While there hasn’t been a lot of racing activity recently due to the current lockdown, Exmouth Harriers do have three teams (one Men’s team and two Mixed teams) competing in a virtual marathon relay put on by Exeter’s City Runs.
The event is called the Ekiden Relays with each team completing six Stages of differing length... 1km, 3km, 5km, 8.2km, 10km, 15km totally the marathon distance of 42.2km or 26.2 miles.
There were also a few other virtual results from some Exmouth Harriers over the Christmas and New Year. The Whites made it a bit of a family affair.
In the European Masters 5km Virtual Challenge from December 26 – 31, Oliver White was second overall in 17.41 and he won the M35 category.
Des White was 17th overall and was second in the M65 category (plus he was in the GB M65 team that won their age group).
Alison White was 49th overall and was third in the W65 category (plus she was in the GB W65 team that won their age group).
It was a similar success story in the British Masters Athletics 10km Challenge, where Oliver White was 13th overall in 34.13 and he was 4th in the M35 category. Des White was 190th overall and was 2nd in the M65 category.
All three of the Whites are currently competing in the Lands End to John O’Groats 874-mile Virtual Challenge that started on September 27, 2020. Des has just completed 700 miles of the virtual journey and should be finished by the end of February with Oliver close behind on 624 miles, unfortunately Alison has had a few injuries and has completed 312 miles.
This follows on from their completion of the South West Coast Path 636-Mile Virtual Challenge and the Great Virtual Run Across Tennessee (1,000km) in mid-2020.
The next one for all three (starting on 1st February) is called the Journey of the Ring Virtual Challenge; 650 miles in New Zealand visiting the film locations used in the Lord of the Rings movie.
The virtuals are a great way of keeping the motivation going whilst real racing is on hold.