Cambridge Boundary Run

Three of Grantham Running Club’s endurance runners took part in last weekend’s Cambridge University Hare and Hounds Club’s Boundary Run to sharpen up for the April road marathons. This 26.2 mile route traverses roads, footpaths and trails, and incorporates some beautiful and not-often-seen areas of the city. It has about a third of the distance a very muddy off road and there are several reasonably sized hills on the course - significant enough to surprise those who are used to the flat terrain of Cambridge. One of the highlights is always racing against the rowing eights along the banks of the Cam although this time round the distinction between the river and the “dry” land was a bit vague. With almost a thousand runners taking part and the option of stopping half way all the GRC athletes opted for the full challenge. The strong wind was pleasantly cheeky especially when funnelled through the underpasses. As you would expect the muddier fields were practically unrunable in road shoes and those who opted for mudclaws to run them suffered badly on the road.

The GRC runners Catherine Payne, Rob Howbrook and Robert McArdle jogged as a trio for the first 16 miles treating it as a training run passing through the half way point in 1:52:14 before working their way through the field especially between 21 and 24 miles. At that point Catherine decided to shift up to near race pace on an uphill gravel section to move past some fading runners and finish 13^th lady with a time of 3:49:25 with the other two keeping their pace constant to clock 3:59:35 just inside their four hour target.