Thirty four JJs heeded the call for the Virtual National Road Relays, fulfilling Jonny’s and Simon’s wish to complete teams in the National or Northern Road Relays, albeit virtually for now.
With one hundred and thirty clubs competing and 5337 runners registering for the ‘race’ over a solo time trail of 5km, many said that it was the hardest run that they have ever done. Jonny was quoted as saying “honestly horrible, I think I might quit running’ afterwards on WhatsApp, as he set the clubs fastest time of 17:32 with Joe Cherry and David Webster both breaking 18mins.
The race was peppered with International runners and with five sub-14 minute clockings, 103 athletes broke 15 minutes for the 5km distance, showing incredible depth throughout the field.
The woman as usual led the way with Molly and Laura setting blistering times of 19:07 and 19:14 respectively and being 6th and 7th fastest times in the club. The women finished 42nd in the 6 Stage race being 2nd North East club 16 seconds behind Wallsend. In the 12 Stage race, the JJ women were an amazing 19th and the first North East club beating Wallsend and Jarrow. Jo King was 16th in the W50 category, with an amazing run, in 21:24. Showing our international efforts, Mariia Akulich did her leg in Russia!
In the men’s 12 stage, we couldn’t match the women’s efforts of beating the North East competition but finished a credible 100thplace. In the Men’s O50 of four to score the JJ men were an amazing 16th place out of 44 complete teams.
There was also an Age Related race and the JJs finished 109th with an age related score of 74.87%.
Unfortunately the popularity of the race meant that the Organisers were unable to cope at times with everyone uploading and it did mean a few JJs were unable to get their times up. I have included their times in the list of JJs times below.
A great effort to get the JJs name on the National stage. Next year let’s hope we can do the Northern Road Relays – the Men’s 6 and Women’s 4 stage is in October with the Men’s 12 stage and Women’s 6 stage in March/April – in real race conditions.
Women
6 Stage
42nd 2:02:56 1833: Molly Pace, 1882: Laura Cheetham , 2394: Ella May Foreman , 2615: Jo King , 2616: Hannah Marshall , 2697: Jane Pugh
12 Stage
19th 4:23:32 1833: Molly Pace , 1882: Laura Cheetham , 2394: Ella May Foreman , 2615: Jo King , 2616: Hannah Marshall , 2697: Jane Lockett Pugh , 2875: Becky Price , 2917: Mariia Akulich , 3129: Emma Glover, 3149: Beth Deutsch, 3231: Emily Pass , 3368: Kate Winstanley
Men
12 stage
100th 3:49:09 1106: Jonny Law , 1153: Joe Cherry , 1282: David Webster , 1506: Kleo Tabaku , 1685: Ben Morgan , 1888: Paul Waddell , 1959: Robert Willers , 2043: Kirk Tierney, 2101: Simon Wells , 2110: Ben McMain , 2197: Laurence White , 2524: Geoff Blair
O50 Men
16th 1:22:39 2101: Simon Wells , 2197: Laurence White , 2524: Geoff Blair Blair , 2808: Tim Cook
Age Related
109th 74.87% 2615: Jo King , 1833: Molly Pace , 1882: Laura Cheetham , 2101: Simon Wells , 2524: Geoffrey Blair , 1506: Kleo Tabaku , 1106: Jonny Law , 2197: Laurence White , 1153: Joe Cherry , 1282: David Webster , 2808: Tim Cook , 2394: Ella Foreman
Full results here https://data.opentrack.run/x/2020/GBR/vnrrc/scores/
Athletics weekly race reports here https://www.athleticsweekly.com/event-news/leeds-city-herne-hill-virtual-national-road-relays-1039929304/
Men’s Virtual Race Relay commentary here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMYPc-snAZM&feature=youtu.be
1106 Jonny Law SM 609 17:32
1153 Joe Cherry SM 625 17:39
1282 David Webster SM 668 17:57
1506 Kleo Tabaku M40 173 18:21
1685 Ben Morgan SM 766 18:46
1833 Molly Pace SW 107 19:07
1882 Laura Cheetham SW 118 19:14
1888 Paul Waddell M35 285 19:15
1959 Robert Willers M35 294 19:27
2043 Kirk Tierney M35 306 19:40
2101 Simon Wells M50 75 19:47
2110 Ben McMain SM 829 19:48
2197 Laurence White M50 82 20:00
2394 Ella May Foreman SW 204 20:34
2524 Geoff Blair M55 43 20:57
2615 Jo King W50 16 21:14
2616 Hannah Marshall SW 250 21:15
2697 Jane Lockett Pugh W35 90 21:32
2740 Greg Stamp SM 898 21:41
2796 Roy Bearpark SM 904 21:53
2808 Tim Cook M55 59 21:55
2875 Becky Price SW 302 22:11
2917 Mariia Akulich SW 316 22:21
3129 Emma Glover W35 127 23:23
3149 Beth Deutsch SW 359 23:32
3231 Emily Pass SW 381 24:03
3242 Paul Inch SM 919 24:09
3368 Rob Dooley M45 259 25:06
3368 Kate Winstanley SW 399 25:06
3404 David Newman M55 89 25:27
Matthew Purvis 20:40
Kate Elizabeth Robson 22:24
Andrew Leitch 22:56
Matt Larkin 26:56