North Midlands Cross Country League fixture 2

 

West Glebe Park in Corby was the venue for the second North Midlands Cross Country League fixture. On an unseasonably mild, sunny afternoon GRC was represented by a ladies' and a men's team. The men's 10K race was first which demanded the completion of one small lap followed by three large laps of a course which was fairly flat with the exception of a wooded section which provided the technical and hilly difficulty.

Up against strong competition, first home for the GRC men was the ever impressive Rob Howbrook who finished in a time of 42:01 securing him second place in his age category. Paul Davis followed putting in a strong performance to finish in 49:20. Chasing Paul was ultra runner Andrew MacAllister who finished fourth in his age group. Craig Drury, returning to running fitness, brought the team home with a determined performance.

Then it was the ladies turn with a 6K distance consisting of two large laps of the course. Competing against a large field with a wide range of ages from Seniors upwards, Caroline Davis and Sarah High battled it out to finish within 3 seconds of each other, Caroline taking the lead from Sarah in the last 400m to finish as first GRC lady in a time of 30:34, and Sarah in 30:37, which secured her third place in her age category. Bringing the team home was Hayley Staff who put in a sterling effort in her first race for the club in a long time following knee surgery.

Following this event the men's team is currently lying in eleventh place in the league and the ladies' in twelfth place.

Six Dales Circuit

 

Photograph (Lto R): Peter Jennings and Paul Rushworth at the start of the Six Dales Circuit. 

Grantham Running Club members, Peter Jennings and Paul Rushworth traveled to the Peak District to participate in the annual Six Dales Circuit event.  The 25 mile route began in the picturesque village of Biggin, runners then visited Biggin Dale, Wolfscote Dale, Beresford Dale, Lathkill Dale, Bradford Dale and Long Dale, before returning to the village hall. Conditions on the day of the event were ideal for endurance running with sunshine occasionally breaking through the grey cloud base. The trails were surprisingly dry given the recent rain. Peter and Paul navigated together, returning to Biggin in a time of 4 hours and 44 minutes.   

Tbilisi Hills Trail Race

 Grantham Running Club's resident globetrotter Nev Chamberlain continued his quest to race in far-flung places when he took part in the Tbilisi Hills trail race. Taking place near the capital of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, runners took on the trails of the beautiful Krtsanisi hills with amazing views of Tbilisi and an unusual perspective on Mount Kazbegi. The route followed the trails surrounded by trees and bushes and the characteristic flowering cacti, avoiding spines of which added another level of challenge to the race.

 

There were 3 distances 18, 14 or 9km and Nev plumped for the 14km.  His gun time was 1.39:12 which placed him 56th out of 85 finishers.  He remarked that he was a bit disappointed with his placing until looking in a bit more detail. There were only 6 other runners over the age of 45 and he was the oldest by 7 years which kind of made him feel a bit better!

RunThrough Alton Towers 10k

 

On a cool but clear Saturday morning, 29 of the green and black army all headed off to the UK’s largest theme park in Staffordshire to take part in the RunThrough Alton Towers 10k race.  Billed as the first event of its kind the race started and finished amongst the rides in the estate with the route following paths and roads with in the grounds allowing the runners to take in all the sights and sounds.

The early stages of the race saw the runners twisting and turning past such rides as Rita and TH13TEEN before looping around Smiler and Oblivion.  They then headed into CBeebies land where there was the welcome sight of the Teletubbies dishing out high fives to spur everyone on. The runners then headed out into the more flowing section of the course which included the carpark and inner roads before turning back into the park to finish in front of the famous towers.

First home for GRC was Peter Bonner in an impressive 41:34 closely followed by Robin Atter in 42:11 and Richard Payne in 43:37. first GRC lady home was Nicola Ruston-Litchfied in an impressive 43:55.

Sam Dodwell completed the course in 44:59 closely followed by Kevin Kettle in 45:39 and Richard Litchfield came home in 49:10 and just getting under the 50-minute mark was Stuart Baty in a creditable 49:19.

A flurry of Grantham runners followed in the next few minutes including Tony Boyle (52:07), Dale Towning (53:07), Naomi Rivers (53:27), Zoë Wragg ran a superb race to claim a PB (53:43) and Rachel Pattison (54:51) followed by her partner in crime Julie Gilbert (55:28) and Martin Carter (55:50).

Vicki Ball was racing her first 10k for a while and was unsure how to tackle the race but was happy to finish in 57:13 followed by Alison Clark in 57:38 and she was followed by the second PB for the Wragg girls as Holly Wragg followed her elder sister to finish with a very impressive 57:57.

Following the sisterly theme Holly Durham and Penny Hodges ran together to both finish in 58:17 and were followed by Kate Marshall (59:22) and Wayne Baxter (1:00:58).

Nicola Cottam suffered a fall before the race but patched herself up to finish in 1:03:21 with Fraser Marshall closely behind in 1:03:29 and Ros Sadler 1:04:25 and Jaqueline Jacobs 1:08:54.

The final 3 runners home for GRC completed the run together, enjoying each other’s company and were happy to see the finish line with Julia Hallam (1:16:58) CJ Walker (1:17:02) and Kathleen Gray (1:17:03).

Most of the runners described the route as very different and enjoyable if not a little bit “lumpy” but all enjoyed the experience and commented on how well organised the event was.

The remainder of the day was spent thrill-seeking and tackling as many rides and sights as possible with everybody thoroughly enjoying themselves.   Even the not so brave were seen flying along the tracks screaming in either joy or fear (or both). The large GRC turn out really made for an absolutely brilliant day with many promising to return next year for more fun, and maybe a bit of running as well.

Lincs Cross Country Round 2

Sunday on Lincoln South Common was, as in most years on the day after Bonfire Night, misty and overcast at first, with a heavy dewfall and a seasonably chilly start. For the thirteen lucky Grantham Running Club participants in the second round of the Lincolnshire cross-country championships however, the weather was kind because it wasn’t raining and as the day progressed the weather got warmer and drier and the Bomber Command Memorial Spire became clearer as it presided over our races.

The GRC men’s and women’s teams consisted of veterans, both in racing ability and also in age, but were competing in the same events as Under 20 and Senior runners, meaning that in some cases our competitors were decades younger. Both teams did the same loop around the outskirts of the Common. Starting in the north-east corner, the race progressed south-west alongside South Park Avenue until directed to climb the hill, where part-way up the route turned back on itself to return to the pond near Hall Drive, followed by a fast downhill sprint to the finish (or the next lap!).

The men set off at 11 in a mass charge that caught up with some of the faster U15 women as they took their second lap, a stampede which was only exceeded in intensity for the day by the horses that were spooked by the U11s in the first race of the day. Fortunately, no-one was hurt by the horses and obviously no-one was hurt by the men’s race.

 After three laps round the challenging but fair course, which was shorter than advertised due to the decision to make the hill climb in the far south of the course a straight one instead of bending round to the south-east then north-east, as well as taking a route that kept away from the Queen’s Park Play Area, the men came into the finish having enjoyed their trip out.

 

The first team consisted of Peter Bonner (position 27) Gav Meadows (32) and Robin Atter (42), with Peter Jennings, Paul Davis, Warren Stark close behind in the second team and Andrew MacAllister and Paul Jepson completing the field. Particular thanks to the runner who competed on his birthday, though that might be helped by the support from his son who lives in sight of the Common!

 

In the women’s race, first home for the club was Rachel Hamilton in 7^th, who settled into her rhythm well after some initial exuberance and had a good battle with those around her. The next two finishers were the expert cross-country duo of Sarah High in 20^th and Caroline Davis in 23^rd. the team was completed by Vicki Hardy in 25^th and Kate Marshall in 31^st.

 

Comments on the course afterwards included the classics “I need to do more hill training”, “the photographer caught me at a bad time” and “at least I didn’t fall over this time”. Everyone agreed that it was a good course apart from the horses and would enjoy running there again.

 

Finishing positions for all GRC runners were significantly lower than in the first round last week due to the much larger fields as this event didn’t clash with other races such as the Lincoln 10k and the Worksop half marathon. However, that also allowed several people who had raced elsewhere last week to run for the Club this time.

 

Grantham Running Club would like to thank everyone who spends their time in making these events happen, including organisers, timers and scorers, marshals and first aiders. Full results will follow in due course.