Keyworth Turkey Trot

For the third year running the Keyworth Turkey Trot Half Marathon, held on Sunday 8^th December, represented the final round of the Grantham Running Club Grand Prix Series. Sixteen members of the club turned out for the sell-out event that for many is the final race of the year.

Despite ominous forecasts for strong winds, conditions for the race weren’t too adverse, with mostly winter sunshine dominating against a couple of rogue showers. There was a stiff headwind for the opening couple of miles which were mostly downhill; most of the race saw the wind as only a mild hindrance or a slight benefit depending which direction the course went. Unchanging however is the testing nature of the course with some punishing climbs between miles 3 and 4 and again at 10 through to 11.5 in addition to some other testing ascents on a course that is rarely flat.

First home for GRC was Matthew Kingston-Lee, who needed to run a new club record to have any hope of retaining the club’s GP Series. A solid opening mile gave some feint hope of a miracle but when he began to struggle on the first climbs of the race he resigned himself to a solid, if unspectacular run to finish twelfth overall in 1:17:32, netting an age grade of 82.15%. This left him 2.63 points in the GP Series standings shy of Rob Howbrook. Rob admitted post race to being a bit worried having finished in 1:32:48 to post his worst age grade of the series with 79.62%, but was delighted to have done enough in previous rounds to deservedly reclaim the GP Series crown he won in 2017.   

Finishing just ahead of Robert and in a spirited tussle to be second GRC runner home, Peter Bonner put in a strong finish to come home in 1:31:56, just twelve seconds ahead of Joe Diggins (1:32:08), who was relieved to finish in one piece having recently suffered a calf injury. Tony Johnson finished just six seconds later (1:32:14) feeling he hadn’t quite recovered from his efforts at the Nottingham Christmas Marathon eight days earlier, but had done enough with his strong results at other races in November to finish third in the GP Series standings.

Finishing behind Robert in 1:33:27 was Dean Riggall who made a most welcome to racing in his first appearance since last year’s Turkey Trot having been forced to sit out most of 2019 with a serious foot injury. He was pleasingly a couple of minutes faster than his 2018 outing and can hopefully now focus on reaching full fitness in time for the 2020 Manchester Marathon. Next to finish was Sam Clark, who put in a solid run to finish a couple of minutes outside his PB in 1:35:22.

The run of the day came from Ady Walker who ran the race to feel and felt great until ten miles. A sub 1:40 time looked a possibility but the hills late in the race took their toll somewhat. Nonetheless Ady, with 1:42:11, smashed his half marathon PB by some four minutes and six seconds. Following Ady came Simon Smith (1:44:34), Craig Drury (1:44:45), Warren Stark (1:58:11), and Wayne Baxter (2:01:49) who all posted solid performances within striking distance of their best.

Three of the four GRC ladies could be seen post race number crunching their result times to see how they had fared in GP Series standings. Sarah High was thrilled to see her runner-up place was confirmed with a HM season’s best 1:57:30 - a fine performance considering she had taken part in the North Midlands Cross Country race at Heanor on Saturday afternoon and had survived two Christmas functions that weekend by showing admirable restraint!           

Sarah finished in the GP Series ahead of Holly Durham, who cemented third place overall with her sixth best score of the year clocking 1:39:32 to finish sixteenth female in the race. Penny Hodges, who followed sister Holly home in 1:43:10, completed her spirited late season charge in the GP Series that saw her climb from outside the top twenty to finish fifth, an agonizing 0.13 points behind Michelle Parczuk.

The other GRC lady to finish was Katie Bland who, in her seventh half marathon of 2019, ran well to clock her third fastest time with 1:56:24.

The race was won by for the second year running by Jimmy Kershaw of Absolute Tri in a new PB 1:10:12, with Joanna Male of Long Eaton Running Club the winning female in 1:23:41.