Hull Marathon

Chris Limmer was the sole Grantham Running Club representative at the Hull Marathon held on Sunday 22^nd September. Taking place on a brand new route, the marathon started on the iconic Humber Bridge. After running the length of it and back, the course sent the athletes on a twisty route which featured a loop of the city centre and some of the more well known landmarks before finishing with a loop of East Park. Although conditions were near perfect for running at the start with a cooling breeze, the temperatures quickly climbed during the second half of the race into the low twenties Celsius, which added an additional challenge.

Chris, who was on a fine run of form after his third place at the Newton’s Fraction Half Marathon a fortnight prior, was hoping he could better his personal best – 2:50:12 set at the 2017 London Marathon - but wanted to enjoy too the challenge of running his first and likely only road marathon of 2019.

After setting off at a comfortable pace and despite a number of 180 degree turns Chris was able to reach the halfway mark in 1:24:54. He was able to maintain 6:30 paced miles through the twists and turns of Hull Marina. There were, however, an increasing number of lonelier sections where the lack of marshals and course markings threatened to derail Chris and the other runners as the field became more spread out. Having climbed from around twentieth position at halfway to just outside the top 10 with five miles to run, Chris continued to run strongly but opted to slow the pace slightly to try and avoid any navigational errors on a course that was becoming very difficult to follow.  

Entering East Park with two miles to go Chris had climbed up to seventh place having picked off a few more runners who were slowing in the late stages of the race under the increasingly warm morning sun. Disaster was narrowly averted in the final mile where no clear directional signage saw Chris nearly made a crucial wrong turn (which, it transpires, a number of runners ahead had also made). Thankfully a local runner just behind Chris helped guide him in the right direction with Chris crossing the finish line seventh in a very respectable 2:52:00. 

Pleased to have clocked such a time while running a mostly conservative race, Chris rewarded himself with a well deserved iced coffee once he had collected his finishers’ medal! Chris’ attentions are now focused on the upcoming cross country season before training commences for another stab at his marathon PB at Manchester next April. 

The race was won by Gareth Cooke of Penistone Footpath Runners in 2:31:02 with Sally Ford of Kendal AC the winning woman in 3:17:38. There were 656 finishers.