Machu Picchu Trail and Thurlby 10k

Machu Picchu Trail

Grantham Running Club's Paul Rushworth started the first leg of his world tour with a high altitude run in Peru along the Inca Trail, to reduce the nausea Paul had to chew coco leaves to keep him going through the higher passes. The next stop on his trip is the Colca Canyon in the South of the country for an attempt at the course record.

Thurlby 10k

 

GRC's Catherine Payne picked up the medal as third lady in this 10k race in South Lincolnshire in a time of 43:52 with teammate Robert McArdle finishing in 46:59

Newark Parkrun

This week saw three PBs from the GRC runners at Newark.

Chris ARMSTRONG	21:32	M
Nick PAYNE	23:57	M	New PB
Helen BROWN	26:58	F	New PB
Brendon BUCKLEY	30:30	M	New PB

R

Notts 10 Mile Road Race

In the early evening sunshine at the Holme Pierrepont National Watersports Centre in Nottingham Andrew Pask set a Personal Best time as he led the Grantham Running Club runners on this two lap race round the rowing lakes. There were impressive debuts at this distance by Andrew Spencer and Marc Tremain. With an off road ultra in the Peak District looming next week both Paul Rushworth and Ben Mason eased back on the pace in preparation but still posted respectable times

Time
67:07		Andrew	Pask (PB)		M
68:46		Paul	Rushworth		M
70:42		Ben	Mason		M
76:02		Andrew	Spencer		M
76:23		Mark	Hillson		M
78:25		Marc	Tremain		M
91:57		Lucy	Roberts		F

Newark Parkrun

12 hours after completing the Notts 10 GRC runners Marc Tremain and Lucy Roberts joined their teammates for the Saturday morning Parkrun in a torrential downpour. Despite the tricky conditions there were PB's for the club's first male and female runners with both Stuart in 20:22 and Abi in 21:25 taking exactly one second off their previous marks! Performance of the day was from Kevin Baker who despite being held up on the way to the event started late and overtook 190 runners on his way to the finish. Full GRC results below;

Woodhall Spa 10k

First home of the ten Grantham Running Club Runners taking part in the Woodhall was Iain Brown lest than a week after setting a personal best at the Liverpool Marathon. He was followed by Rob Howbrook who recorded his fastest ever 10k time on a road course with Stuart Sinclair following up his Parkrun PB the previous day with fine performance as third man home. There was an outstanding performance by Louise Payne also running less than a week after her full marathon debut in Edinburgh and claiming her fastest 10k time yet. The attached photo shows Brendon Buckley in his first full season with the club setting of with his partner Yvonne Taylor at the start of the race.

Pos.		Name		Chip Time		Gender
69		Iain Brown		00:40:53		Male
128		Robert Howbrook		00:43:57		Male
142		Stuart Sinclair		00:44:21		Male
423		Lucy Roberts		00:52:18		Female
465		Ruth Dunstan		00:53:26		Female
555		Andrew MacAllister		00:56:02		Male
597		Louise Payne		00:56:24		Male
707		Chris England		01:00:34		Male
829		Brendon Buckley		01:03:45		Male
915		Yvonne Taylor		01:09:25		Female

Newark Parkrun

Stuart Sinclair new PB at the Newark Parkrun was the second fastest ever by a GRC runner at this event, there was another improved performance by Mark Hillson reducing his time for the second week in a row by some 30 seconds with Suzanne Britz making her Parkrun debut.

Position	Name	Time
9	Stuart SINCLAIR	20:23
17	Mark HILLSON	22:02
28	Marc TREMAIN	23:18
97	Suzanne BRITZ	28:24
192	Wendy TREMAIN	01:02:28

Deeping Rotary 10k

 

Deeping Rotary 10k

Workmates Chris England and Paul Rushworth teamed up to enter the Deeping St James 10k race in aid of local charities, despite being run on the hottest day of the year so far Paul managed to finish 27th in a time of 40:53 with Chris struggling in the heat from 6k onwards to finish in 60:45

Liverpool Marathon

One a course ill-suited to fast times with too many twists and turns which seemed more interested in taking in the landmarks than helping the runners get into their stride GRC’s Iain Brown managed to record a personal best crossing the line in a time of 3:22:29

Parkrun Newark

In this week’s Newark Parkrun Mark Hillson set another PB with a time of 22:32 just in front of first time Mark Wilson who clocked 22:47

Virgin London Marathon 2014

Virgin London Marathon

With most of Grantham Running Club’s members opting for more runner friendly challenges this spring it was left to the trio of Paul Rushworth, Gordon Geach and Andy Spencer to represent the club in the capital. In his 9^th outing on this course Paul managed to hit his target time of three hours and seven minutes although he had to call on his considerable experience in the final three miles. In his first London Marathon after racing in the Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam marathons Gordon Geach found the overcrowded streets not to his liking and was unable to get into a rhythm but was pleased to eventually finish in 3:55:38.

First time marathon runner Andy Spencer marked the occasion by raising £7,000 for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and finished in a time of 4:05:39, here he is pictured celebrating with his friends at MNDA after the race

Rotterdam Marathon

Rotterdam Marathon, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Sunday 13^th April 2014.

Matthew Kingston-Lee set the fastest time over the marathon distance this century by a Grantham club athlete and a new Grantham Running Club record when he clocked 2:46:38 at the Rotterdam Marathon on Sunday 13^th April 2014. His time was a new personal best, bettering his old time, set when he finished third in the 2011 Taunton Marathon, by nearly four minutes.

On a sunny but windy day in the Netherlands second largest city, Matthew shrugged off recent injury concerns and set about running an even paced marathon, clocking the second half just 34 seconds slower than the opening 13.1 miles. His hopes of a sub 2:45 time were tempered by some injury niggles and the troublesome wind, which was in the runners faces for much of the second half of the race. Matthew finished 180^th overall in a race with over 14,000 entrants and climbed to 11^th in the UK rankings. The race was won by Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge in 2:05:00.

Rotterdam Marathon, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Whilst Britain watched the exploits of Mo Farah and 40,000 other runners taking part in the London Marathon, Kenilworth Runners’ Matthew Kingston-Lee was in the Netherlands taking part in the ABN Amro Rotterdam Marathon.

Matthew Kingston-Lee set the fastest time over the marathon distance this century by a Grantham club athlete and a new Grantham Running Club record when he clocked 2:46:38 at the Rotterdam Marathon on Sunday 13^th April 2014. His time was a new personal best, bettering his old time, set when he finished third in the 2011 Taunton Marathon, by nearly four minutes.

On a sunny but windy day in the Netherlands second largest city, Matthew shrugged off recent injury concerns and set about running an even paced marathon, clocking the second half just 34 seconds slower than the opening 13.1 miles. His hopes of a sub 2:45 time were tempered by some injury niggles and the troublesome wind, which was in the runners faces for much of the second half of the race.

Matthew finished 180^th overall in a race with over 14,000 entrants. The race was won by Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge in 2:05:00.

Coventry's Half Marathon, Coventry, West Midlands

After an extended sabbatical, Coventry welcomed half marathon runners to the city with a new course, new date and new title, widely ignored incidentally, thanks to innovative use of the possessive apostrophe (which, somewhat bizarrely, formed the inspiration for the event website and race finishers’ medal). Hoping to capitalise on entrants preparing for a spring marathon with the new date, having previously been an early autumn race (and once held in May) Coventry’s half marathon controversially took place on Sunday March 23^rd 2014, the same day as the popular BHF Warwick Half Marathon and the less popular, but equally local, Stanford Hall Half Marathon.

Just over 2000 runners tackled a new course, which, after a small loop of the city centre, headed in a generally uphill direction for the opening eight miles as runners headed out northwest towards Corley, before enjoying a long gradual descent back to the finish outside the Transport Museum. Avoiding the wintry showers, conditions were cool and windy, with the biting wind into the runners’ faces for the much of the opening half of the race, especially on the exposed greenbelt section as runners left Allesley. Despite the early (9am) start, crowd support was enthusiastic on a course that is surprisingly rural, and the race was well marshalled, with runners enjoying the benefit of fully closed roads for the entire duration of the race

First of nine Kenilworth Runners home on a highly successful day for the club was Connor Carson. Playing down his expectations shortly before the start, Connor ran a superb race to finish ninth in a chip time of 1:15:06. This bettered his PB by one second, set at the Kenilworth Half Marathon in 2011. The only disappointment for Connor was that he was agonisingly close to breaking 75 minutes. Next home was Matthew Kingston-Lee, who has been in heavy marathon training, and suffered slightly as a result of this and also a troublesome injury affecting his left leg. Nevertheless Matthew ran well to finish fourteenth in 1:17:32.

Richard Broadbent had hoped to run around 1:31 at Coventry, so was surprised and delighted to run an impressively even paced run which saw him finish 44^th overall and third in his age category, clocking 1:24:42. Following Richard was Wayne Briggs, who was making his race debut in the green vest of Kenilworth Runners. Enjoying the shouts of come on Kenilworth! en route, Wayne knocked a massive 4:52 off his previous PB with new figures of 1:26:07. Another recent Kenilworth recruit, Stewart Underhill was delighted to take 90 seconds off his previous PB, clocking 1:32:03.

The first of three Kenilworth ladies to finish, Claire Goult revelled in being told the race was downhill after eight miles – laudably ignoring the incline for the opening stages of the race. Despite cursing a cheeky climb in the race’s final mile, Claire ran fantastically to shatter her old PB over four minutes, clocking 1:36:59. This earned her a fifth place finish in her age category.

Following Gwyn Davies (1:41:26), who was pleased to finish the race in one piece, there was yet another PB for Kenilworth Runners as Stephen Payne ran excellently to clock 1:42:28.

It was a memorable day for two more new club members who both made their half marathon debuts, Angela Dowden ran well to finish in 2:15:20 and Joeann Niblett ran 2:26:54, having only started running with Kenilworth’s Wednesday morning group a year ago.

The race, supported by Decathlon and featuring Stroke Association and Zoe’s Place as its nominated charities, was won by Notts AC / Nene Valley Harriers’ Aaron Scott, who complimented his training towards a hopeful sub 2:20 spring marathon with a 1:08:50 clocking. The winning lady was fellow Nene Valley Harrier Philippa Taylor, who finished in 1:21:53 and cemented her reputation as one of the fastest V45 runners in the country.

Gun Position	Name	Chip Time
9	Connor Carson	1:15:06
14	Matthew Kingston-Lee	1:17:32
44	Richard Broadbent	1:24:42
55	Wayne Briggs	1:26:07
117	Stewart Underhill	1:32:03
357	Gwyn Davies	1:41:26
393	Stephen Payne	1:42:28
1522	Angela Dowden	2:15:20
1692	Joeann Niblett	2:26:54

Ashby 20 mile Road Race

Ashby 20 mile Road Race             

A dozen athletes from Grantham Running Club took part in the 25th anniversary race in the Leicestershire Countryside on Sunday, although it is normally regarded by many as the last warm-up race before the London Marathon changes in the athletics calendar meant that it could only be used as a training run by those hoping to do the 26.2 miles in the next few weeks. First home Paul Rushworth eased back a full five and a half minutes from his 2013 pace. Ben Hatherley was almost back to his old form after an ankle injury as second GRC runner to finish followed by Andrew Pask enjoying one of his easier runs after throttling back for the first ten miles. The ladies section was led home by Holly Durham standing in at the last minute for her sister Penny, who had to withdraw with a knee injury, closely follow by Abi Schofield who became the first GRC runner to top the UKA rankings as the fastest U23 in the country this year at 20 miles. Catherine Payne distance completed the ladies team who were runners-up in the team event behind Bedford Harriers.  Here are some of the runners after the finish (Left to Right) Catherine Payne, Ben Hatherley, Robert McArdle, Paul Rushworth, Ben Mason, Andrew Pask, Scott Jones and Holly Durham

		Time
Paul Rushworth		02:20:51		Male
Ben Hatherley		02:26:35		Male
Andrew Pask		02:31:08		Male
Holly Durham		02:32:31		Female
Abi Schofield		02:33:14		Female
Ben Mason		02:35:13		Male
Scott Jones		02:37:30		Male
Catherine Payne		02:37:44		Female
Robert McArdle		02:40:07		Male
Nick Payne		02:46:39		Male
Andrew Spencer		02:56:33		Male
Gordon Geach		02:59:10		Male