Keyworth Turkey Trot (Rescheduled from December)

Seventeen members of Grantham Running Club took part in the rescheduled Keyworth Turkey Trot
on Sunday 11th February 2018. The 35th running of the popular Christmas themed half marathon
was originally postponed on December 10 due to poor weather and although conditions were far
from ideal come the rearranged race day, there was never any real danger of the race being called
off for a second time. To the disappointment of some, Father Christmas was not available to hand
out the post race memento. He did though send one of his elves to perform the duty on his behalf.
Attired arguably more appropriately for Pyeong Chang than South Nottinghamshire, first home for
GRC was a well wrapped-up Matthew Kingston-Lee, who improved on his previous best Turkey Trot

Suzy at 12 miles

position by one place to finish sixth overall, clocking 1:18:06, in so doing retaining his V40 winner’s
title.
“The rescheduled race comes early in my training build-up for the London Marathon, so I went into
the race with the mentality of it being a good, hard training run,” commented Matthew after the
race. “The stiff, cold wind made the going tough, especially from mile ten onwards to the finish, but I
was pleased with my performance considering the time of year and my limited running in recent
months due to injury.”

Big course PB for Brendon

Second home for GRC was Rob Howbrook, another runner in training for a spring marathon by extending his warm-up run by three miles but still finished in a highly praiseworthy 1:33:04. Peter Bonner was next where despite being out of position at the start he was able to battle his way through the field and enjoy an excellent performance to clock 1:33:42, less than a minute outside his half marathon PB. Paul Rushworth was involved in a three way tussle with Peter and Richard in the last three miles as he continued his comeback to full fitness with a fine 1:34:39, ahead of Richard Payne, who ran well to 10 miles before struggling with the conditions, terrain, and lack of fitness due to
injury in the closing stages, clocking 1:35:58.

Craig sprints the last mile

Behind ultra runner Nick Payne, who ran a very solid 1:42:11, there was delight for Craig Drury, whose 1:47:47 was a fairer reflection of his ability than his only previous race which was the overcrowded Great North Run which took him almost fifteen minutes longer, and Chris Toon, who sliced over five minutes off his previous best with 1:48:40. They gave thanks to their pacemaker Chris Limmer (1:48:42) who was using the race as a training run for his upcoming 100 mile ultra race and had run 25 miles the day before. It was perhaps a baptism of fire for Claudette Joint to experience such tough conditions in her first ever half marathon, but her perseverance was rewarded with a sub-2 hour 1:56:18, just ahead of Robert Braker, who clocked 1:56:53. Sinead McDonnell (2:01:28) and Suzanne Britz (2:01:33) were separated by just a few seconds at the finish, ahead of Marc Tremain (2:02:52) and Hazel Dunthorne (2:07:26), who ran excellently to take nearly four minutes off her previous best.

Tough debut for Luke

New club member Luke Turner took part in his first ever race, running well to finish in 2:13:59, ahead of Brendon Buckley, who also ran well to finish six minutes faster than he had ever run this course before. Unfortunately Penny Hodges had to drop out at around three miles suffering the lingering effects of a heavy cold, but hopes to be back out marathon training in the next few days.

The race was won by Matthew Nutt of Holme Pierrepont in 1:15:26, with the women’s race won in
1:26:41 by Nicola Stevenson of Poplar Running Club. There were 695 finishers.

Position	Time	Name		Category		Grading	Cat Place
6	1:18:06	Matthew Kingston-Lee		M40		80.25%	3
85	1:33:04	Robert Howbrook		M55		77.93%	3
94	1:33:42	Peter Bonner		M40		66.36%	24
97	1:34:39	Paul Rushworth		M40		66.22%	25
114	1:35:58	Richard Payne		M SEN		61.95%	41
206	1:42:11	Nick Payne		M40		60.37%	51
290	1:47:47	Craig Drury		M40	PB	59.09%	64
299	1:48:40	Christopher Toon		M45	PB	60.07%	49
300	1:48:42	Chris Limmer		M SEN		54.48%	83
437	1:56:18	Claudette Joint		F35		59.27%	52
443	1:56:53	Robert Braker		M60		66.34%	16
497	2:01:28	Sinead Mcdonnell		F35		57.65%	64
499	2:01:33	Suzanne Britz		F45		59.26%	35
509	2:02:52	Marc Tremain		M SEN		49.81%	116
562	2:07:26	Hazel Dunthorne		F35	PB	52.16%	78
607	2:13:59	Luke Turner		M SEN		44.20%	120
651	2:21:27	Brendon Buckley		M60		55.92%	29