Retford Half Marathon

Everyone except Holly!

A round of the Grantham Running Club Grand Prix Series for the first time, eight members of Grantham Running Club took part in the Retford Half Marathon on Sunday 10^th March.

MKL - sub 1:17 again

Beginning at Retford Oaks Academy, the course took runners northwest out of Retford along the very gently rolling Great North Road through Barnby Moor and towards Torworth before turning left into a narrow country lane at around 5 ½ miles. It was here where unless runners took to the grass verges they faced wet trainers as heavy overnight rain saw the road flooded for a short section. Back onto an A-road for an out and back section at eight miles, at nine miles competitors returned to Barnby Moor before heading south on the Old London Road with a near three mile long uphill drag. Perseverance up the climb was rewarded with a fast, mostly downhill, mile long drop down the A626 back to the finish at the Academy.

The weather conditions were not great during the race: only a few degrees above freezing, with wintry showers and a moderate westerly breeze. However, most were relieved that they weren’t as bad as forecast or as wet as it was before the race (with none of the snow that hit surrounding areas) nor as windy as it was afterwards.

First to finish for GRC was Matthew Kingston-Lee who finished nearly a minute quicker than at February’s Leicestershire Half Marathon, clocking 1:16:56, which earned him sixteenth place overall and second in the V40 age category. Matthew was content with his performance considering he tends to struggle in cold, wet conditions and felt weary for much of the race, a consequence of heavy training for the upcoming Manchester Marathon.

Holly back to full fitness

Ian Williams was delighted with his 1:20:41 that saw him finish 34^th. In good form having recently run the second quickest ever parkrun by a GRC runner, Ian knocked five minutes and two seconds off his old half marathon PB set almost two years to the day at Silverstone. Coincidentally Ian hadn’t run

as far as 13.1 miles since he ran at the famous F1 circuit back in March 2017.

Tony Johnson, the only GRC runner taking part who had run the race before, was pleased with his 1:26:42 that earned him seventh in the V50 category. His performance was much improved on his effort at the Stamford 30K and was the first of three races in as many weeks as Tony prepares for the London Marathon in April.

Holly Durham was the first GRC woman to finish, finishing 21^st female and running quicker than she expected to, clocking a fine 1:35:55 as her preparations continue for the Manchester Marathon. Holly worked hard during the race to close down and pass 22^nd placed Joss Smith, who clocked a very respectable 1:36:28 - an encouraging performance given Joss has not trained that much over the winter.

Sam's impressive debut

Arguably the performance of the day came from Sam Jepson-Rivers who was taking part in his first ever half marathon. Hampered a little in the opening mile by being placed a little too far back from the start line, thereafter Sam ran a fine race with consistent splits to smash his target of 1:45 with a 1:38:46 clocking.

Big PB for John

Sam was followed by Helen Brown (1:45:01) who clocked her fourth 1:45 marathon in five races having run 1:46 at Loughborough in February. John Nevard was the eighth GRC runner to finish. He was delighted to break two hours (1:58:58) having previously run 2:04:54 on his half marathon debut at Gosport last November.

Overall impressions of the race from the GRC contingency present were overwhelmingly positive. The Academy proved a great venue for the race with all amenities close to the start line. It was a fast course along gently undulating roads and featured no major climbs. There was also plenty of enthusiastic support along the course despite the inclement conditions. At £18 the race represented great value for money given that nearly all the roads were closed to traffic and finishers received a technical t-shirt for their efforts.

The race was won by Gareth Sampson of Rotherham Harriers in 1:11:15 with Sian Evans of Steel City Striders the winning woman in 1:22:00. There were exactly 1000 finishers.