North Midlands Cross Country League – Rd 2 – Corby

After an encouraging opening race at Markeaton Park in October, eighteen members of Grantham Running Club headed to West Glebe Park in Corby on Saturday 9^th November to take part in the second round of the 2019/20 North Midlands Cross Country League.

As a result of the near unprecedented volume of rain in recent weeks the course was particularly muddy and made for what, some would consider to be, a proper cross-country race. The preceding junior races had further churned up some of the particularly muddy sections and it gave both the women and men a challenging and technical course for their races which began with the women setting off on their approximately 6km race shortly before two pm.

Sarah Chynoweth was the first of seven GRC ladies to finish in her first North Midlands XC fixture, coming home an excellent 23^rd with a time of 23:28. This comfortably earned her the distinction of the highest finishing position ever by a GRC woman in this league. She didn’t have too long to wait before Michelle Parczuk backed up her superb run at the English National Relays a week prior with another really impressive performance finishing  86^th and first Veteran finisher for the club. Fellow Veteran, 2018 joint club Cross Country Runner of the Year, Caroline Davis finished next in a fine 94^th. Women’s Team Captain Sarah High followed in 134^th, with Slyv Hull 150^th, Kate Marshall 163^rd and Diana McDonald 172^nd.

The Senior Women’s team improved significantly on their round one performance, scoring some 180 points fewer to finish twenty second on the day with 371 points, just fifteen points more than nineteenth placed Harborough. They currently stand nineteenth in the overall League standings with the potential to climb several places if a full team can be fielded in the next two races. The Vets team finished eleventh on the day with 314 points that sees them also lie eleventh in the overall standings with the potential to climb into the top ten by the season finale.

The men’s race kicked off thirty minutes after the women’s on an approximately 10km long course, with a number of the eleven GRC runners making last minute changes to their footwear in the hope of gaining valuable positions for the team.

Jonny Palmer matched the achievements of his partner Sarah on his North Midlands XC debut, smashing the previous highest finishing GRC position in the very competitive league by crossing the finish line in a brilliant eighteenth position with a time of 33:04. Over three minutes behind in 78^th place was Chris Limmer who found the going tough through the more technical wooded sections and lost a few places as a result. He was followed closely in 84^th by a resurgent Grant Davies with Joaquim Jeronimo finishing just outside the top 100 in 103^rd. Matthew Williamson ran a confidence boosting race to follow in 109^th despite making the error of sprinting for the finish line at the end of the second lap, unaware there was still another 3km lap to run! Gav Meadows, 132^nd, finished the race one second quicker than his previous best on the course.

Peter Bonner in 155^th was the first GRC Veteran to finish, followed by fellow Vet Scott Jones in 187^th, who will have surely found the terrain and climate in Northamptonshire tough going after enjoying an extended holiday in Lanzarote and having spent the summer racing exclusively on the track. Club mate Jack Dodwell chased Scott all the way and certainly won the award for most spectacular finish with his dive for the line but was all smiles with 194^th. Finally, the ever reliable Veteran runner Chris Toon crossed the line in 228^th ahead of fellow Vet Daniel Howson, who with 240^th place completed the GRC Vets team.

In the all important team standings the Senior Men had a brilliant day to finish eleventh out of twenty three teams. With the official results appearing to show a cumulative score of 392 for the top five GRC men to finish for the club rather than the 421 for which they have been credited, they may ultimately move ahead of the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham Trent into a superb ninth position. Even with their current score they claimed some significant scalps, including the illustrious Lincoln Wellington AC. In the overall standings this strong performance saw them climb one spot to fourteenth in the overall league standings. The Vets team saw a much improved performance – fifteenth place and 570 points saw them close the gap to local rivals Grantham AC.