Rightmove MK Marathon Weekend

The early May bank holiday saw the Rightmove MK Marathon weekend with four members of Grantham Running Club taking part in the marathon and half marathon events, held at the Milton Keynes Dons Stadium on Monday May 6^th.

The official race description would have you believe that the races incorporate some of them most scenic surroundings in the country and landmarks to rival more established towns and cities. The reality is that after leaving the stadium runners head towards central Milton Keynes and the ‘pleasures’ of the grid road system for the opening five miles before the half and marathon routes split. The marathon heads through Milton Keynes village and around Willen Lake before joining the Grand Union Canal and a succession of footpaths and cycle paths that dominate much of the second half of the race before returning to an undeniably exciting finish inside the stadium.

The marathon course especially is tough going with a surprising amount of elevation - around 1000ft - much of which coming in the form of short sharp ascents out of pedestrian underpasses and numerous undulations, particularly in the closing stages of the race. There is though generous spectator support in pockets along the course and a great number inside the stadium for the grandstand finish.

First GRC finisher was Jack Dodwell who, just a month after completing his first marathon, ran a PB of 3:56:42, a 58 second improvement on his debut at Manchester despite several setbacks, including a fall in the opening mile. In her debut marathon Willow Stacey ran a fine race to finish in 4:11:58. Her pre-race fears that she had not trained enough proved unfounded as she not only completed the marathon, but did so without stopping. After the race Willow described the marathon experience as ‘horrible’ yet cannot wait to attempt another!

Willow was closely followed in by Kirsty Dickens, who had previously run the London Marathon in 2018. Kirsty ran well to better her London performance by over an hour, finishing in 4:12:32. Kirsty stated that she enjoyed the scenery and was thankful for the abundance of jelly babies handed out by the crowd en route.

The sole entrant in the half marathon was Sam Dodwell, who beat his sub 1:45 target by just one second (1:44:59) and in so doing bettered his old PB by a minute and three quarters. Sam also commented that the half route contained numerous steep inclines and sometimes poor conditions underfoot on gravel footpaths, with numerous tight, sometimes hairpin, bends to contend.

The marathon was won by Michael Aldridge of Wootton Road Runners in 2:32:46 with Helen Mussen of Watford Joggers the winning female in 2:54:51. The half marathon was won by Jordan Buzzard of Leighton Buzzard AC in 1:10:56 with Rebecca Butler the winning woman in 1:28:43. There were 1841 finishers of the marathon and 2589 finishers of the half marathon.