Gary Collins Handicap Series is a 5k competition between club members. You can check the full description here - https://www.edmontonrc.co.uk/contents/797-gary-collins-town-park-5k

Another summer month – another event in Gary Collins 5k series. August saw the return of the grouped run at Wetlands 5k course, which were successfully introduced in July. The numbers were slightly lower this time, some people went on long-awaited and often delayed holidays. And some perhaps followed personal training plans in preparation to return to racing in the autumn.

The conditions at Wetlands proved rather tough this time. First day of running on Tuesday Aug-04 saw some high winds, which proved to be a challenge on the mostly open three-laps course. And the runs on Aug-06 London was fully under the heatwave with the temperature at the start of the first run tipping 28C. Despite that there were some great results on the day. The guest winner of the last month age-graded competition Anastasia did not run this time due to a niggle, but the series guests had a good showing again with Martin coming home in 17:49 (age-graded equivalent 15:35) with Ilia two seconds behind. The same run saw two ERC stalwarts Simon and James shelling it against each other like two heavyweight boxers in the ring. Both did not have the best of seasons due to injuries this year, but they gave it all on the day with Simon prevailing by three seconds. I am sure James already plotting some amends to this standing for the September races.

The ultimate highlight of the series came in the last Wetlands run on Thursday evening. Looking at the smiley determination on Ai Seng’s face the (socially-distanced) crowd of spectators sensed that something special might happen and they were not disappointed. Disregarding oppressive heat and the fact that she completed a 100 miles challenge a week prior Ai Seng blitzed the course in 24:04 thus setting a new club record in the V60 category. This result is only 14 seconds off her 5k PB and who would now bet against this being bettered soon?

Perhaps the competitors were extra spurred by the special decoration applied to the finish line by James’ daughters before the event?

The virtual run option was still available with several good runs coming there as well.

And now – the results:

Points standing after four events:

Just a quick reminder that the series consists of five runs and three best results are taken into account in the end of it.

If you have any questions/comments regarding the results of the race format – please drop a line to enquiries@edmontonrc.co.uk