March 2021: One hour Virtual Grand Prix race

This was an unusual race for the GP series but very similar to the 20:21 race we did in January, the goal being to record the furthest distance you could cover in an hour of running. It was a great leveller in that you knew everyone would be putting the effort in over that hour regardless of speed and ability, which helped to keep motivation going during the race.

There were 33 of us who rose to this challenge and a wide spread of distances was recorded. This race distance also gives everyone their average speed in mph! Yet again there were good results in the age gradings with nine runners managing to get over 70%.

In first place for the men was Matt Orford, effortlessly running over ten and a half miles in the given time. Determined not to let Matt have an easy ride was Dan Floyd who came quite close to him in second place with a distance of 10.34 miles. Third place on the podium was filled by Joe Goodwin who could see the 10 mile mark in the distance but ran out of time, settling for 9.77 miles.

The women’s race saw a switch in positions from the last race with Hermione Green coming out on top with a distance of 8.77 miles. Esther Hunt gave a battling run to finish within touching distance in second place with 8.63 miles. Third place went to Radhika McCathie who found the pacing quite tricky but enjoyed the challenge, posting 7.53 miles.

In the middle of the race field there were some very tight results, with four women who finished in positions 6 to 9 separated by only 0.07 miles!

Fun fact: Did you know the world record for the One Hour Run is held by Britain’s own Mo Farah, who ran 13.25 miles on 4th September 2020. The women’s record is 11.76 miles set by Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan on the same day.

Well done to everyone who took part; the next race is the virtual 10k on the 17th to 21st March.

Full results can be viewed by clicking on the link below:

Mar 1hr Challenge results 2021