Worksop Halloween Half Marathon

Grantham Running Club sent a bumper team of 29 runners to the 38^th Worksop Halloween Half Marathon held on Sunday 27st October. Bolstered by GRC members who entered the race having been left disappointed by the start line cancellation of the Great Eastern Half in Peterborough two weeks earlier, the already popular race saw a record turnout for the Grantham club who had made it a round of their Grand Prix Series. In stark contrast to the Peterborough race, the Halloween themed half marathon once again took place in near perfect autumnal conditions.

Starting at Outwood Academy Portland, the race has one of the toughest starts of any with the first mile up to the top of Sparken Hill before rolling to Clumber Park and continuing on a constantly undulating course that culminates with a swift descent back down Sparken Hill to the finish.

Matthew Williamson led the green army for the opening miles and was the first GRC runner to encounter the road being flooded at the four mile point courtesy of recent heavy rain causing the River Poulter to burst its banks. This left runners with little option but to run through the ankle-deep water for around 30 meters.

Undeterred, the green vests pushed on when a confident Joe Clarke took the race on as if the first five miles were just a warm-up. Pushing on through Clumber Park, Clarke was gaining speed mile after mile, finishing with a downhill blast of pace to grab a PB by 29 seconds with 1:25:26 - a fine achievement on a course not normally associated with Personal Best times.

Next up was promising young new club member Barney Stretton, who was making his road race debut. Prior to the event he was encouraged by club mates to consider adjusting his original target time of beating the 1:45 his Dad had run over the course in 2018. Running free of the pressures of wearing a GPS watch and perhaps taking advantage of some local knowledge of the course having grown up in Worksop, Barney ran a perfect negative split to clock an outstanding 1:27:36. There was double cause for celebration for the Strettons with dad Barny, who has also recently joined the club, coming home with a new PB of 1:42:44.

Catherine was first FV50

Veteran Catherine Payne was first home for the GRC ladies, winning the FV50 category with a season’s best time of 1:38:09, placing her seventeenth woman overall and earning a age group ranking of 140th in the country over the distance. Next across the line for the ladies was the ever-reliable Caroline Davies with 1:47:59 close to her best on a hilly and testing course.

Additionally there were personal bests for Sam Clarke, who established a much more representative half marathon personal best time of 1:33:03 having previously run an injury affected 1:50:41 at the 2018 Newton’s Fraction Half Marathon, and Vicki Geeson, whose 2:32:51 saw a twelve minute improvement on her half marathon debut at last year's edition of the race.

2019 bests were set by: Andrew Pask (1:28:05) and Jason Blair (1:33:57). 

Making their debuts over the 13.1 mile distance were: Aaron Smith (1:37:41); Alison Clark (2:24:46), Heather Welbourne (2:24:45); Carole Pigott (2:31:57); and Emma Church (2:32:51).

Other GRC results: Matthew Williamson (1:28:18); Tony Johnson (1:29:30); Robert Howbrook (1:30:59 – 2^nd V60); Matthew Atter (1:34:22); Richard Payne (1:38:35); Gav Meadows (1:39:38); Simon Smith (1:43:28); Robert McArdle (1:44:45); Paul Kelly (1:51:20); Katie Bland (1:58:12); Wayne Baxter (2:01:21); Kate Marshall (2:13:59); Tracy Webb (2:16:39); Claire Fritz (2:36:05); and Yvonne Buckley (2:36:05).

The race was won by Stuart Spencer of Notts AC in 1:08:28 with Phillipa Williams of Sheffield Running Club the winning woman in 1:25:26. There were 2416 finishers.