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| Catherine, Holly and Penny at the start |
Thirteen members of Grantham Running Club blitzed the 2017
Virgin Money London Marathon, held in near ideal conditions on Sunday 23rd
April. On a memorable day for all who took part, there was a new club record, a
bucketful of personal bests and a truly unforgettable experience for the
marathon debutantes who joined the record 39,349 finishers cheered home by the
estimated 800,000 spectators lining the course from start to finish.
Club Chairman Matthew Kingston-Lee was the first GRC runner
to sprint down the Mall on Sunday to finish well inside the top 400 runners. Despite suffering an injury scare on the way
to the start, Matthew put on a metronomic master class of even paced running,
his eight official 5k splits deviating by no more than 40 seconds (and all bar
one under 19:30), culminating in a new club record of 2:41:42, bettering his
old PB by a second shy of two minutes. This time secures him a prestigious
Championship entry for the next two years.
“The injury issue before the start was an unwelcome
distraction, but fortunately it didn’t affect me too badly in the race. I felt
very comfortable for the first 20 miles, aiming to keep the pace at around six
minutes per mile. I had a bad patch from 20-22 miles and had to dig very deep.
With 5km to run I passed some friends cheering me on. This inspired me to go
full gas and pray I didn’t hit the wall! Happily I didn’t and I was delighted
to walk, albeit slowly and painfully, away with a big new PB!” commented
Matthew after the race.
 |
MKL
Guaranteed
his Championship place
|
Next home was Chris Limmer who also ran an impressively even
paced marathon to knock a minute off his old PB, describing his 2:50:12 as “an
emotional marathon PB... Awesome... Just awesome!” Dean Riggall, faced with the
choice of targeting an excellent 3:05 or the cherished ‘sub-3’, bravely opted
for the latter. On target at halfway he suffered somewhat in the final miles
but his time of 3:06:54 bettered his old PB by two and half minutes secured himself
a Fast Good For Age place for the next two London Marathons.
First woman home for GRC was Holly Durham who was 350th lady in the race. With the lure of
a sub 3:15 performance securing a Championship place for future London
Marathons, Holly, running her second London Marathon and fourth marathon, ran a
superbly consistent race to clock a new PB of 3:17:41, finishing within 10
seconds of where she realistically expected, commenting afterwards “I’d
forgotten how hard marathons are!” Putting this performance in terms of parkrun, it is like running eight and a half of them in a row all under twenty three and a half minutes each.
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| Paul reflects on a tough marathon |
Less than 30 seconds behind Holly finished Catherine Payne as 379th lady.
Running an even paced marathon with a slight negative split, that is running the second half faster than the first, Catherine ran an
exceptional new PB of 3:18:10, bettering her old best by 75 seconds. This
earned her a brilliant 19th position in the VF50 age category and
should rank her inside the top 25 in the country for her age over the marathon
for 2017 to date. The key to this performance was even pacing with all splits being within 2 seconds per mile of her average speed.
Paul Davies, running his first London Marathon as one of the GRC club ballot winners, was, like so
many, overwhelmed by the whole experience. An exuberant opening half to the
race led to six miles of painful cramp to end the race, yet it yielded a
3:30:46, just over a minute outside his PB, and a promise to return faster in
the future.
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| Hazel raising money for Steps |
Penny Hodges didn’t enjoy an ideal preparation for her first
London Marathon and planned to run a very conservative opening half of the race
with the hope of a strong finish. This sensible tactic reaped an impressive
near eight minute PB of 3:40:57, a delighted Penny has all but certainly secured
a prized Good For Age spot at the London Marathon for the next two years.
Tommy Williamson, running his third London Marathon with a club place this time, also
went into the race a little undertrained due to work and family commitments. He
opted for the ‘fast opening half and hope for the best’ tactic, which led to a
slowdown from which he was happy to finish, breaking four hours with a time of
3:55:01.
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| Tommy finding it tough! |
Andrew Spencer, who is training for Ironman Barcelona in
October, was hoping for, rather than expecting a sub-4 hour clocking. Promising
afterwards, like every year, it would be his last marathon, Andrew, rasing money for Headwat, Northants slipped
outside four hours after a strong opening half to the race, but finished inside
the median finish time of 4:26:33 in a highly commendable 4:05:09. This year he raised £4,000.
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| Jacqueline, first of the first timers |
Four runners made their marathon debuts at London at the tougher end of the field.
Being out for longer not only means it is getting hotter but there are the additional hazards like 30,000 discarded drinks bottles to trip over! Jacqueline Jacobs admitted her marathon ‘didn’t go quite to plan,’ clocking
4:50:40, but enjoyed the amazing experience of being cheered on by the
fantastic crowds at Tower Bridge in particular and was pleased to have
overtaken ‘Gandhi’ at mile seven and a rhino at mile 12! Blown away by the
noise and emotion and finishing in 4:56:25 in a daze, Hazel Dunthorne had secured her place through the open ballot but decided use her run for a good cause and raised
over £1300 for the Steps charity.
Jo Moore, raising over £560 for Cancer
Research, commented afterwards on the amazing crowds that kept her going to the
finish, clocking, 5:47:12.
Embodying the spirit of the London Marathon that has helped
make it one of the world’s most famous sporting events, Amanda Mumby battled
‘dead legs’ in the final miles to come home in 6:14:57. Her heroic efforts
meant that she raised over £2000 for the Dogs for Good charity.
After the race Club Chairman Matthew Kingston-Lee commented:“It was a fantastic day for the club and for the running
community at large. I was enormously proud of all our runners and hugely
grateful for the support of those who travelled down on the day to support or
who followed online. All our spring marathon finishers are looking forward to a
well deserved rest over the next few weeks and a group celebration this
weekend!”
Position
|
Time
|
Name
|
Category
|
|
Age Grading
|
379
|
02:41:42
|
Matthew Kingston Lee
|
MV40
|
PB
|
79.81%
|
852
|
02:50:12
|
Chris Limmer
|
MS
|
PB
|
73.39%
|
2630
|
03:06:54
|
Dean Riggall
|
MV40
|
PB
|
70.21%
|
4223
|
03:17:41
|
Holly Durham
|
FV35
|
PB
|
69.55%
|
4289
|
03:18:10
|
Catherine Payne
|
FV50
|
PB
|
82.22%
|
6458
|
03:30:46
|
Paul Davis
|
MV45
|
|
65.00%
|
8411
|
03:40:57
|
Penny Hodges
|
FV35
|
PB
|
63.45%
|
11780
|
03:55:01
|
Tommy Williamson
|
MV45
|
|
57.29%
|
14487
|
04:05:09
|
Andrew Spencer
|
MV50
|
|
59.00%
|
25692
|
04:50:40
|
Jacqueline Jacobs
|
FV45
|
|
53.26%
|
27098
|
04:56:25
|
Hazel Dunthorne
|
FV35
|
|
46.38%
|
35021
|
05:47:12
|
Jo Moore
|
FV45
|
|
45.15%
|
37132
|
06:14:17
|
Amanda Mumby
|
FV40
|
|
38.11%
|
