Worksop Half Marathon

After a disappointing outing at the Workshop Half Marathon where he was overtaken by the classy Paul Rushworth with two miles to go Stuart Sinclair booked a week of physiotherapy and a late entry for the Stevenage half marathon where he successfully joined Grantham Athletic Club's elite in completing the distance in under 90 minutes. The Worksop race has one of the toughest starts of any endurance race in the calendar with a hard climb for a full mile. Paul Rushworth completed the 13.1 miles course in 1:29:59 just dipping below his target time with a sprint finish that left Stuart struggling behind him in 1:30:42. GAC new boy Ged Cowley clocked 2:11:53.

Seven days later at the 25th Stevenage Half Marathon Stuart bagged a top 50 finish in a field of 1,000 runners and was pleased with his 1:29:52 over a surprisingly difficult course hampered by a strong northerly wind and a heavy leafall making the forest sections very slippy. Robert McArdle managed 1:38:36 in this race with Catherine Payne fading to 1:42:44 after a promising first ten miles.

Grimsthorpe Castle Half Marathon

Grimsthorpe Castle Half Marathon 

Grantham Running Club had two members competing in this year's Grimsthorpe Castle Half Marathon, recent heavy rain meant there were a few late modifications to the course due to flooding. The revised course covered the picturesque landscapes surrounding the Grimsthorpe Castle near Bourne and was a mixture of undulating hard limestone trail, tarmac and field trails. This mixture of surfaces provided a tough challenge especially when the one muddy section was covered twice. Despite it not being a fast course Lucy Roberts recorded a PB and Gordon Geach finished in a time he would have been happy with on a flat tarmac race.

Gordon Geach 1:43:33

Lucy Roberts    1:56:23