In a week in which the Bury AC men's team had hoped to be competing in the National Road Relay for the first time in more than 20 years, they had to make do instead with a virtual race.

With the COVID-19 pandemic putting a stop to all racing, an online competition was organised to allow clubs across the country to satisfy their competitive urges.

Athletes had a window of five days to submit a 5km effort using Strava or Garmin, with the fastest 12 times for each club to count.

The rules were clear. All runs had to be solo, athletes could not drive anywhere to run, could not run in busy parks and social distancing rules had to be observed at all times.

For the Bury athletes, quiet roads and empty car parks were the order of the day.

A total of 2,438 athletes competed, with 118 clubs fielding complete teams.

Of these, Bury finished a creditable 67th with an aggregate time of 3:32:47, the average time being 17:44.

The overall winners were Leeds AC (2:57:08 aggregate time) followed by Cambridge and Coleridge (2:57:44) and Tonbridge (2:58:35).

Bury's fastest runner was Josh Birmingham, who completed his run in 15:54, followed by team captain Byron Edwards in 16:29, which was 12th fastest in the M45 age category, and Luke Harreld in 17:32.

The remaining scorers were Andy Mellor (16:56), Jon Evans (16:58), Ben Coop (17:06), Paul Johnston (17:23), Jack Griffiths (18:04), Patrick Babb (18:17), Ian Warrington (18:44), Matt Garside (19:31) and Anthony Hallahan (20:53).

In the separate U17 men's competition, Ollie Donnelly backed up his recent superb form with a rapid 16:27, for eighth place nationally, showing that he'll be a fine addition to the senior team in the autumn.