Bedford Oakley 20

For those fancying a change of scenery from the Ashby 20 or miss out on a place, the Bedford Oakley 20 is a good shout.  Taking place around the same time as Ashby, it presents a good opportunity for those preparing for the spring marathons. There are 2 laps - a larger loop then smaller loop with a start of 2 laps around a field before heading past the race headquarters heading out towards the Bedford countryside.

It is classed as undulating with what could be called a hill to climb with a welcome downhill. This is where the 2 laps overlap and another 4 miles or so to run past headquarters again for the next short lap.

The sole Grantham Running Club representative was Caroline Davies who found that she initially needed to increase her speed but it looked like she could beat last year's disappointing time. Her eventual finish time was 2:53:52, about 8 minutes faster than last year.  This performance earned her a race hoody whose design took inspiration from the mad March hare.

The winner was Phil Martin from Peterborough & Nene Valley AC in 1:56:08. First lady home was Troi Baxter from Newmarket Joggers in 2:11:18.

 

Ashby 20

On 26th March Robin Atter and second claim member Kirsty Dickens from Grantham Running Club made the journey over to Ashby de la Zouch to compete in the Ashby 20.

The Ashby 20 is organised by Ivanhoe Runners and was established in 1989. The 20 mile race is over an undulating 2-lap scenic route mainly on closed roads and is popular with runners and ideal preparation for a Spring marathon.  The event presents a challenging route with plenty of hills.

The day looked to be a wet one, with heavy rain in the morning, but thankfully this quickly cleared up to leave a dry fresh morning for the race.

Robin and Kirsty ran the course together, which made for a pleasant run and helped tick the miles off whilst having a chat and supporting each other to complete the distance. On the route the pair were encouraged by numerous marshals and spectators. They even saw a dog sitting watching in a bed and another in a tracksuit.

Kirsty Dickens came home in 02:47:55, followed by Robin Atter 02:48:04.

All runners received the famous Ashby 20 hoodie, this year in orange.  The colour is always kept secret until the runners are awarded the hoodie on completion. Chocolates, biscuits, and fruit were also in plentiful supply at the end of the race.

The winner was Daniel Bagley of Mansfield Harriers in 01:47:36. The women's winner was Abigail Halcarz of Ivanhoe Runners in 02:07:53.

 

Ironbridge Half Marathon

 On a cold and rainy morning, new member of Grantham Running Club Balint Beni arrived at the starting line for the Ironbridge half marathon, his first race running in GRC colours. Despite the weather, he was excited to take on the challenge and see what he could do despite still suffering the effects of a bout of flu.

The route allows runners to take in the sights of Telford landmarks such as Coalport Bridge, the historic Ironbridge, Coalbrookdale Viaduct and Rough Park with a start and finish in the award winning Telford Town Park.

The first lap was around the Telford town park and was very narrow and it was challenging to pick up any pace and overtake other runners but the scenic countryside surrounding iron bridge was beautiful.

As Balint hit the halfway point, he was feeling strong and confident, thanks to the course being downhill. As they reached the world’s first Ironbridge, the course began to get more challenging, with lots of steep hills and winding paths, but he tried to keep focus and maintain the pace.

As he crossed the finish line, he was happy to see a time of 1:50:07, a new PB.

Overall, the Ironbridge half marathon was an amazing experience, more as a trail run with lots of puddles and mud, then a road half marathon. Despite the rain and cold weather, he had a great time running the course and pushing himself to his limits. The crowd support was amazing, with spectators cheering the runners on and volunteers handing out water and snacks along the way.

Caythorpe Dash

On Sunday 26th March 5 members of Grantham Running Club made the short trip to the village of Caythorpe for the biannual Caythorpe Dash. Held twice a year, the March event sees a 5k and half marathon race and September holding 5k and 10k races.

For the sold-out spring event there were 4 classifications: a 5k, 5k-canicross, half marathon and half marathon canicross.

All club members opted for the 5k distance with 2 choosing to run with their canine companions. The recent wet weather had made its mark on the mostly trail route adding an element of ‘fun’ as the runners dodged puddles and tried to avoid slipping on the slick sections of greasy mud.

In the 5k Martin Rodell was first home for the club in 9th place with a time of 24:58 having already run 3 miles to the event. Gillian Cardus and Vicki Geeson ran the race together coming in 37th and 38th place in 37:34 and 37:40 respectively.

In the 5k canicross Alan Carley ran with his trusty companion Fergus and with a great time of 21:24 came in 3rd place. Vicki Ball had run the event in 2020 with her dog Monty and was pleased to come in 33 seconds quicker at 24:11 and 7th place.

After the race everyone enjoyed a slice of homemade cake whilst they discussed their adventures in the mud and how trail shoes would have been beneficial.

The 5k was won by Ben Allen in 17:53 and Jenny McBain 22:38. The 5k canicross by Sarah Murdoch in 18:24 and Paul Chandler 19:53.

The half marathon was won by James Ross in 1:19:46 and Samantha Cullen in 1:29:08. The half marathon canicross by Jess Ross 1:37:43 and Steve Bienkowski in 1:57:58.

 

Fleet Half Marathon

Grantham Running Club’s Andrew Pask travelled to Hampshire for the Fleet Half Marathon. This event also doubles up as the Armed Forces Inter-Services Half Marathon Championships where Andrew was representing the Royal Air Force.

Organised by Fleet & Crookham AC, this event is arguably the largest club organised half marathon in the country with nearly 2,000 finishers in a super competitive field. Before the race, runners were forced to prepare in some miserable rainy conditions but once the race got underway conditions improved and were perfect for fast times.

Andrew with modest expectations positioned himself in front of the ‘sub 1hr 30min’ pacer from the start, hoping to never have to see him come past. After a pacey start, Andrew spotted the dreaded pacer at the 8-mile point but thankfully he was at least 1 min behind. Feeling confident, Andrew pushed on knowing he would not be caught. Taking his first glance at his watch at 12 miles, Andrew was pleased with his 6:40/mile average pace.

After a sprint finish, Andrew crossed the line with 1:27:51 on the clock, his fastest over the distance for 18 months and even more pleasing given his recent run of bad form which thankfully looks to be behind him now.

 

Burghley 7

 

On a bright and sunny spring morning, members of Grantham Running Club ventured the short distance down the A1 to Stamford for the Burghley 7.  This popular event in the running calendar is hosted in the grounds of Burghley House where the race starts before taking to the streets of Stamford.  Runners then go out into the countryside before returning after approximately 5 miles onto the estate roads through some of the finest grounds with its lake and river, until finally finishing in front of the majestic Burghley House which is best known for the being the backdrop for the famous horse trials.

A question mark had hung over the race starting only 48 hours before due to the freezing weather conditions and snow. Thankfully it started as scheduled at 9.00am in perfect spring like conditions with little to no breeze, a temperature of +7C and no sign of what had preceded on the Friday morning. The breeze did however pick up shortly after the start and created a few issues for runners particularly along the 1 mile straight prior to the return onto the grounds of the Burghley estate. 

Being a local event, which has always proved popular in the East Midlands the race started with a capacity entry of 1,600 runners. Needless to say, GRC always enjoy a good representation and 2023 was no exception with no less than 14 members entering and delivering a number of personal bests.

First home for Grantham and proving age is no barrier was Clive George who improved on last year’s time to clock an impressive 51:53. Dale Towning who only 24 hours earlier had completed an 18.5-mile training run in preparation for his upcoming marathon, finished in an amazing 55:48.  

A steady stream of the green army followed to cross the finish line including Jon Whittaker in 57:18, Daniel Wallace just missing out on a sub 60min with 60:00:24, Debbie Bennett was the first Grantham lady home in 1:06:17 just in front of Rach Deans who improved on last years’ time to finish in 1:06:27.  Following was  Catherine Wallace in 1:07:30, Gayle Smith who scored a PB with 1:15:08, Louise Hirst 1:15:20, Christine Sawyer 1:15:35, Yvonne Buckley 1:15:43 and Brendon Buckley 1:22:58. Running closely together were Gillian Cardus 1:23:14 and Vicky Geeson 1:23:35 who both scored new personal bests.

The race was won by Elliot Smales in a time of 36:13 with first female Natasha Martin completing the course in 44:24.

Cambridge Boundary Run

 Sunday 12 March saw four runners from Grantham Running Club meet up to take part in the Cambridge University Hare & Hounds annual Boundary run. This offers runners the chance to follow a waymarked course either halfway or fully around Cambridge, with approximately 30% of the course being offroad and the rest being on pavement, urban footpaths, cycleways and quiet roads.

This is a relatively cheap way to earn a medal, but due to the course conditions it doesn’t show on power of ten, so everyone taking part was doing so as a stepping stone to greater challenges.

First to finish for the club was Craig Drury who, like just over half the competitors, opted to stop at the half-marathon finish, then follow the map on a trip through the centre of Cambridge, arriving back at the start point in time to cheer on the other runners. Craig was doing the run as preparation for a fell race in May, so the muddy conditions following the snowmelt were considered a feature not a bug.

The next two finishers ran together for the first 20 miles, with Peter Bonner taking advantage of Robert McArdle’s experience in the race to avoid any navigation issues and to maintain a steady pace. At that point, Peter had planned to race the final 10k as practice for the Manchester Marathon next month. This plan was sorely tested when Peter missed a turning almost immediately (though other runners were alert and called him back to the right course), and the conditions underfoot meant that although race effort was achieved, target pace wasn’t. Despite this, Peter was pleased to overtake multiple other runners during this time and finished the marathon in 44^th place in 3 hours 52 minutes.

Robert meanwhile was taking part in his first race this year, having had time off for two eye operations, so his target was to assess his condition and use this to guide future plans. He finished in 76^th place in 4 hours 10 minutes.

The final runner was Nick Payne, who arrived at the event fresh !?! from running 32 miles the previous day at the Waterways 30 event. His purpose in running was to get used to back-to-back hard days in advance of a Lands End to John O’Groats run in June. Nick finished in 4 hours 43 minutes and was pleased that at the end his legs felt better than they had when he started the run.

The marathon race was won by Daniel sexton in 3 hours 7 minutes, with the first female (and third overall) being Katie Godoff in 3:17. The half marathon was won by Peter Molloy in 1 hour 13.

Notts 10

 Round 2 of the GRC GP Series kicked of at Holme Pierrepont at the weekend and a GRC team of 6 joined the small field for this low-key, old-school race. On a flat course that is exposed to any kind of wind, the team were fortunate that the weather on the day was as good as you could expect.

Doubling up as the Notts 10-mile championships, this race attracted a very strong field. The strongest of the GRC team proved to be Joaquim ‘Flash’ Jeronimo who was targeting a sub 1hr run. Flash ran the race like he runs any other – hard. Trying desperately to hang on to a group from Newark, he dug-in on the long finish approach to smash his target with a time of 59:03. In his first attempt at the distance, Flash becomes only the 3rd runner to represent GRC to break the magical 1hr mark.

Next in was Andrew Pask who’s been struggling for form of late. Using this race as a marker, he concentrated on running as hard as he could and then evaluating later. Taking his first look at the watch at 9 miles, Andrew was shocked to see the pace was quicker than he expected. Finishing with a confidence boosting 67:39, his time is something like his times of old.

Next across the line was the ever-improving Stefan Latter. Confident of a PB, Stefan ran a near perfect race to clock a time of 69:57 which beats his previous best by 37 seconds and ranks him 210 in the UK for the V45 category.

Alan Carley was next in his longest race in 3 years and his first attempt at a 10-mile race. Clocking a solid 71:03, Alan is now ranked 102 in the UK for the V55 category.

Ben Mason, the GRC GP Series leader was there, stretching his lead by being the only one to already clock 2 race performances. Enjoying his moment at the top of the tree, Ben ran his fastest 10-mile race in 4 years with 79:53 and is now targeting the next race in the series.

The only female runner in the team was Emma Duncan who was attempting the distance for the first time. Being joined for her last mile by the other members of the team, Emma ran a strong finish to clock an impressive 96:10, bagging a Pewter club standard in the process.

Waterway 30

Hobo Pace hosts a range of events from 10 to 100 miles, all set around Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.  Grantham Running Club’s Caroline Davis took on their Waterways 30 (which by her watch actually came in at 32.25 miles).  The event also welcomes dogs, so her trusty sidekick Pepper came along with the intention of only running half the distance.

The start is at South Wheatley Village Hall and canicross runners set off prior to the main group of runners and Caroline st off with four other dog and runner partnerships.  There is some track and field edge on the route before reaching the Chesterfield Canal and for the first time in a race, Caroline was actually in the lead for 2 miles before being overtaken on a muddy ploughed field. 

The pathway by the canal was a little muddy and a fellow canicross runner slipped over a number of times on this section.  Over the section to checkpoint 1, Caroline was overtaken by a number of runners but then they all settled into a pace running through Nottinghamshire and heading towards Lincolnshire where at checkpoint 2 the route moved to follow the River Trent.  At this point Caroline swapped dogs and Amber came along for the next section (just the 4.2 miles).  It was also the point when she did start to feel quite tired and the effects of the Belvoir Challenge the week before started to kick in.  However, with head down, the pair kept a reasonable pace to checkpoint 3 at Gainsborough where Pepper took to the trail again. 

The next section along the Trent winds around the Power Station and starts to introduce some stiles.  Caroline was relieved to have swapped dogs as quite difficult lifting a dog over the stile on tired legs.  After leaving the Trent it was time to wind their way back to the finish.  Checkpoint 4 was only 1.3 miles away and then another 6 miles to the finish.  She spied her fellow canicross ahead, but they also sped up to beat her to the finish, so Caroline finished as second canicross home in 5:55:04. 

For the first time in the event, there was a female first and second overall in the race.  Rachel Dalton from Smalley Road Runners crossed the line in 4 :47 :56 with Rachel Piper from Cherwell Runners and Joggers coming in at 4:51:25.  First male home was Zac O’Neill from Wellingborough and District AC in 4 :51:32s.