Corona Virus and events

So for the latest episode of "races are coming back, in a form, and not very far away from you, keep the faith" I did my marathon race/ time trail yesterday.

Was the same crowd that organised the event I used for my virtual London back in October, and also the 5 miler I did last week. Slight variation on the course for this marathon so only 3 laps of the super flat bit we did 5 laps of in October, with then an out and back of 5 miles before and after that section. Almost perfect weather, nice and sunny but not actually hot until later on, was a bit windy but from a different direction to normal around the area and we only ended up running into the headwind for about a mile and half on each lap. Was starting and finishing at a decommissioned nuclear power station and after parking up we had to queue up for our numbers, that was a bit slow but didn't really matter as you just started once you'd wandered up to the start area, queued up and waited your turn to be scanned and then go. In theory it was meant to be ordered to limit overtaking, but nobody really cared about that and you just started whenever.

Was just aiming to get around in a "safe" 3:07 which is what I think I'd need to be fairly certain of GFA for London 2022, but after a mile someone else pulled alongside me and as he spotted my blood glucose sensor on my arm and he was diabetic himself we ended up chatting diabetes and running for the next 15 miles and I was then going at about 6:40-45 pace rather than the intended 7:05's. I knew it was a bit tastier than I wanted to be going so let him pull away at 16 miles and eased off myself. Was very quiet country lanes for the whole route, but a few people I knew had cycled out to watch or were running backwards around the laps to get their own run in and spectate which was cool to see other people who are also missing the spectating of running too. The 5 mile return from the lapped section and I started to pick off a few more people who'd gone speeding past earlier on despite me actually now running slower, but as we all started at different times you had no idea where you were actually placed. About 4 miles to go I caught up with my buddy from earlier and he tried to tag on again but couldn't keep it going and eventually clocked a time 6 minutes slower than mine so must have really struggled those last miles.

Coming past mile 25 had the unexpected support of the wife and kid parked on the side of the road to cheer me on as they had got away from kids activities earlier than expected. Need to work on the kids cheering though as that consisted of shouting "my leg hurts" as I ran past, yes I know child, mine do too.

Clocked a 3:06:20 in the end which should be sufficient for next years London based on 2020 allocation of places, but now concerned that my calculations didn't account for the changes in championship standards which will reduce the GFA places. That I managed to back off after the faster than intended start and still bring it in with the planned time is a good sign though and if I keep some training going until October then I can try for a safer time then, but the pressure is off a bit now as I have a time to apply with. If GFA standards shift that much that I don't get in with 3:06 then so be it.

I think the end of June is going to be too soon for them to be able to make the call of a yes. If they were able to delay a decision until the beginning of August I'd be more hopeful of a positive outcome

The only thing the virtual entries help with is guaranteeing an income stream for DCM who potentially will have gone two years with no in person event to speak of.