Grantham
Running Club members braved the rain to take part in TR24 at Catton Park, South
Derbyshire. The festival type 10km off-road relay event runs continuous from
12:00 on Saturday through to 12:00 the following day. With three mixed gender
teams of 8 and a team of 5 with the addition of 3 solo runners the club sent
its largest contingent ever.
This
year’s event started in glorious sunshine but that was soon to change as the
rain started shortly after and continued for 16hrs turning the undulating cross
country course into a ‘mud bath’. The course by 12:00 on Sunday was virtually
un-runnable but that didn’t deter the GRC members who had continued in their
pursuit.
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| Solo Gordon getting a close-up |
Three
members decided to tackle the whole 24hrs solo with Gav Meadows and Paul Davis
each completing in excess of 100km in the muddy conditions. As a late entrant Paul did not have time to fully prepare for a race for which he is ideally suited but he kicked off with three rapid laps before taking a short break followed by single lap later then dark lap before retiring for the evening, his five Sunday morning laps made up an eleven lap total placed him 21st Solo Male. Another strong contender in the Solo Male category was Gav and although running well just did not feel that he could give this race his usual 100%. He spun off five laps in a row on Saturday afternoon before taking a break and returning on Sunday morning to complete his planned ten placing him 33rd. The final Solo Male was Gordon Geach who completed two laps on the Saturday afternoon and one on the Sunday morning to finish 68th.
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| There were no penalties for bib number not visible |
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| Pasky flies the flag |
Despite
the torrential conditions, the fastest team of 9 named ‘Grantham RC Blood, Sweat
& Beers’ ran an incredible 28 laps placing them in 8th place of
226 teams. Team captain Andrew Pask selected the fastest
runner available to join him as they targeted the highest position possible. He
had a strong starting trio with Richard, Arthur and Andy all going sub 40 in
recent 10k’s. His other choices were compromised with Scott only returning from
holiday 24 hours before the race, Dean being ill, Rushie injured and Chris
Limmer having to take it easy after a few weeks out. Richard led them out
trying to get a lap done before the mass start cut up the course too badly this
put Arthur into space which he made the most off, setting the fastest lap of
the team with a 43:27, the only person to break 44:00. Andy managed to keep the
team well up on the leader board where they stay all the way through not only
due to coping well with the changing condition but not having any weak members.
As the conditions became worse underfoot Scott had to loan his shoes to other
runners to keep them upright! As the underfoot condition became impossible on Sunday
morning there was actually some relief that there would be no 29th
lap for the team as they had ran out of people fit enough to run it
| Richard Payne |
1 |
45:25 |
9 |
53:16 |
18 |
1:07:28 |
25 |
51:56 |
| Arthur Short |
2 |
43:27 |
11 |
47:02 |
19 |
57:40 |
26 |
59:17 |
| Andy Atter |
3 |
44:27 |
13 |
47:04 |
20 |
55:49 |
27 |
51:17 |
| Andrew Pask |
4 |
45:34 |
14 |
49:16 |
21 |
53:15 |
28 |
59:53 |
| Scott Jones |
5 |
44:15 |
10 |
47:17 |
|
|
|
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| Penny Hodges |
6 |
49:27 |
15 |
1:02:45 |
22 |
1:06:34 |
|
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| Paul Rushie |
7 |
47:00 |
16 |
:53:40 |
23 |
58:55 |
|
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| Dean Riggall |
8 |
46:00 |
17 |
52:26 |
24 |
52:32 |
|
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| Chris Limmer |
12 |
44:51 |
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Next for the 8’s was team ‘2 Slow 2 Win but 2 Suborn 2 Quit’
completing 24 laps in 44
th place.
(insert captain's report)
| Andrew Macallister |
1 |
56:23 |
8 |
55:10 |
17 |
1:07:47 |
24 |
1:08:27 |
| Warren Stark |
2 |
53:37 |
9 |
1:09:51 |
|
|
|
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| John Bainbridge |
3 |
56:01 |
11 |
1:05:34 |
18 |
1:11:11 |
|
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| Liam Vincent |
4 |
53:29 |
12 |
1:05:24 |
19 |
1:02:35 |
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| Sj Willis |
5 |
51:40 |
13 |
1:01:00 |
20 |
1:05:04 |
|
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| Martin Carter |
6 |
54:57 |
14 |
1:04:58 |
21 |
1:06:17 |
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| Helen Brown |
7 |
56:42 |
15 |
1:03:24 |
22 |
1:05:28 |
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| Sarah High |
10 |
59:58 |
16 |
1:17:11 |
23 |
1:14:11 |
|
|
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| Victoria on her first lap |
Followed by ‘GRC #DBS’ with 20
laps in 138
th. This team
was made up of eight members, four of whom were new to this type of event
while only one member had run this event previously. With the first few laps
completed in the dry the team spirit wasn't dampened by the rain that then
started, and running passed the campsite gave a great lift in morale. Sam
had the fastest lap for the team just as the rain started. Rick
quoted "I've no idea how the hills work here, but there seems to be more
up than down!!"
The
team ran consistently well through the night and the rain, despite Louise and
Victoria having torch malfunctions. Sara and Rachael continued to run well as
they returned from injuries.Lizzie
had the honour of running the final lap of 20 for the team. As the sun finally
decided to show running into the finish area brandishing the GRC flag.
Whilst
Ros was packing up she tried to drum up support to gather a team for another 24
hour event later in the year.
| Rick Dobbs |
1 |
1:07:52 |
9 |
1:06:06 |
17 |
1:21:14 |
| Rosalind Sadler |
2 |
1:07:33 |
10 |
1:12:17 |
18 |
1:27:40 |
| Sam Bainbridge |
3 |
57:11 |
11 |
1:05:55 |
19 |
1:18:54 |
| Lizzie Potter |
4 |
1:04:53 |
12 |
1:18:08 |
20 |
1:27:33 |
| Louise Fenton |
5 |
1:03:50 |
13 |
1:24:16 |
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| Victoria Dexter |
6 |
1:07:00 |
14 |
1:30:41 |
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| Rachel Smith |
7 |
1:00:34 |
15 |
1:06:36 |
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| Sarah Pask |
8 |
1:25:40 |
16 |
1:43:12 |
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The
GRC mixed team of 5 ‘Grantham Bling Quintet’ also produced a strong performance
finishing 8th of 99 teams with a relentless 26 laps.th place.
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| Ben snaking along the track |
The team of five presents the biggest mental and physical
challenge of all the team sizes as the fastest way to run it is in single laps
which means you have to get loose five or six times and you have the shortest
break between laps. The lead runner was Matt targeted with getting the team
into a gap while at the same time holding back enough energy for future laps
which he did actually going faster on his second lap than his first. He was to
eventually complete six laps on his debut. Next off was Catherine Payne
clocking the fastest lap by a female in the club on her first lap who like the
rest of the team did five laps, down on last year’s seven when the weather was
kinder. An ankle injury hampered Robert while Mark’s good built up to the race
was to an extent nullified by a chest cold that prevented him getting the
absolute maximum out of himself. Struggling with a back injury Ben wasn’t able
to make his stamina count as he normally would. Taking into account the
injuries the team punched above their weight and were only two minutes away
from sixth place.
| Matt Williamson |
1 |
47:11 |
6 |
46:34 |
11 |
48:33 |
16 |
51:37 |
21 |
51:03 |
26 |
54:56 |
| Catherine Payne |
2 |
47:55 |
7 |
49:59 |
12 |
54:06 |
17 |
1:00:37 |
22 |
58:18 |
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| Robert Mcardle |
3 |
51:16 |
8 |
54:42 |
13 |
1:04:20 |
18 |
1:13:36 |
23 |
1:08:39 |
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| Mark Hillson |
4 |
49:57 |
9 |
50:42 |
14 |
53:13 |
19 |
55:29 |
24 |
57:06 |
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| Ben Mason |
5 |
51:34 |
10 |
55:28 |
15 |
1:01:34 |
20 |
1:06:43 |
25 |
1:14:27 |
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‘Despite
the insane state of the course, the atmosphere was incredible. With whole
families coming along to support, the mood in the camp remained positive in
tough conditions. The noise as members ran past the camp was at times deafening
with drums and loud speakers all aimed at giving runners a much needed boost.
I’m already thinking of next year.’ quoted Andrew Pask.
Despite
the extremely challenging conditions, the team building event was deemed an
outstanding success for the club with everyone leaving with a strong sense of
achievement and thinking about 2018 already.
