Nottingham Christmas Marathon

Lucinda's first marathon

The first Sunday of advent took a handful of Grantham Running Club members to Holme Pierrepont for the Nottingham Christmas Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K. The event involved running laps of the rowing lake ranging from one lap for the 5K to almost nine laps for the marathon. It's a very flat course and the weather conditions were good - a nice mild day. There was live music and a grandstand finish as well as a bespoke Christmas medal and turkey sandwiches for all finishers.

Taking part in the marathon was Lucinda Gamble who only started running 18 months previously & is a graduate of GRC's '10 weeks to 10K' programme. She built up gradually to this race progressing from 5K parkruns to a half marathon race before taking on the full marathon distance. She finished in 5:27:48 - a fantastic achievement for her first attempt at running 26.2 miles. Regular marathon runner Nick Payne also took part crossing the line in a solid 4:05:21.

Running the 5K were Peter Bonner and Louise Kennedy. Peter came home in 20:26 finishing 10th overall in a field of 200 runners. He also placed first in the Male Veteran 40 category. 'Couch to 5K' graduate Louise, who is new to racing, crossed the line in a very respectable 34:20. She will, no doubt, be looking to beat this time in the future and maybe even make the step up to 10K further down line.

Position	Time	Name		Category		Grading	Ranking
120	4:05:21	Nick Payne		MV40		52.17%	N/A
201	5:27:48	Lucinda Gamble		FV35		42.45%	N/A