lockdown champtionship series were fantastic and really helped provide a sense of connection. Whether you undertake your runs near or far, it's great for other members to see where you've been!

I’d like to thank my co-organiser of the Virtual 5k, Pete Mackintosh, for his help, and also welcome Baiju McCubbins onto the team. Feel free to get in touch with any of us if you have any questions.

Last, but not least, a big shout out should go to Ian Hodge for setting up the whole Serpiesphere 5k system (no mean feat given that the programming behind the handicap system is pretty complex!). Without him there would be no race.

Happy running :)

Sarah Maisey

Submitted: 19 September 2020

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