Bedford and County athletes have taken part in two virtual races recently: the British Milers Club 3k Virtual Time Trial, and the British Masters 5k Virtual Relays.

Thanks to the recent relaxation of restrictions on sport by the government and England Athletics, Bedford and County A.C. is now able to further ease restrictions on training.  We are now operating as a Covid-19 secure environment under England Athletic's step 3 guidelines.  In order to achieve this, the club has had to appoint a Covid-19 officer, and club chairman Martyn Blackwell is acting in this capacity.  The main changes are that more athletes are now allowed in some zones, and that hurdles are now allowed in zones 1 & 2 on a Sunday only.  An overview of the updated policy is provided below (the fully policy is here).

There are several virtual races coming up during the next few weeks.  To take part in these, you generally need a GPS running watch, and a Strava or Garmin account.  The latter is free, although unfortunately GPS watches are not!  You complete your run in a socially distanced manner, and then upload your time.  Entry is often free, and sometimes there is the opportunity to make a donation to charity.  A virtual race is effectively a time trial, but with an edge to it because your aim is to get as high up the leader board as you can.  Some events are open to juniors – this usually requires a parent to accompany the athlete.  Explore the links below to find out more about three of the virtual races that are coming up over the next few weeks:

How to Renew Your Membership

If you haven’t already renewed your Bedford and County membership, you can do that now at a reduced rate.

Given the unusual circumstances this year, the club committee has decided on a 2 stage approach:

• Stage 1 is to ask now for renewal to the club at a reduced flat rate for the year, including EA (England Athletics) membership.
• Stage 2 would come later in the year when social distancing restrictions are relaxed, with the option of renewing the stadium pass with Fusion. We will not ask for anything further for the club element at that time and will be expecting Fusion to offer a discounted cost.

Bedford and County AC’s Senior Men finished in fourth spot in the Virtual National Road Relays, and the club’s Age Graded team finished one place higher to take third.

The ingenious virtual road relays were the brainchild of club member, Massi Dendani, who tweeted the main distance-running coach at rivals Tonbridge AC to see if they wanted to go head-to-head.  Things then snowballed – over 5000 runners across the UK entered, with around 130 men’s teams and 125 women’s teams taking part.

The virtual relays were fully compliant with social distancing regulations.  Each leg had to be run solo between Saturday 4th April and Wednesday 8th April.  Competitors were told not to drive anywhere to run, and were instructed to avoid busy places and park run routes.  Nearly all runners these days have GPS running watches made by the likes of Garmin and Tom Tom.  Each athlete had to find their own 5 kilometre course close to home, record their leg on their watch, upload it to the popular Strava or Garmin websites, and send a link to the organizers via the Open Track athletics website, which collated the results.  There were even time penalties for significant negative elevation (defined as 30 feet or more in the course of the leg).  The virtual relays also raised over £9,000 for NHS staff and volunteers caring for Covid-19 patients, as competitors supported linked JustGiving appeal in aid of the Association of NHS Charities.

The Bedford and County Men’s A team finished fourth with a collective time of 2:58.45, narrowly missing out by only ten seconds to rivals Tonbridge, who took third place.  The scorers were in finishing order: Daniel Jarvis (4th), Matt Leach (25th), Aaron Scott (31st), John Eves (57th), Darren Deed (91st), Ben Alcock (98th), Alfred Yabsley (116th), Ben Davies (119th), Jack Goodwin (127th), Ed Blythman (169th), Andrew Headley (176th), and William Mullins (232nd).

The Men’s B team finished a respectable 38th, recording 3:17:56.  The scorers were: Paul Mizon (239th), Harry Brodie (260th), Matt Bray (277th), James Minter (412th), Michael Harrison (471st), Will Mackay (491st), Craig Emmerson (634th), Charlie Palmer (685th), Richard Laursen (753rd), Jamie Webster (1025th), Erwan Weber (1047th), and Ewan Wilson (1306th).

The Women’s A team finished in 15th spot in the six to score competition with an overall time of 1:53:29: The scorers were Rebecca Murray (702nd), Alice Burgin (1552nd), Sue Bosher (1831st), Natasha Peters-Cooper (1900th), Ellie Still (1976th), and Tia Wilson (2286th).

The virtual nature of the event also encouraged the organizers innovate by calculating the clubs with the best age-graded team.  Age grading works by allocating a percentage score to each athlete based on how close their performance is to the world-best for their age.  On this measure, Bedford and County AC finished third – the age graded team had an average of 88.43%.  The scorers were Daniel Jarvis, Darren Deed, John Eves, Aaron Scott, Matt Leach, Rebecca Murray, Ben Alcock, Alfred Yabsley, Ben Davies,  Jack Goodwin,  Ed Blythman, and Andrew Headley.

Dan Jarvis was the top-ranked individual Bedford athlete, finishing fourth fastest overall with a wonderful time of 13:47, and an age grading of 94.2 %.  Rebecca Murray was the 10th fastest Senior Woman in 16:43.  Matt Leach (25th fastest in 14:28), and Aaron Scott (29th fastest in 14:33) also made the overall top 50.Other notable individual performance included:

• John Eves (14:44)- 5thin the M35 category.
• Darren Deed (14:58) - 2ndin the M40 category.
• Alfred Yabsley (15:03), Ed Blythman (15:16), Harry Brodie (15:33) and James Minter (16:00) came 13th, 20thand 26th and 43rd respectively in the M20 category.
• Charlie Palmer (16:42) came 50thin the M40 category.
• Sue Bosher (19:08) was the 18th fastest W35.
• Tia Wilson (20:18) was the 20thUnder 20 woman.

The virtual relays enabled competitive sport to blossom, raised money for the indispensable NHS, and fully complied with all social distancing regulations.

Following in Sir Roger’s Footsteps – The BMC Bannister Virtual Mile Time Trial
On 6th May 1954, running at Oxford’s Iffley Road track, Sir Roger Bannister became the first person to run a mile in under four minutes, a feat which many at the time thought impossible. In the years that followed, British middle distance running experienced a fallow period, and the production line of great milers ground to a halt. In 1963, the renowned coach, Frank Horwill, set up the British Milers Club, which aimed to promote middle distance running in this country through a network of coaches and elite races. The ‘BMC’ bore spectacular fruit in the late 1970s and 80s, as first Steve Ovett, then Seb Coe, Steve Cram, Peter Elliot and others dominated international middle distance running. Over a seven year period starting in 1978, three different Brits set mile world records and won European, World or Olympic titles over 1500m.