Lincoln Wellington AC 5K Series – Race 2

The second race of the Lincoln Wellington AC 5K Series, held on Tuesday 25^th June, saw another impressive turnout of sixteen runners for the low-cost, no-thrills, multi-lap race held on the footpaths around the LWAC HQ at the Yarborough Leisure Centre in Lincoln. After a day of heavy rain that finally relented three hours or so before the 7:30 race start, heavy cloud cover and cool temperatures provided very good conditions for running, with only a light to moderate breeze hindering progress over certain sections of the course.

Matthew Kingston-Lee and Chris Limmer, the first two finishers for GRC, went into the race decidedly downbeat over their prospects but both came away very happy with their unexpectedly strong performances. Matthew eased himself into the race with a moderately steady opening mile and then accelerated prog 

PB for Andy

ressively over the course of the race, making full use of drafting behind groups of runners in the headwind sections as he worked his way up through the field. With a final sprint to the line Matthew clocked 16:54: eighteenth overall, third V40, and delighted to have broken 17 minutes for only the fourth time in running six seconds quicker than the opening race in May.

Chris Limmer, who is beginning to reap the benefits of the preparation put into running May’s Thames Path 100 mile long race, was on the heels of Matthew for much of the race and only dropped back when Matthew accelerated in the closing stages. His time of 17:22 was fourteen seconds quicker than his May effort at Lincoln and his quickest 5K time in five years. Ahead of Matthew for the opening small lap of the race was Joaquim Jeronimo, who opted for the ‘go out hard and hang on as best you can’ strategy. Although this predictably saw ‘Flash’ slow steadily over the course of the race, he showed considerable determination to control the fade in the closing kilometre to finish in an excellent 18:05 – 23 seconds quicker than the PB he set in the opening race of the series and with the same finishing position of 36^th.

Rob Howbrook who, as in the May race, took part in the preceding Memory Mile, where he matched his time of 5:38, couldn’t quite match his outstanding 5K performance a month earlier where he broke his PB, but his time of 19:10 was still good enough to comfortably come first in the V60 age category. Peter Bonner, who had a great Memory Mile run, finishing fifth in 5:22, bettering his May time by 18 seconds and setting a new fledgling club record, finished the 5K very close to Rob in 19:13, 23 seconds down on his 5K PB set at Eye in the ARC sanctioned race in June.

Andy Atter, who is in the opening stages of preparation for the Chester Marathon in October, was pleased to better his official 5K PB by one second with 20:04, although he has broken 20 minutes on three occasions at parkruns. He was closely followed in 20:09 by a seemingly rejuvenated Jack Dodwell, who broke his 5K PB by an impressive 56 seconds just a month after running 21:06 at the May LWAC 5K.

Another runner who went home from Lincoln very happy having arrived with low expectations was Stefan Latter, who bettered his official 5K PB, set at May’s LWAC5K, by 25 seconds, clocking 20:25. Sam Jepson-Rivers was next to finish on his official 5K debut, clocking 20:39 half an hour or so after he had run 5:49 in the Memory Mile. Nick Rossington had also run the Memory Mile, bettering his May time by 22 seconds with 6:02. He was then nearly two minutes quicker than his May LWAC 5K time with 20:46, approaching his 2018 season’s best of 20:30. Nick was pushed hard to the finish by Sam Dodwell (20:48), who continued his impressive improvement over the course of the year, improving on his May LWAC 5K time by 36 seconds.

Holly's first ever mile race

Holly Durham was next to finish, first of three GRC women to take part in the race. Having run the

Memory Mile in 6:24, Holly put in a solid performance to clock 21:07. Paul Kelly was another to clock a 5K PB, bettering his May LWAC 5K time by 23 seconds coming in at 21:59. In his first official 5K race Wayne Baxter ran well to clock 24:41, which is quicker than any parkrun he has completed this year and only 19 seconds off his best parkrun time, set at Rutland Water in 2018.

Completing the GRC contingency was Sarah High, who notched up a 5K PB on her Power of 10 profile, bettering her December 2018 time by over a minute with a fine 25:27, and Tracy Webb (28:12) who, two days after racing in Peterborough, ran well to finish just two seconds slower than she had at Lincoln a month earlier.

In an impressive display of depth and quality, hosts Lincoln Wellington AC all but dominated the top ten, with Joe Wilkinson leading the first of nine consecutive LWAC finishers with a time of 15:11. The club also won a quality women’s race courtesy of Abbie Donnelly finishing in 16:50. There were 156 finishers.