Our virtual 5 mile relay saw 84 harriers, both juniors and seniors, compete over their own circuits in a bid to run the fastest time possible for their team.
And the runners did not disappoint. The vast majority of people ran significantly faster than their predicted times, some by nearly 5 minutes, showing that lockdown training really is paying off for all. ​

BMC Bannister Mile
Three Chiltern Harriers tackled the British Milers Club Bannister Mile last week.
 
The event, to commemorate Roger Bannister’s breaking of the Four Minute Mile at Iffley Road, Oxord on May 6th 1954, featured runs on road or grass, over the mile distance and there were 1191 finishers.
 
All runs were uploaded using Strava or other running apps.
 
Aran Davidson was the fastest Chiltern finisher logging 4.48.0, enough for =159th place.
 
Under 15 Thomas Redmond also had a good run to record 5.13.0, =393rd. U13 Callum Powell ran 5.55.0 but U23 Sam Howell could not run due to a fever.
 
Oxford / Cambridge Virtual Mile
U23 Harry Cox ran the second fastest Cambridge University time in an informal Oxford v Cambridge virtual mile, scorching along Copperkins to a rapid 4.35.0.

Don't forget that we are hoping to use these entries to 'spread a little goodness' on behalf of Chiltern Harriers. Please show your support for our wartime generation, by donating here: bit.ly/CHACVEDay75

​"Never was so much owed by so many to so few."

​RESULTS of the Virtual 2.6 Mile Relay
Another good turnout of 120 runners from across the club took part in the Virtual 2.6 Mile Relay last week.

Teams consisted of ten, so each team ran a combined 26 miles, equating to the London Marathon distance of the last Sunday in April.
 
The winning team featured mostly adults – Tom Dixon (14.54), Alice Brown (16.58), Dave Martin (18.55), Angela Hughes (23.02), Ian Lawson (16.52), Ellie Bates (16.19), Neil Bates (17.28), Andy Hickman (15.58), Tom Powell (16.14), and Andy Wiseall (15.24).
 
The fastest individual time came from U20 Angus Williams with an excellent 13.28. In-form Senior Aran Davidson ran another great time of 13.33 and U20 Cameron Reid was third fastest with 13.52. Other great times amongst the males came from U15 Archie Pinder (13.54), U15 Euan Pinder (14.00), Senior Will Perkin (14.03), U15 Thomas Redmond (14.13), Senior Nick Hughes (14.14), Senior Harry Cox (14.23), U15 Leon Doran (14.32), U17 Will Shield (14.48), U17 Thomas Askey (14.56), and U20 Max McGarvie (14.59).
 
Top female time was again U15 Zoe Gilbody with 15.00. Other great times in the female runners came from U15 Frankie Baxter (15.47), Senior Hannah Wardley (16.00), U15 Maddie Hughes (16.08), U17 Holly Henderson (16.09), Senior Ellie Bates (16.19), U15 Lesedi Nkoane (16.40), U15 Hannah Ashby (16.50) and U13 Lucy Wilkinson (16.58).

Chiltern Harriers have gone to town on the creativity front this week! We wanted to know what our members were doing in lockdown, and to show us them doing it in their kit. Well, they didn't disappoint. Enjoy this selection of videos and 'still life' submitted on social media. Sound needed.

UPDATE: The Results Are In!
1st Place: Neil Bates is working 9-to-5
​2nd Place: Ben Hetherington's Barefoot Boy
3rd Place: t's Raining Men in Alex's life 

Meanwhile junior athlete Savarnah Pandya has run a marathon this week. Savarnah ran just over 6k everyday for 7 days around the local fields and roads where she lives. She has raised more than £900 (!) for local charity, Florence Nightingale Hospice, which is suffering from the lack of fundraising events in the current circumstances.  Well done, Savarnah! If you want to sponsor Savarnah, please visit JustGiving.

Next weekend's #HarriersChallenge will be in honour of #VEDay75, so get thinking. Full details at the end of this post.

 TEAM RESULTS                      INDIVIDUAL RESULTS     

After the success of the Virtual 1k Relays last week which featured athletes from Nick Hughes’s group, Chiltern tackled a 2k Relays event this week. This saw a great turnout of 125 runners across 25 teams and included runners from Nick’s group, Steve’s group, Brian’s group, the senior group, and assorted coaches and parents.

Any 2k route whether on grass or road was permitted and there were a diverse range of circuits that the athletes attempted. Those with Strava could measure their efforts with precise accuracy.
 
The winning team ended up being Team 15 in 35 minutes 40, which featured good runs from Angus Williams (5.56), Katy Repper (7.06), Charlie Stone (6.44), George Brown (7.02) and Simon Dent. In second in 36.23 was Team 19 which included two of the fastest runs from Richard Slade (5.45) and Sam Howell (6.01). Completing the team were Daniel Munn (6.55), Jinaan Lockwood (7.32) and Millie Glenister (10.10). Flying the flag for the seniors in 36.53 in third were Team 24 comprising Ellie Bates (7.50), Neil Bates (7.42), Andy Hickman (6.55), Tom Powell (7.24) and Andy Wiseall (7.02).
 
On an individual basis there were some extremely impressive efforts. The top three were all within a whisker of each other with Richard Slade (5.45), Aran Davidson (5.46) and Will Perkin (5.47) all completing great runs. Others in the male top ten were Angus Williams (5.56), Sam Howell (6.01), Max McGarvie (6.09), Harry Cox (6.12), Ben Jackson (6.25), Luke Martin (6.29) and Will Shield (6.30).
 
These were all seniors, U20s or  U17s but there were also very strong runs from U15s Thomas Askey (6.32) and Oakley Denson (6.33) and there were a host of impressive U13 times led by Max Baxter (6.38). Leon Doran (6.46), Isaac Jessop-Tranter (6.48), Euan Pinder (6.48), Archie Pinder (6.48), Daniel Munn (6.55) Ethan McCall (7.02) and Alex Hughes (7.06) were just some of the other great U13 efforts.
 
On the girls side Zoe Gilbody again came out with the leading female time of 6.22. Others impressing included Frankie Baxter (6.46), Lesedi Nkoane (7.05), Katie Repper (7.06), Maddie Hughes (7.11), Marea Logan (7.11), Charlotte Gilbody (7.14), Hannah Ashby (7.25), Izzy Martin (7.31), Sav Pandya (7.32) and Jinaan Lockwood (7.32).
 
Amongst the seniors Hannah Wardley ran well to log 7.08 on a course with some dead turns which slowed things down.
 
Many other great times were logged by runners across the age groups and more virtual challenges are likely in the coming months.

What a bunch of musically-minded people you Harriers proved to be! We received a plethora of entries for the Ultimate Playlist of running themed tracks. Thank you for taking part!

Following a public vote, it can now be revealed that your top three were as follows:

Ellie Bates: A Life in Running
Abi Chapman's Race
Neil Bates' parkrun PB Playlist

Sue Elliott and Tim Dawson ​were highly commended.

You can view all of the entries below... who knows, maybe a few of these tracks might feature on the night at our Awards Evening & Social on 4 July? ;-)

Chiltern Harriers didn't disappoint when set the challenge of coming up with something creative for Easter.

Following a vote on a shortlist of six, the top three entries were as follows:

Katherine Day's poem
Alistair Melville-Smith's Easter Bunny Strava art
Katie Royals​' biscuit race 

Well done to everyone for their wonderful entries, which display the full range of CHAC creativity. All of them are included below. (Sound recommended for the videos.)