Eden Hall Middlebeck Newark Half Marathon

Left to right. Jack Dodswell, Joss Smith, Simon Smith, Robert McArdle after the race.

Last Sunday six members of Grantham Running Club joined almost eight hundred runners on the start line of the Newark Half Marathon. The new course, now in its third year, is a flat and potentially fast one finishing at Sconce and Devon Park. This superbly organised race is jointly hosted by all of the local running clubs and has a growing reputation amongst the running community.

Another sub 90 for Tony

With the weather ideal for running albeit a bit damp at the start GRC were led home by Tony Johnson with a superb 1:29:39 despite not feeling 100% confident before the start Tony managed his fastest time in three attempts on the new route clipping over 2 minutes from his 2017 mark. Next home was Joss Smith in her first every road race, after a hesitant start closer to the back of the field Joss was able to steadily work her way through the other runners to finish as 11^th woman in a time 1:40:01, just one second outside of earning her a UKA ranking. She was closely followed by another new runner, Jack Dodwell’s time of1:40:42 whilst not a PB still exceeded his pre-race expectations as he was suffering from the effects of 18 holes of golf the previous day.

Magaretta Murray (black Vest)

Yet another runner in his first full season of racing, Simon Smith, set a superb PB going sub 1:45 for the first time in a perfectly paced race keeping to an average pace of fractionally under 8 minutes per mile all the way through. Just behind him but given exactly the same time of 1:44:11 was Robert McArdle.

The final athlete for the club was Magaretta Murray opting to race in her “Newark MIND” vest to raise funds and awareness for this wonderful charity. As an very experienced runner Magaretta was able to start with the fifteen other MIND fundraisers for the first part before setting a season’s best cutting almost 14 minutes off her previous mark with a 2:32:30.

Position	Time	Name		Category		Grading	Ranking
66	01:29:39	Tony Johnson		MV50		75.98%	274
136	01:40:01	Joceline Smith		FSEN		65.82%	N/A
142	01:40:42	Jack Dodwell		MSEN		58.81%	N/A
187	01:44:11	Simon Smith		MV50	PB	64.82%	N/A
188	01:44:11	Robert McArdle		MV55		69.61%	676
668	02:32:30	Magaretta Murray		FV55		54.26%	N/A