Well Ladies and Gen­tle­men, it’s here, and this is how it’s going to roll.

For those of you who didn’t join us for last weekend’s event or are tak­ing part for the first time, a vir­tu­al race is com­pleted on your own wherever you are in the world. Ultra X set the dis­tance, start date and rules, and you get it done and record evid­ence of your time. As Sergei the meerkat would say: simples.

The Ultra X Vir­tu­al Race World Series will encom­pass three qual­i­fy­ing races and a grand final. The dates of these are below. Get ‘em in your diary now, if you still keep one (bonus points for work­ing out what the total dis­tance of the three qual­i­fy­ing rounds equates to…)

Qual­i­fi­er 1 — Sat­urday 2nd May — 8km

Qual­i­fi­er 2 — Sat­urday 16th May — 15km

Qual­i­fi­er 3 — Sat­urday 30th May — 19km

Grand Final — Sat­urday 13th June — dis­tance to be announced the day before the race at 1200 BST (12th June).

Entry to each race is £5 and Ultra X will be donat­ing half of every entry fee to the NHS Char­it­ies Togeth­er COVID-19 appeal.

You can pur­chase entry to all three qual­i­fi­ers at once for £12, of which half will also go to char­ity.

If you make it there, entry to the final is free ?

Oh, and did we men­tion? This time round, there will be prize money. Lots of prize money.

Points and glob­al stand­ings

On the Monday after each race, the res­ults will be pub­lished online, and the glob­al stand­ings updated. Will you earn enough points to make the final? That is the ques­tion.

Points are awar­ded based on two factors: the num­ber of races com­pleted and your speed. We don’t want to bore you with our com­plic­ated points struc­ture in this art­icle but in short, if you are VERY fast you may or may not have to do every qual­i­fi­er to reach the final. How­ever, if you are slower, you will prob­ably have to com­plete all three qual­i­fi­ers to make the big day. And even then, it’s not guar­an­teed (sad face emoji).

Cat­egor­ies and prize money

Prize money will be awar­ded to over­all and age group podi­um fin­ish­ers of the grand final on Sat­urday 13th June as below:

• Over­all male 1st, 2nd, 3rd (£200, £100, £50)
• Over­all female 1st, 2nd, 3rd (£200, £100, £50)

• Male 18–25 (£100, £75 and £30)
• Female 18–25 (£100, £75 and £30)
• Male 26–39 (£100, £75 and £30)
• Female 26–39 (£100, £75 and £30)
• Male 40+ (£100, £75 and £30)
• Female 40+ (£100, £75 and £30)

Wild­card qual­i­fic­a­tion

Now, this is where our awe­some­ness really shines through. As well as the 100 places avail­able for the highest points earners from the qual­i­fi­ers, there will be a fur­ther 10 wild­card places avail­able for the final. These wild­card spots will be reserved for any­one who has par­ti­cip­ated in at least two qual­i­fy­ing races and will be selec­ted by a ran­dom num­ber gen­er­at­or. As such, any­one has a chance to make it to the grand final.

And now for the finale. Drum roll please…

We will be select­ing one lucky win­ner (using a ran­dom num­ber gen­er­at­or) from every­one that com­pletes the final, to win £1,000 CASH!!!!! That’s right, if you thought fur­lough was good now, you just wait until you have anoth­er grand in the bank! All you have to do to be eli­gible is make it to the final and fin­ish the race.

Medals

Every­one who par­ti­cip­ates in a race will be able to pur­chase a medal. Medals will be dis­trib­uted at the end of the Vir­tu­al Race World Series. Depend­ing on how many races you do, you will get a dif­fer­ent col­our rib­bon.

Num­ber of qual­i­fy­ing races com­pleted:

1 — White rib­bon

2 — Bronze rib­bon

3 — Sil­ver rib­bon 

Final — Gold rib­bon

Right, that is enough for now. REGISTRATIONS OPEN ON SATURDAY PEOPLE!!!

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