Lincolnshire Cross Country Championships, Biscathorpe

Eleven members of Grantham Running Club made the journey to the Lincolnshire Wolds to take part in the Lincolnshire Cross-Country Championships at Biscathorpe near Louth on Sunday 6^th January. On a cold and overcast morning the runners faced a challenging course that had something for everyone including hills, marshland, stream crossings, and lots of mud.

First to toe the start-line were the Senior and Vet men who would tackle a 10.16 km course. It wasn't

Paul in full flight

long after the starting gun fired that the field encountered their first sticky obstacle in the form of a marshy dip which claimed several running shoes including that of Simon Smith. Unfortunately, Simon was unable to rescue his shoe and had to retire from the race and borrow a spade to dig it from the mud! Simon was more fortunate than Chris Moore, who irretrievably lost his footwear in the deep mud and was also forced to retire.

Setting the pace for GRC were Joaquim Jeronimo and Peter Bonner, running closely together throughout and seemingly having little trouble navigating a route through the water and mud. Joaquim finished in a fine 12th position (42:05) and Peter in 13th (42:24). Next home for Grantham was Paul Davis in 37th place (47:21). The trio of Joaquim, Peter and Paul earned themselves fifth position in the team competition. Also putting in solid performances in the difficult conditions were Chris Toon (43rd, 50:01), Russel Maksymiw (50th, 51:32) and Clive George (53rd, 53:03).

The Women’s Vet event was held later in the day over a 5.82 km course with conditions underfoot deteriorating with each successive race run. From the off it was Caroline Davis who lead the GRC charge making light work of the challenging conditions. Finishing a fantastic 10th place overall

Carline emerges with two shoes (unlike some!)

Caroline completed the course in 29:47. Next in for GRC was Justyna Gill having a great race to finish 25th in a time of 38:05. Hot on her heels were the pair of Donna Hall and Yvonne Buckley who ran the entire race together and looked as though they were enjoying every minute! Both were given a time of 42:42 in 28th and 29th places respectively. Caroline, Justyna and Donna also took 5th position in the team competition.

After the race Caroline Davies remarked: "Having run here before I knew roughly what to expect from the course but the mud this year was quite hard work in places. That said, I think we all enjoyed the event and will probably be back to take part next year."