Numerous reports of dodgy GPS signals, heavy rain storms, slippery conditions caused by falling leaves and runs sabotaged by a range of pedestrians can only mean one thing – there had to be a  virtual EAC race taking place!

Over the course of a week a total of 39, 5K times came their way to me, which is a great turnout now that the coldness of Autumn has set in.

We would have had one more to make it a nice round 40 had an OAP not caused a bike to swerve in to the path of Virtual GP handicap champion Robin Kyle as he was nearing the end of his race – life isn’t easy at the top, so I was glad to hear my recruits did well to make sure Robin didn’t take two titles in a row.

After putting the 39 successful times (and 1 DNF!) through my actuarial spreadsheets I’m pleased to announce that Eilidh Gillanders

 came out on top to take the title of McDonald 5k Handicap Champion 2020 

I’m sure you’ll all join me in congratulating Eilidh, who has progressed strongly and consistently over the Summer – completing all six Virtual GP races before going on to smash her 5K pb this week.

Alex regularly tells us about the importance of consistent training and I think this is a great example – the line graph I’ve added shows Eilidh’s “predicted 5k time” for each of the 7 races, gradually chipping away and getting nearer and nearer to a long term goal of going sub 20, which I’m confident isn’t too far away.

Lots of other great performances out there, with strong runs close to PBs seeing Anne Mckenzie Duncan and Owain Williams take the silver and bronze positions.

Away from the handicap nobody managed to edge out Staurt Johnston and Chloe Cox’s early benchmarks of 16:35 and 18:32 respectively, although lots more fast times out there so hopefully everyone can look back and feel pleased with what they put down.

Last note is finally just a quick one from me to say thanks to everyone who took part, helped organise the event and sent me one of many messages during the week – genuinely means a lot that the handicap has helped keep a lot of you motivated and I look forward to doing the next one again in a few months, whether it be back to racing as we know it or a “virtual” scramble to be first over the line again.

Stay happy, stay healthy and keep on running 
Peter Simpson