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| Before: Sj, Gav and Matt |
A total of nine runners from Grantham Running Club took part in the Greater Manchester Marathon on Sunday. The race, which starts close to Old Trafford football stadium, is one of the highlights of the UK marathon calendar. It works its way through Trafford Park, Stretford, Sale, Timperley, Altrincham and Urmston before finishing at Old Trafford cricket ground. The course is one of the flattest in the UK making it ideal for running fast times and personal bests. Runners were also helped by near perfect weather conditions on the day.
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| After: First timer, first home and a PB |
All nine GRC athletes performed well and were rightly proud of what they achieved after months of long, hard training. First home was Gav Meadows who was hoping to achieve the London Marathon 'good for age' time for his age group (under 3:05). He came up short in the end but still posted an impressive time of 3:10:21 - his 2nd fastest marathon to date. Second to cross the line was Andy Atter who was running his first serious marathon and also his first as a member of the club. He paced the race perfectly recording a huge personal best of 3:12:13 beating his previous time by an unbelievable 48 minutes.
Next to finish for GRC was young marathon debutant Matthew Williamson in a time of 3:14:58. This was a remarkable first attempt at the distance and shows a lot of potential for the future and was more remarkable considering his first ever race was less than a year ago! Continuing the string of fine performances was Rob Howbrook who set a new PB of 3:20:39 after making his marathon debut in 2016. He also finished a very impressive 22nd in the Male Veteran 55 age category. Closely following was Nick Payne who also ran a PB of 3:22:01 beating his previous best by a whopping margin of 15 minutes.
There is absolutely no doubt which GRC runner had the most eventful day overall. Mark Hillson had a great race, running a new PB of 3:34:02. However, his battle didn't end there. Unfortunately he fell ill close to the finish line and spent 5 hours in the medical tent after the race. As he came round it was only when his finishers bag and medal were pointed out to him that he became aware that he'd finished the race.
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| Mark: Looking good |
Next was GRC's second marathon debutant of the day, Sinead McDonnell, she produced a very impressive first attempt at the distance crossing the line in 3:57:50. To put this in context Sinead was a two hour Half Marathon runner when she started training with the club last summer! Closely following was SJ Willis who added yet another PB to the collection finishing in 3:59:01 beating her previous best by a massive 45 minutes. After the race SJ publicly thanked the club for helping with the progress she's made.
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| Mark: Looking not so good |
Summing up after the race, Gav Meadows said 'Overall this was a day of great achievements for the club. Every single athlete performed well regardless of whether personal targets set before the race were met or not. The marathon is an extremely difficult beast to conquer and to have all 9 runners break the 4 hour barrier was truly remarkable'.
The day after the race a fully recovered Mark contacted Caerphilly Runners to thank his fellow runners helping to the line, if they had not helped and the medics (just out of shot) had intervened he would have faced disqualification.
| Position | Time | Name | Category | Grading | ||
| 709 | 3:10:21 | Gav MEADOWS | MV35 | 65.69% | ||
| 798 | 3:12:13 | Andy ATTER | MV35 | PB | 64.99% | |
| 959 | 3:14:58 | Matt WILLIAMSON | MSEN | PB | 64.07% | |
| 1219 | 3:20:39 | Robert HOWBROOK | MV55 | PB | 74.86% | |
| 1309 | 3:22:01 | Nick PAYNE | MV35 | PB | 62.84% | |
| 2073 | 3:34:02 | Mark HILLSON | MV45 | PB | 62.90% | |
| 3215 | 3:48:36 | Sarah HIGH | FV55 | PB | 75.22% | |
| 4023 | 3:57:50 | Sinead McDONNELL | FV40 | PB | 62.75% | |
| 4153 | 3:59:01 | Sj WILLIS | FV35 | PB | 58.22% | |
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