Over 100,000 runners, including some of the world's best from more than 100 countries, ran as one in the world's first virtual global relay MA RA TH ON at the weekend (6-7 June).

The power of the internet and the ubiquitous Strava app were harnessed to record the results as 106,698 people participated in the virtual relay, running a collective 844,134 kilometres over two days, equal to 21 times round the world! 

The professional NN Running Team – led by Dutch former athlete and twice world one-hour record holder Jos Hermens – was behind this astonishingly successful venture, surely the biggest and highest profile virtual event to be held so far. Hermens said: “Running is the true universal sport, today shows that more than ever. This event has brought together people of all nationalities, of all abilities, all with different motivations, in a shared love of running”. 

One of the many unique features that saw this event raise the bar in the virtual world was the random allocation of 10 of the world's best endurance runners to teams of four athletes, who ran 10.5K each to make up the full marathon distance. An extra elite team member meant that particular team's time was averaged, which was quite a bonus for some!

The winning teams (male and female) were ASICS Team Tempo Elite from Australia. So did the crack Antipodean quartets beat the current solo world records? Perhaps surprisingly, they did not, with the men recording 2:03:06 and the women 2:42:03 – compared with Eliud Kipchoge's 2:01:39 in Berlin 2018 and Brigid Kosgei's 2:14:04 set at Chicago last year.

So, running solo in the virtual sports arena does not compare with the big city marathon atmosphere? Try telling that to half marathon world record holder Geoffrey Kamworor, who was fastest overall, running his 10.6K relay leg in 30:08; or Berlin Marathon champion Ashete Bekere, who was the fastest woman with 34:15, also for 10.6K (averaging 3:14 per kilometre). 

One of the most stunning solo performances was that of Spanish ultra-runner and mountain racer Kilian Journet, who accidentally stopped at 10.49K – 10 metres short – so he simply set off for a second attempt and recorded 32:25 for a generous 10.6K, just to make sure! 

Journet, who finished 27th fastest, saw the funny side, tweeting: “It’s been kind of fun when I did my loop and upload to Strava and saw it was 0.01 short (10.49km) so I went for a second lap that this time counted for the challenge. 'More Kilometers More Fun' is always right so it ended up being a great tempo run at this time, far from any races!”

To savour the atmosphere of this extraordinary global occasion catch up with the NN Running Team on Twitter #RunAsOne or Facebook here

Image courtesy NN Running Team MA RA TH ON relay