Cambridge Half Marathon

Another PB for Jonny

On Sunday 8^th March ten members of Grantham Running Club joined over 11,000 other runners for the 2020 Cambridge Half Marathon. Starting on Midsummer Common before weaving through the historic streets of the city, the course then sent runners out towards the villages of Granchester and Trumpington before finally giving runners a fast final few miles downhill back to the city and to the finish back on Midsummer Common.

First in for GRC and smashing both his PB and the previous club record by nearly four minutes with a superb 1:11:35 was Jonny Palmer. Currently in the form of his life he will sadly not have the opportunity to target a sub-2:30 clocking at the London Marathon in April, but hopefully can use all the miles banked in training to good effect when racing presumably resumes over other distances in the summer.  

Finishing nearly ten minutes later was Chris Limmer. Having nursed a niggle in his shin in the days before the race he took it relatively easy in the twisty and narrow first four miles. He soon got in to his stride though as the route left the city centre and spent a majority of the race overtaking people and was not unhappy with his 1:21:01 clocking.

Gav Meadows showed a welcome return to form after running a well paced race to finish less than two minutes outside his PB with 1:29:46 – his fastest half marathon time since 2017.  Sarah Chynoweth finished exactly a minute later (1:30:46) after slowing in the final stages and was disappointed to not break ninety minutes but should be rightly pleased with another age graded performance above 70%.

Gav back running

Clocking 1:40:40, Craig Drury shaved seven seconds off his eighteen month old PB. Despite the congestion on the course, he was full of praise for the support and atmosphere of the event. Returning too from Cambridge with a PB was Harriet Siebenaller, who took a whopping ten minutes off her half marathon PB, clocking 1:40:01.

Claudette Joint also claimed a personal best by three minutes and was rightly delighted with 1:53:31. Vicki Ball was equally pleased finishing her first half marathon since joining the club nearly two years ago in a time of 2:02:58.

Sandwiched between Vicki and Claudette were Katie Bland and Neil Emerson. Katie ran her thirteenth half marathon in as many months as part of her marathon training and only three minutes outside her PB with 1:55:43; Neil ran his quickest half marathon since 2018 with 1:55:05.

The race winners were both from the local club Cambridge and Coleridge with Victoria Knight winning the women’s race in 1:14:45 and Jonathan Escalante-Phillips winning overall in 1:05:36.