Thirteen members of Grantham Running Club made the 90 minute
journey north on Sunday 27th October to take part in the 34th edition of the
Leeds Abbey Dash 10K, run in aid of Age UK and a round of the club’s Grand Prix
Series.
Sunday dawned bright and fresh with scant breeze which, thankfully, was not as
strong as forecast. Indeed aside from some light drizzle at the start,
conditions were nearly perfect for racing. Starting at 9:30am meant early
starts for the ‘Green Army’, but one that many felt was justified given
the slick organisation, strong crowd support and the prospect of running in what
turned out to be arguably the most stacked with talent and achievement UK road
race in living memory, with 29 men breaking 30 minutes, 26 women breaking 35
minutes, and a quite astonishing 191 of the first 250 finishers setting new
personal bests.
2019 saw a tweak of the Abbey Dash course with organisers claiming it to
be even quicker due the removal of an uninspiring section through a trading estate
present since 2013. The race was now as close as it has been in recent years to
its original incarnation in the 1980s with the start returning to outside the
famous Leeds Town Hall where runners would finish 10km later having run a
simple out-and-back course along the A65 to another famous Yorkshire landmark -
the historic Kirkstall Abbey. Somewhat surprisingly given the amazing times run
year after year at the race, the course is not entirely flat, with a gently
incline for most of the run out to the Abbey that yields a fast mostly slightly
downhill second half of the race, aided in 2019 with a tailwind as runners headed back to the finish.
The race had been set to be an exciting Coe vs Ovett vs Cram
style GRC showdown between the clubs’ quickest runners Jonny Palmer, Ian
Williams, and Matthew Kingston-Lee. Alas work commitments forced Ian to miss
the race and a heavy cold forced Matthew to reluctantly not take his place on
the start line. Ultra-runner Jonny, who himself had fought a cold in the week
before the race, ran his first 10K since 2016 and his first in the green vest
of Grantham Running Club having recently become a first claim member, wasn’t
overly optimistic about his chances but nonetheless ran a superb 33:28, which
broke Matthew’s month old 10K club record by thirteen seconds and improved his
10K PB by 102 seconds. Such is the quality of the field at Leeds, this time
netted Jonny a finishing position of just 185th!
In 601st (!) place and next to finish for GRC was
Sam Jepson-Rivers. Sticking to the plan of a conservative opening half, he ran
with club mate Sarah Chynoweth to 5K before putting the hammer down for the run
back to the finish. To his surprise and delight Sam, in clocking 39:26, not
only achieved his 2019 ambition of breaking the 40 minute barrier but also sliced
76 seconds off his previous personal best. Having targeted a sub-39 minute performance, Peter
Bonner left a bit disappointed with his result at a race that brought about
great success for him last year. Nevertheless he still managed to clock his second
fastest ever 10K time with 39:33.
The aforementioned Sarah Chynoweth was the first GRC lady
home. Like her partner Jonny, she has been focusing on longer distance training
and racing over the summer but showed that this can yield great performances
over shorter distances. The club’s 5K record holder ran a well judged evenly
paced race to finish 89th in the women’s race. Elated with her time
of 39:50, she joined a very exclusive sub-40 club, moving to #2 all time on the
GRC 10K rankings behind Nicola Jefferson, who ran 39:30 at the Summer Solstice
in 2015.
Brothers Jack and Sam Dodwell were one of the hundreds who
enjoyed the PB streak throughout the field with each taking sizeable chunks
from their previous bests. Jack, having seemingly recovered from his efforts at
the Berlin Marathon, finished in 42:21, bettering his previous best by 75
seconds. Sam continued his meteoric improvement over the course of 2019 - 43:15
further improved his PB by 38 seconds set at the Summer Solstice and marked a
seven minute improvement since his opening PB gambit at Oundle in January.
Second home for the ladies a freshly invigorated Penny Hodges was clearly
delighted to run 44:11 - her fastest 10K since 2015 and a comfortable silver
age grade securing 71.39%. Third GRC female home Sylv Hull defied all runners
logic by ‘warming up’ the day before with a twelve mile jog of the Newton's
Fraction course. Apparently discovering a new magic formula, she defied
logic and her own disbelief to clock an impressive 54:52, over two minutes
faster than her previous 10K best. Behind Sylv, Tracey Gell ran a superb race
to better her previous best by over eighty seconds with 1:02:20, in so doing
bringing the one hour barrier a serious target for future races.
Also representing GRC
in Leeds, Stuart Baty clocked his third fastest ever 10K with 48:53; Sarah
High was a very respectable thirteenth in her age category crossing the finish
line in 52:05; Suzanne Hardy enjoyed her second fastest 10K to date with 1:01:24;
and Louise Kennedy, who clocked 1:00:58, thoroughly enjoyed her time on the city
streets and remarked at how positive the race atmosphere was, vowing to return
next year.
The race was won by Omar Ahmed of Birchfield Harriers in a new event record
28:38. Charlotte Arter of Cardiff was the winner of the winner’s race - 31:34
was also an event record and the fourth fastest ever legal road 10K time by a
British woman. There were 6738 finishers.
