North Midlands League: Match 2

On Saturday 10^th November, Wicksteed Park on the outskirts of Kettering hosted the second race of the North Midlands Cross Country League. Despite leaving Grantham under clear skies and warm autumnal conditions, when the races started in early afternoon, the blue sky had been replaced with heavy rain and some driving winds. This didn’t deter the green and black army of Grantham Running Club from putting in some fantastic performances.

Eight men took on the 10k three lap course which began under a rainbow as the clouds parted briefly. First in was Chris Limmer who resisted the temptation to go off fast and ran a sensible race to finish in a decent time of 37:16. The fact that this saw him finish only 65^th says something about the strength and depth of the talent that took part. Indeed, at the sharp end, the top 3 runners all have 5k personal bests under 15:30.

Not far behind Chris was Grant Davis who, in typical gung ho style, ran off hard and fast and then dug in (almost literally as the course got churned up by 250 runners charging around) over the final lap to finish 80^th in 38:12.

Despite running in road shoes, which were ill suited to the rapidly deteriorating conditions, Joaquim Jeronimo ran well to finish  129^th in 41:36 alongside 128^th placed Rob Howbrook, who was given the same finish time of 41:36 and earned himself an excellent first place finish in the V60 category.

Cheered home by fellow club mates, including the women’s team who had stuck around after their race had finished, Paul Davis finished 187^th (45:54), Simon Smith 191st (46:10), Chris Toon 198^th (46:53) and Dan Howson 201^st (47:00). The senior men’s team finished 18^th out of the 22 scoring teams with 735 points, the men’s vet team finished a fine eighth out of fourteen teams, which saw them climb above Burton to take twelfth position overall, with the opportunity to climb into the top ten with a strong showing at the third round in early December.

GRC women’s team set off before the men in a 6km race facing a strong field of some of the best runners in the area. Caroline Davis put in another great performance to finish in 87^th place in 31:26, holding off two competitors who finished a second behind. Just under a minute later was women’s team captain Sarah High, who ran well to finish 98^th and third in her age category in 32:25.

Sarah was followed by four other club members who all thoroughly enjoyed the muddy Northamptonshire course. Justyna Gill finished 121st in 36:00 closely followed by Slyv Hull, Diana McDonald and Margaretta Murray, who finished 125^th, 126^th and 129^th respectively. The club’s vet team currently lies eighth overall.

The spirit and camaraderie were very much on show long after the runners had crossed the line, with members helping each other push their cars out of a very muddy car park! The club looks forward to the third race in the series at Shipley Park in Heanor on Saturday 1^st December.