Gary Collins Handicap. Race 5 results and the series totals.

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

And just like that – the summer was over. Some say that the autumn is signified by colder temperatures and yellow leaves on park trees, but true ERC runners see the last race in the Gary Collins Series as a true sign of the new season. Mercifully the conditions were less hot than in August.

In order not to finish the runs in the dark the start time of the first run was moved to 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday. Did it make the occasion less competitive? Of course not. In fact – we had PBs galore. Andy Malleson blitzed the course in 20:09 – he is clearly going from strength to strength and other distances PBs are in his sights. Seasoned competitor Carol first named various unpleasantries of running a fast 5k, but then sported a big grin on her face and declared a new PB too. Richard Nice ran a splendid time of 19:40 in his effortless style (to borrow a bit from Naresh’s eloquent descriptions). Helen Gill is in stellar form and setting PBs for fun and Hannah Nice rounded the perfect PB-themed evening for the Nice family. I believe there were other personal bests there – please let us know and we’ll add these here.

The series leader Ai Seng did not set a PB this time, but her result was a one second improvement on the previous month – and thus a new age category club record on the 5k distance.

Finally – we welcomed two series newcomers who were captivated by ERC magic and since then become club members – Jonathan Valentine and Richard Gibson. Both put strong performances and with more races are likely to place high in the next year series.

GC Series Race 5 results:

And now is the time to address the burning question of the overall results. Just a quick reminder – the overall standing is defined by the three best points results in the series.

In Ai Seng we have a new series winner this year. This highlights the strength of the competition in ladies division – surely we will see some fierce rivalries in 2021.

There was no change in the top of the men table, but this result comes with a footnote. Best modified times this year belong to one of the guests – Martin. Perhaps this is a gentle cue for him to consider joining a certain local running club.