Regional and National Championships
Championship Races
Each year races are selected to be the county (e.g. Middlesex), regional (i.e. southern) or national (English or UK) championships at a number of distances, usually 5k, 10k, half-marathon and marathon. In recent years the London marathon has always been the UKA national championship. Faster Serpies are encouraged to compete in these races if possible and we hope to target these races with teams each year. We often get free places. At the national level it is currently quite confusing with the ERRA (English Road Running Association), UKA (via RunBritain) and England Athletics all organising championships at one distance or another, often on clashing dates!
Road Relays
In addition to the standard road races, there are also road relays organised each spring and autumn (between the track and field and cross country seasons), both regionally and nationally, to allow clubs to compete against each other directly. These are:
the SEAA 12 stage (men) and 6 stage (women) in Milton Keynes every March/April
the ERRA national 12 stage (men) and 6 stage (women) in Sutton Coldfield every April
the SEAA 6 stage (men), 4 stage (veteran men) and 4 stage (women and veteran women) in Aldershot every September
the ERRA national 6 stage (men) and 4 stage (women) in Sutton Coldfield every October
These races attract the best runners regionally and nationally and are a very high standard. They are the key races on the calendar where clubs measure themselves against their peers and the traditional athletics clubs take them very seriously indeed. Serpentine sends teams to the regional relays and, assuming they qualify, to the national events as well. These races are one of the best opportunities our better runners have to compete against the best since there are usually international athletes racing for some teams. They also provide wonderful 'sharpeners' for spring and autumn marathons.
Men's captain: Andrew Reeves
Women's captain: Victoria Crawford
RunBritain Grand Prix
The top 250 male and female athletes in each of the races gain points towards the overall grand-prix, which has a large pot of prize money. The 2012 races are:
Reading Half Marathon - 17 March
Bristol 10k - 5 May
London 10,000 - 27 May
Swansea Bay 10k - 22 September
Cardiff Half Marathon - 6 October
Leeds Abbey Dash - 17 November
See www.runbritain.com for further details.
Veterans (Masters)
In addition to the senior races, there are also vets (masters) championships at 5k, 10k, 10 miles, half- and full-marathon, selected by the BMAF (British Masters Athletic Federation). There are also separate vets races in the southern 6/4 stage relays in Aldershot and a national 6/4 stage relay championship in Sutton Coldfield each year (usually in May). Contact our vets' captains for further info (phone and email details in Serpiebase):
Women's captains: Pam Rutherford (FV35), Val Metcalf (FV45) or Jan Farmer (FV55).
In practice you can contact any of them whichever age-group you are.
Men's captains: Vacant (MV40), Lars Olsen (MV50) or David Smart (MV60).
Results
Results for Serpies in any of the individual races are held in our database as usual. Results for Serpies in the relay events are available in this spreadsheet. Detailed results are available on the following websites:
SEAA spring relays - www.mkac.org.uk
SEAA autumn relays - www.afd.org.uk
ERRA relays - www.race-results.co.uk
BMAF relays - www.bmaf.org.uk