Runners get their fix with virtual races

With racing taking a break because of the lockdown, Perth Road Runners have filled the void by taking part in various‘virtual’races.

Last weekend, Scottish Athletics arranged the TruWealth Road Relay Challenge.

Entrants chose to run either 5k or 10k on a route of their choice and submitted their times to Scottish Athletics.

Team placings were then decided by the combined time from each club’s three fastest 5k runners plus the three fastest 10k runners, with two fastest V50 runners in each distance contributing to the ‘Masters’team.

Following up on their success over the winter season, the male PRR Masters team won their age category with some impressive performances.

Dave Knight and Eddie Torrie ran the 5k distance in 17:57 and 18:21 respectively, while Stuart Robertson and Duncan Ryan ran the 10k in 35:47 and 36:11. That was enough to see them finish 93 seconds ahead of their nearest rivals.

The senior male team finished in 15th place thanks to the combined 5k times of Campbell Hay (16:23), Dave Knight and Michael Souter (18:04), while Stuart Robertson was joined by Kevin Riddell (35:59) and Greg Simpson (36:01) in the 10k.

Also completing the challenge were Kevin Rogers (18:13) and Richard Ward (19:21) in the 5k and Ronnie Glen in the 10k (38:07).

The next Scottish Athletics virtual challenge takes place this weekend with runners being set the target of running as far as they can in 15 minutes.

With“total distance covered by club members”being one of the scoring categories, the club would like to encourage as many members as possible to get involved and log their distance.

As well as the Scottish Athletics virtual challenges, club members and their families have been taking part in a virtual race series organised by Mike Dales.

Each week since lockdown started, Mike has set a distance for members to attempt on their own chosen route and then submit their times to him.

So far, the distances have been 5k, 8k, 3k and 10k and there have been 78 members who have run at least one of the distances.

Duncan Ryan leads the way for the men with a total of 266 points, with a close battle for second place between Kevin Riddell (260 points), GregSimpson (258) and Michael Souter (256).

Not to be outdone by her dad, Rose Ryan is currently the lead female on 218 points, followed by Claire Douglas on 189 points and Tessa Ward on 160 points.