Peterborough 5k Grand Prix Series: Round One

Eight Athletes from Grantham Running Club travelled down the A1 to Ferry Meadows to take part in the first round of five in this long established Grand Prix with the best three results counting towards the series prizes.

On an evening ideal for running the runners were pleased that the host club Nene Valley Harriers had opted for the single lap long course as it is one of faster configurations used in the park. A record number of entries delayed the start by 15 minutes with almost 600 people registering on the night for both this and the children’s 3k race. The was some concern among the GRC runners about how crowded the start would be with 450+ in the main race on a path only 2m wide which would mean great care would have to be taken especially at the first couple of corners to prevent getting tripped or baulked.

First home for GRC was Peter Bonner with the 18:56 performance of his life after a safe start to accelerate through the field and break a chip timed PB set on a much faster course last summer, this is all the more remarkable as it was, like several of the other GRC members, his fourth race in 8 days. Next in was Rob Howbrook, slightly down on his normal time but still good enough to secure first in his age category and a near 84% age grading despite a gruelling half marathon a couple of days beforehand.

The first female runner for the club was Sarah Chynoweth also with not only a PB but her best ever race according to the UKA’s official site, the 4 second improvement from last year took her tantalisingly close to the 75% age grading for the first time. Catherine Payne’s time of 21:11, while outside her season’s best, was to get a score registered with the hope of adding better points later in the year to win the prize in her age category, considering it was not run at full throttle she was happy with runner up in her age group and looking forward to a more rested preparation at the next race at Eye.

Robert McArdle was the final runner who had four races in eight days in his legs and was pleasantly surprised to set a season’s best and get a WMA score of over 70%. He was closely followed by Paul Jepson in his first recorded 5k setting an opening gambit of 24:43. The next two runners were both female seniors in their first ever 5k and both like Sarah and Peter recorded their best ever runs!

Naomi Jepson-Rivers was delighted to go sub 25 by 3 seconds and Vicki Ball’s time of 25:46 strongly suggests that a season of PB’s is stretching in front of her.

Position			Time		Age Grading
61	Peter Bonner	M40	18:56	PB	73.18%
67	Rob Howbrook	M60	19:06		83.97%
91	Sarah Chynoweth	SW	19:46	PB	74.90%
137	Catherine Payne	W50	21:11		82.19%
170	Robert McArdle	M55	22:17	SB	71.36%
261	Paul Jepson	M65	24:43	First Timer!	67.86%
273	Naomi Jepson-Rivers	SW	24:57	First Timer!	59.32%
296	Vicki Ball	SW	25:46	First Timer!	57.44%