Simplyhealth Great North Run

Jaime, Brendon, Penny, Paul and Holly

Eleven members of Grantham Running Club made the journey to Tyneside on Sunday 10 September to take part in the iconic Simplyhealth Great North Run. 

Viva Chile!!! Jaime flies the flag

Starting on the edge of Newcastle upon Tyne city centre, runners headed down the motorway section, around the eastern side of the city centre crossing the symbolic Tyne Bridge into Gateshead and on towards South Shields, where they ran the last mile of the race along the seafront road to the finishing line. Runners enjoyed warm race conditions, with Jaime Garcia, Holly Durham and Penny Hodges enjoying a VIP start, beginning the race just behind the elite athletes.

Magaretta set a six minute PB

The warm conditions and gradual gradients were reflected in the times of participating athletes with few of the GRC runners achieving personal bests. Despite this Paul Davis maintained his recent run of solid performances, securing first GRC male home with a time of 1:31:59. Following on from her recent successful local 10k performances Holly Durham upped her game, missing her half marathon PB by 20 seconds, but posting a good performance in a time of 1:32:18.

After a difficult race Penny  Hodges was second GRC female home in a time of 1:41:57. Running for the charity Diabetes UK, Penny raised over £700 for the charity after her son William was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes earlier in the year. Penny commented;

"The race was tougher than expected, but well worth it to raise money and awareness for such a life changing and complicated disease".

In his debut half marathon, newcomer Craig Drury showed potential for a sub 2 hour half in the future, finishing in a time of 02:02:31. Craig joined the club after entering the Great North Run to raise money for Cancer Research, and achieved his goal by raising over £800 for the charity. Craig was followed over the line 15 minutes later by Margaretta Murray who secured the only PB of the day and knocked over 6 minutes from her previous half marathon time.

Position	Time	Name		Category		Grading	Ranking
1453	91:59	Paul Davis		MV45		72.17%	1017
982	92:18	Holly Durham		FV35		72.26%	179
2412	01:41:57	Penny Hodges		FV35		66.34%	299
10637	01:53:12	Caroline Davis		FV45		63.64%	551
7033	02:00:28	Jaime Garcia		MV35		50.06%	N/A
13970	02:02:31	Craig Drury		MV40		51.99%	N/A
25692	02:18:19	Magaretta Murray		FV55	PB	59.02%	N/A
18883	02:22:01	Paul Durham		MV60		53.03%	N/A
25125	02:21:47	Nic Webster		FV40		48.98%	N/A
34728	02:35:59	Brendon Buckley		MV65		50.21%	N/A
32861	02:38:00	Vivien Durham		FV40		39.04%	N/A