Serpiesphere Virtual 5K – Results for Summer Series Race 2, and Instructions for Race 3
Well done to the 25 loyal runners who didn’t let the unseasonal June rain put them off entering the second race of the Serpiesphere Virtual 5K.
Race 2 Virtual Podium
It was great to see so many changes on the leader board this fortnight!
Congratulations to these 3 runners who took the podium places:
1st Place: Hilary Walker takes the gold medal, knocking more than 2 minutes off her previous best performance to finish with a handicapped time of 57:58 (net time of 37:58). After her incredible success in the first series of the Serpiesphere, Hilary appears to be on track to score highly in this fourth series.
2nd Place: Neil Bradshaw takes the silver medal, also making a significant improvement on his previous times to finish with a handicapped time of 59:17 (net time of 22:47).
3rd Place: Avril Riddell has been steadily improving her pace and grabs herself the bronze medal this time, finishing with a handicapped time of 59:32 (net time of 26:02).
Well done to the fastest runners of Race 2:
Fastest Male: Daniele Biagi continues his winning streak and knocks a few more seconds off his time, finishing in an impressive 17:12 (handicapped at 59:57).
Fastest Female: Victoria Brown regains the top spot, achieving a net time of 20:50 (handicapped at 60:50).
Best age-graded performance: It’s a double win this time for Avril Riddell who finished the race with a fantastic age grading of 77.9%.
Results table
For each race, handicap points are awarded ranging from 20 to 3, depending on where you finish in the handicap ranking. You also have the chance to score up to 5 bonus points if you achieve one of the top 5 fastest male or female times, or one of the best 5 age graded performances. Everyone who enters a time is guaranteed to score at least 3 points – except in your first scratch run when you will be guaranteed at least 1 point.
Congratulations to Daniele Biagi, Ben Griffiths and Neil Bradshaw who are topping the chart after the first 2 races of the competition. But don’t worry – there are still 6 races to go so there’s plenty of time to catch them up! Remember that you score points for every race you enter, so the more you run, the higher your chance of winning.
Instructions for Race 3
If, like me, you’ve been distracted by some fairly dramatic sport on TV over the past couple of weeks then don’t worry – you still have 3 days left to register a time for Race 3. With the tennis and the football now over, there’s no excuses not to fit in a 5K!
In case you’re training for an Autumn marathon and focussing on longer runs, it’s also fine to choose your fastest 5K from a longer run and enter this time, as long as you weren’t running as part of an organised race.
Race 3 is open now and will close at 10pm on Friday 16th July.
Follow the instructions below to enter:
1. Run 5K, anytime before the closing date. You can run on any route you choose, wherever you are in the world! Just don't choose a route with a significant net downhill.
2. Enter your time before 10pm on Friday 16th July here. Click "self-add result" and then choose "1 July 2021" (which includes all performances from 1st to 16th July).
3. 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.
4. Submit the photo or screenshot here - before 10pm on 16th July (this link can also be found in the same page as the “self-add result” page). Click “Add Files” and find the file you want to add. 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).
5. If you can, also upload a photo of somewhere along your running route. As we're geographically separated at the moment, this is a nice way to keep in touch with where other people are running. There will be special mentions and possibly even prizes for the most artistic photos.
6. Shortly after the race closing time, the Serpie computer system will magically calculate your handicapped time and award your points. You'll score at least 3 points for entering (or at least 1 point if you're a scratch runner), plus extra points depending on your finishing position.
7. Please make sure that you do not enter a time that you’ve achieved during a real-life race or event. It is fine to use a 5K time that you’ve run with a small group of friends, or a segment of a longer run, but it must be an independent run and not part of an organised event.
8. You’re welcome to run 5K more than once during the 2-week race period, and then choose your best time to enter. If you’ve already registered a time and then manage to improve on it, just click “edit” after selecting the race date, and change it your new improved time.
More information
Please email Sophie if you have any questions or need help entering your time.
Don't forget to follow social distancing guidelines during your races, and don't run if you have any symptoms of Covid 19.
Good luck everyone!
The Serpiesphere Virtual 5K team (Sophie, Alex and Baiju)
Submitted: 14 July 2021