MAC members distract themselves from lockdown by entering England Athletics Virtual Team relay

After encouragement from one of its members, Neil Muir, Maidenhead Athletic Club (MAC) entered a team in the England Athletics Virtual Team Relay event last week.

Some 47 MAC members took part in the event, each running five miles, and Neil said that getting out on dark, wet January days had been a fun distraction from life in lockdown.

The event involved some of the biggest running clubs in England. Together the team raced almost nine full marathons, significantly outnumbering rivals Reading Roadrunners both in distance covered and members on the start line.

“It was a fantastic achievement and bodes well for MAC participation in live races later this year,” said Neil.

“We were competing with 127 other running clubs from across the country for a top 50 qualifying place, and the chance to do this all over again next month in the Nationals. Team scores were calculated from the speediest 4 females and 4 males in each team.”

MAC came tantalisingly close to a qualifying place in the team competition, finishing a respectable 65th out of 128 teams. With a score of 4hrs16mins they were less than 10 minutes outside of the qualifying time, with Reading Roadrunners taking 47th place.

There were also some impressive individual results across the age groups. Pauline won her age group and Dave Waterman, fourth, Laurence Miles, 17th, Chris Lewington, 19th, Linda Sculz, 36th, Matt Davenport, 37th, and Chris Ellis, 40th, all finished in the top 40 for their respective age groups.

“Indeed, there wasn’t a single member of our team who didn’t put in an impressive performance and we are proud of you all,” Neil added.