In recent years Tonbridge have been a permanent fixture at both the National Cross Country and Road Relay Championships with wins and podium places from every age group from U13 to seniors.

The most recent being the 2020 National XC where the senior men and U13 girls both won to show the depth and range the Kent club has. In recent weeks it has been the Virtual National Road Relays where Tonbridge were 6th in the Women’s 6 stage and 3rd in the Men’s 12 stage.

So how did the VRR Champs come about?

“It started with a conversation on Facebook or Twitter, an idea to replace the National Road Relays on 4th April, but it ended up being a lot bigger than we expected”

Over 5000 runners entered, in local parks, along UK coastlines, around tiny carparks and even at altitude in the US to represent their clubs and be part of the inaugural Virtual National Road Relay Champs last week.

“Initially we expected about 3-400 people. James McCrae led, with great support from Jonny Currie and Massi Dendani, and they asked my opinion on a few things, but we really had to do things by the seat of our pants at times.”

“Open Track contacted us and really had to do a lot of work on the fly to make it work with the big numbers, but they were fantastic.” The full results can be seen here and there’s performances from 13:38 all the way up to 53:46, which is great to see as everyone could get involved.

The event, which has already raised over £9,300 for NHS Charities Together did invoke some criticism but the majority saw the benefits and it certainly brought plenty of enjoyment to the runners involved.

“We moved it to a window of a few days to stop people potentially congregating in the same place,” highlighted Hookway, “everyone might have gone to a local parkrun route or car park. Matt Bergin set up the Just Giving page to add the charity aspect too.”

We need to trust the next generation

“One thing it showed me was there is a mass of passionate, very capable people in their 20’s who deserve a chance to push this sport forward,” said the Tonbridge coach. “We have data analysts, app builders, film makers and a whole host of distance runners who can bring those skills into our sport, help with engagement and getting people interested in distance running.”

People are clearly willing to give their time and expertise to the sport we all love, but sometimes these people are not given the chance to make the difference they can. Many want the sport to remain the way it was “in the good old days”.

“The Tonbridge Twilight Meeting last August were the first since the mid-80s. We found an old programme and someone came to me with the idea. As long as I didn’t have to do all the hard work I wanted to help.”

“We had 12 people come together from the club to make that happen and we all met around a dining table, discussed it and everyone had their jobs. Then we all went away and got on with it.”

Photo: Andy Peat

Even the bus driver is excited

Talking to Hookway it’s clear the community around Tonbridge AC is something he’s very proud of, and rightly so. It’s this club mentality and the trust in each other that allows progress to happen. It’s also why the club are a regular feature in any club relay or XC championships.

“When we go to the National Cross country its not just about the six scorers. We have 200 people travel and maybe 140 of those are running and the rest supporting.”

“Everyone is involved, whether they’re at the front or finishing 1800th, it’s a team effort and they feel part of a Championship winning side. Even the bus driver gets excited.”

It’s obvious that Hookway plays a major part in the success of his club and a lot of that is down to how engaged the athletes stay. “When they move away for work or university I work hard to stay in touch.” and it’s working.

“For the Virtual Road Relays there was a lot of banter on the club whatsapp group. Close to the deadline there were some who hadn’t run yet but they knew their responsibility to the club, but also their club-mates.”

Putting in a shift for the club

One shining example of this is US-based James West. The 3:35 1500m man had an absolutely storming start to 2020 and the Corona virus epidemic certainly put a spanner into the works for his final NCAA year in Oregon.

Now training at altitude in the US, the speedster knew he’d struggle to contribute for the A team in this relay, but still gave it his all and helped the Tonbridge B team to a podium spot.

It reminds of the the quote from US basketball coach John Wooden, ““A coach’s primary function should be not to make better players, but to make better people.” At Tonbridge it feels like the coaching is an embodiment of that. They all work together to be better.

“I was proud of the club, they all got involved. We’re a club that focuses on the championships and they get that,” smiles Hookway, “and whilst it is an individual sport in lots of ways, in my experience, a great requirement is to feel part of something.”

And that is what is clear, from the virtual relays, the championship winning teams and the individual runners achieving remarkable results, Hookway is making sure they feel part of something bigger.

In a time when we might be physically distant from each other, we need to work together and come out of this stronger as a running community if we want our sport to survive.

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The Covid 19 pandemic has caused all competition, as we know it, to come to a halt. This has, however, resulted in the rise of a new form of running competition; Virtual Races.

We at the University of Edinburgh Hare & Hounds running club, organised the “Scottish Virtual Road Relays” last week and were amazed at the caliber of competitors we managed to attract for this 4x5K relay event. Some of times recorded would have sent ripples through the UK running scene had it been an official race.

Simple concept

The concept was simple, record a 5K run on Strava or Garmin and send us the screenshots of your team of four. The four times were then added together and a results table was created.

Of course there were rules. Only elapsed times would count, no significant net elevation drop and all government regulations and social distancing guidelines had to be abided by. Another rather unique element we added was that teams could be made up of runners from a mix of different clubs, one that made for some interesting team selections.

What we asked for in return was a small donation to SAMH (Scottish Association of Mental Health), a charity we felt, given the current state of affairs, would be great to raise money for and publicise about.

Getting the message out for people to keep healthy, both mentally and physically, while doing so in a safe manner that was in line with Government advice, was something we really wanted to do.

Fantastic support

Our event got shared by clubs across the county, as well as some English Universities who got involved. This was also massively helped by a member of the club. Daniel Smith, who is a professional photographer, produced a fantastic video to promote the event. We were also thrilled to get the support of Run and Become who also provided us with pineapples for prizes!

2 more sleeps…#socialdistancing
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Credits Dan Smith Photography pic.twitter.com/mpKWqoIo4P

— E.U.Hare and Hounds (@EUHareHounds) March 30, 2020

Credits Dan Smith Photography (Facebook & Instagram @Dan.Smith.Photograph)

In the end 132 teams entered and 540 runners took part. Not only did this attract many club runners but many top internationals tried their hand at virtual racing too.

Our list of entrants included one Olympian, one Commonwealth Games athlete, eight GB internationalists, upwards of 20 current Scottish international, one English international and one Canadian international.

Dundee Hawkhill & Metro Aberdeen take top honours

The Men’s team winners were Dundee Hawkhill Harriers (James Donald, Kris Jones, Jamie Crowe and Ryan Donald), followed by Cambuslang Harriers (Grant Sheldon, Ryan Thompson, Jamie Mackinnon and Craig Jardine) in second and Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds (Jack Leitch, Elisha De Mello and Callum Tharme) in third.

Metro Aberdeen (Nicola MacDonald, Fiona Brian, Nicola Gauld and Ginie Barrand) won the Women’s race with Harie Oldies (Mhairi Maclennan, Rhiannon Kirk, Rebecca Johnson and Catriona Graves) in second and an Edinburgh University Hare & Hounds team called Flat Chested Flat (Holly Page, Katie Rourke, Zoe Pflug and Constance Nankivell) rounded off the woman’s podium in third.

International stars lead mixed category

In the Mixed category (composed of 2 males and 2 females), it was a team which included a GB and a Canadian senior internationalist in Sarah Inglis and Regan Yee respectively, that won.

Their team was called Wuhan Clan (Regan, Sarah, Adam Marshall and Ron Loewen) and were followed by Inverness Harriers Juniors (Megan Keith, Lucas Cairns, Anna Cairns and Angus Smith) in second. Bonked Hard (Harry McGill, Isla Calvert, Alastair Marshall and Georgia Ledingham) took the third mixed team position.

Sheldon and Potter record fastest ‘legs’

Individually, it was Commonwealth Games triathlete Grant Sheldon who recorded the fastest Men’s time in 13:38. This is a time which, had it been official, would have placed him 14th on the UK all time road 5K rankings. The second fastest time came from GB cross country and orienteering international Kris Jones in a time of 13:51, with Scottish National Cross Country Champion Jamie Crowe running a time of 13:59 to come third.

In the Women’s individual results it was Beth Potter who recorded the fastest 5K time. The GB Olympian who competed in the 10 000 metres at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in 2016 recorded a time of 15:23. This is a time that would have bettered her track 5000m PB by five seconds and would have also placed her 5th in the all-time UK rankings for road 5K.

Behind Beth was fellow GB senior international Sarah Inglis, who ran in the 5000m at the European Athletics Team Championships last year. Sarah recorded a time of 15:57 to finish ahead of Under 20 GB cross country runner Megan Keith, who ran 16:25 to finish with the third fastest female time.

Since this race, Scottish Athletics have announced a whole series of virtual running challenges, maybe this is just the start of the virtual race season calendar.

Who knows how low these virtual race times could go with no major events for top athletes to compete in?

Andrew Johnstone and Matthew Dailey. Scottish Virtual Road Relay Event Organisers. Facebook – @euhhnews. Twitter – @EUHareHounds. Instagram – @eu_hareandhounds

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The post Scottish Virtual Road Relays – Race Report appeared first on Fast Running.