Race 1 Virtual Podium

We had a very clear winner of this first race, who took the lead and held onto it from the early stages of the competition. 

Congratulations to these 3 runners who took the podium places: 

1^st Place: Gary Hymns takes the gold medal, finishing with a handicapped time of 59:11 (net time of 21:41). This is a performance that particularly stands out because Gary was the only participant to show a clear improvement on his previous races and achieve a handicapped time of less than an hour. 

2^nd Place: Mariah McConnaughey takes the silver medal, finishing with a perfect handicapped time of 60:00 (net time of 19:00).

3^rd Place: Benjamin Griffiths takes the bronze medal with a handicapped time of 60:20 (net time of 18:35). 

Well done to the fastest runners of Race 9:

Fastest Male: Daniele Biagi holds onto this title from the last race of the previous Serpiesphere, with a net time of 17:36 (handicapped at 60:21). 

Fastest Female: Mariah McConnaughey also retains her title with a net time of 19:00 (handicapped at 60:00). 

Best age-graded performance: It’s a triple win this time for Mariah McConnaughey who looks set to continue her winning streak into the new series, finishing with an amazing age grading of 79.8%.

I’d also like to make a special mention of Ruth Corbett who made her Serpiesphere debut with a scratch performance in the first race of the Summer series. 

Results table

If you took part in Race 1, use the table below to check out your ranking at this early point in the competition. 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.

Photo competition

The winner of the first photo competition of this series is Hilary Walker, with this sunny shot of Rotten Row in Hyde Park. Rotten Row became famous as a meeting point for upper-class Londoners in the 18^th Century. It was originally called Route du Roi, French for King’s Road, but its name was corrupted over time into Rotten Row. 

Instructions for Race 2

There may be plenty of exciting sport to watch on TV at the moment, but I hope you’ll still find time to fit in a 5K race! If you haven’t already entered, you’ve still got a couple of days left to register a time.

Please also continue to share your running photos – don’t let the wet weather dampen your photography enthusiasm!

Race 2 is open now and will close at 10pm on Wednesday 30^th June.

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 Wednesday 30^th June here. Click “self-add result” and then choose “16 June 2021” (which includes all performances from 16^th to 30^th June).

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 30^th June (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)