As is usually the case, the beginning of April signals the beginning of the major Marathon season for club runners up and down the country. It remains to be seen if the old adage of “Winter miles, Spring smiles” rings true, but it does bring about a unique and exciting time for us running purists.... Continue Reading →

As the dust settles on the 3rd month and indeed first quarter of the year, it’s that time once again to look back over the performances that caught the eye and crown March’s member of the Month. March saw the official start of the GRC Grand Prix Series - my thanks once again to Vicki... Continue Reading →

Welcome to the review and Member of The Month of the  ‘blink-and-you’ll-miss-it’ month that is February. A month that started with a prolonged spell of ghastly stormy and windy weather and ended with the winds of change blowing through Europe... In the grand scheme of things, running probably took a backward step. But I’m not... Continue Reading →

3…2..1… HAPPY NEW YEA… wait a second! Can you believe that was over a month ago! Where does the time go?  We are now 6 weeks in to 2022 – or should I say for the marathoners amongst the Green and Black army about 7 weeks until the ‘Spring Mara’ season! One thing I’m not... Continue Reading →

Firstly, before It’s not too late, may I personally wish you a happy, prosperous and healthy New Year, Constant Reader. I’m sure, like me, you can’t quite believe that 2021 is now last weeks hangover and it’s time to refocus, refresh and attack the 12 months of 2022 ahead. Before we do, let us collectively... Continue Reading →

Sink into a comfy chair, Constant Reader. Pour a glass of something (‘Tis the Season after all) and let’s get down to November’s Member of The Month: November – the time of year we runners like to get a little dirty! 😉 We trade road shoes for trails/spikes and “enjoy” stomping around fields, through lashings... Continue Reading →

Well now, dear Constant Reader, may I be the first to colourise a picture of a simply outstanding October for GRC? It certainly jumps out as one of the best months for quite some time. Such was the sheer volume and level of achievement, it’s fair to say deciding a winner has proven to be... Continue Reading →

Hello Constant Reader and a warm welcome to September Member of the Month. September saw the last throes of summer cling on like a toddler clutching a favoured toy to their bosom. It provided the ideal last few weeks of preparation for the fastly approaching October/Autumn marathons – the last long runs, the chance to... Continue Reading →

Races are well and truly up and running again now and August’s race performances proved that we’re very much back in business.  Stuart Baty is one nomination that is having an outstanding season. His 5k run at Chase the Sun races was a 47s PB, his 2nd PB at the distance this season.  Robin Atter... Continue Reading →

As we entered July the nations sporting gaze turned from Europe to the jewel of East Asia: Japan and the postponed Games of the XXXII Olympiad. As a multitude of sporting achievements and drama amazed and astounded in equal measure nearly 6,000 miles away, the runners of Grantham set about their own achievements, albeit slightly... Continue Reading →

Ahhh June - the height of the British summer; Wimbledon starts, Football was supposed to ‘Come Home’ and GRC saw the long overdue start of its popular Grand Prix series after a Covid hiatus.  2021 has been another year of change and disruption, not least the largest of the spring marathons (London and Manchester) both... Continue Reading →

The Darling Buds of May, May Day Bank Holiday/s, the blossoming spring and longer, lighter evenings… Traditionally May is a transitional month, one full of expectation and hope. Indeed in a running sense, it normally marks the end of Marathon season (for a couple of months at least) and attentions divert to the athletics world... Continue Reading →

April… ahhh yes the Month of Marathons - all those winter moths of long, hard training paying off and coming to fruition… or… as it happened; the month of just entering ‘some kind’ of race and feeling the trepidation and triumph of race day once again. With “roadmap” seemingly replacing “road racing” in the runners... Continue Reading →

A plethora of virtual events coloured March with stellar performances across multiple disciplines.  Firstly, when asked to think of historical Athletics moments through the annuals of time, many come to mind – but perhaps elevated to the level of ‘Legend’ is Sir Roger Bannister’s sub 4-minute mile, some 67 years ago! 1609 meters, 1760 yards... Continue Reading →

In a month usually focused on longer runs and hard races to finalise those Spring marathon plans and tactics, February can be a tough month on runners. It’s perhaps refreshing that, in light of continuing Covid-19 Pandemic restrictions, the February ‘Virtual’ event was the exact opposite of those long distances; the 3000m. Traditionally, a ‘track’... Continue Reading →

This January saw the return of the clubs “Member of the Month” award. The year started with a new lockdown, and thus no official races, so the club improvised again with a new race series to keep members motivated during the cold, winter month. Throughout the month there was a weekly challenge of 5k for... Continue Reading →

The New Year kicked off in its customary underwhelming manner in terms of racing with just a smattering of events over cross country and on the road to choose from. The Folksworth 15 is a January stalwart on the racing calendar and, in recent years certainly, can be trusted to produce weather conditions that are... Continue Reading →

December is definitely one of the quieter months of the year for racing – it’s not hard to wonder why given the Christmas and New Year celebrations and the temperamental weather that can wreak havoc with the best laid plans to stage a race. There are though still a fair few races to choose from... Continue Reading →

Before we kick off with the run through of nominations for November, a little book keeping is in order to note, for historical reasons, the performances of Sarah Chynoweth and Jonny Palmer, who both comfortably claimed the highest-ever positions in the very competitive North Midlands Cross Country League at Corby (plus great runs at the... Continue Reading →

Despite the start line cancellation of the Great Eastern Half - one of the most popular events amongst GRC runners - October 2019 once again saw a bumper pack of superlative performances that caused headaches for the voting panel to form a definitive, but manageable, list of nominations for Member of the Month. Apologies once... Continue Reading →

Another month, another set of superb results from many members of Grantham Running Club: victories, podium finishes, extreme distances covered and PBs galore! As always apologies if you felt your efforts deserved nomination. They probably did but to try and keep the list relatively manageable tough decisions had to (once again) be made to produce... Continue Reading →

The summer holidays means different strokes for different folks. Some like to enjoy the beach in hot climes, some exhaust themselves entertaining the kids, some like to run big miles up big hills. Some, it seems, like to go out, race hard and hopefully smash PBs at any race they can enter – preferably at... Continue Reading →

The summer holidays has seen the announcement of July’s Grantham Running Club Member of the Month delayed somewhat but the passing of additional time has only served to cement what was another incredibly strong month for the club with many nominees worthy of the MOM crown and many runners not nominated owing to tough decisions... Continue Reading →

It was another strong month for Grantham Running Club and its members, with victories, club records and personal bests aplenty. Once again it proved tough to condense the number of worthy nominees down to a manageable number, so apologies if it appears you may have been overlooked.By neat coincidence every member of the club’s relay... Continue Reading →

Having harped on about how hard it was to produce a concise, definitive list of GRC Member of the Month nominations for April, May turned out to be even harder, with the quality of performances arguably greater and the list of worthy nominees spiralling out of control to the extent that ultimately some fairly brutal... Continue Reading →

As alluded to in the March MotM write up, April 2019 was a pretty spectacular month for Grantham Running Club – arguably the best in terms of superlative performances in its history. To make the ‘shortlist’ of nominations required a performance that would, in many instances, all but assure winning a Member of the Month... Continue Reading →

Writing this with the knowledge of the performances that took place in April 2019, March’s GRC Member of the Month is, in many respects, an hors d'oeuvres to what would be served in a spectacular April for the club. Nevertheless we were treated to some many excellent performances in March, as highlighted by the nominees... Continue Reading →

In some ways February is a bit of a curious month. With many runners targeting a spring Half Marathon or Marathon (or for some much, much further), they tend to treat the races they take part in during February as ‘hard training runs’, or maybe their performances are compromised by being in heavy training. Hence... Continue Reading →

The opening month of the year is traditionally something of a fallow month in this region for racing. The Folksworth 15 mile race tends to dominate the interest of GRC runners and 2019 was no exception. Six runners from that race were nominated for their efforts at the two lap event: Sarah Chynoweth, Joe Clarke,... Continue Reading →

Although one of the quieter months for racing, December still saw many club members taking part in a variety of events up and down the country with some fine achievements worthy of nomination for the twelfth and final Grantham Running Club Member of the Month for 2018. Caroline Davis was nominated for being the first... Continue Reading →

November saw another long list of worthy nominees for Grantham Running Club Member of the Month with some outstanding performances in a year already full of superlative efforts. Beginning with the race that ended the month, the GP Series Derby 10 Mile Race saw Chris Limmer run the second fastest 10 mile time of the... Continue Reading →

October 2018 saw a record number of nominations for GRC member of the month, so many that that there were a good number of runners who were not nominated purely because the shortlist had become too long already! A large swathe of the nominations came from runners who ran excellently at the very wet Perkins... Continue Reading →

With the voting panel (the club’s committee) being disbanded, only to be formed again, in a new, larger form, after the AGM, September’s GRC Member of the Month came perilously close to being a historical look back at events in the distant past. Fortunately a winner was found just before Halloween in addition to the... Continue Reading →

For a month that is traditionally one of the quieter months on the racing scene, there were a surprisingly high number of excellent performances which yielded a bumper crop of nominations for the August 2018 GRC Member of the Month. First off (and in no particular order) Matthew Atter secured an excellent new 10K PB... Continue Reading →

After a succession of months with increasingly large numbers of nominees the July 2018 GRC Member of the Month had a far more concise selection with five nominations. It is worth mentioning that this may have been due to a number of the voting panel being on their summer holidays and unable to actively partake... Continue Reading →

Halfway through 2018 and the sixth GRC Member of the Month was another closely fought affair, with a very good case to be made for many (Including those not nominated) to be worthy of the ‘prestigious’ accolade. The plethora of outstanding performances is all the more praiseworthy given the tough climatic conditions that prevailed for... Continue Reading →

May’s GRC Member of the Month was a fiercely fought battle between the (fairly) young and not so young; the seasoned campaigners and the not so experienced. The nominees ran (or attempted to run) a vast range of distances from the relatively short 5K to the ridiculously long 100 miles. One even broke a World... Continue Reading →

With April being a month dominated by marathons, a distance which conjures countless tales of heroism and inspiration, April’s GRC Member of the Month was always going to be a very hard decision to make. Not only was there a strong case to be made for each of the thirteen who made the shortlist, there... Continue Reading →

For many a British based runner, the Beast from the East I / Beast from the East II made March 2018 a month maybe best forgotten. You may be forgiven for thinking March 2018 MOM had succumbed to the Beast too but, like many a March race, the announcement had merely been postponed and not... Continue Reading →

The month’s shortlist was dominated by runners who took part in two races that took place on the same day - the Stamford 30K and the rescheduled Keyworth Turkey Trot. The East Midlands 10K saw some fine performances, with personal bests from Emma Weighill, Claire Fritz and Melanie Taylor but it was Russell Maksymiw who... Continue Reading →

In a month short on races, many of those shortlisted took part in the Folksworth 15 Mile Race, which will go down in history as featuring some of the worst race conditions witnessed in living memory. Andrew Pask, who ran a 15 Mile PB; Catherine Payne, who won her age category; and Peter Bonner, who... Continue Reading →

Age: 35 Occupation: Primary School Teacher Years running: 2 with GRC. I dabbled in running a little bit before joining the club but I wouldn't have called myself a runner. Favourite Race: Perkins Great Eastern Run. Mainly due to a race plan that I stuck to and it resulted in a PB! Least Favourite race:... Continue Reading →

Age: 37.. still! Occupation: Teaching Assistant in Village Primary School. Favourite Race: Favourite race was the London Marathon…..especially the end. I used to pretend to be in it with my brother when I was about 8. My dad gave me a photo of us posing on the mall after I finished it. It's as precious... Continue Reading →

Occupation: Water Engineer. Favourite Race: Langtoft 10k -not my fastest 10k but proved to myself I could run well if I put my mind to it. Least Favourite race: Eye10k. I proper messed up this race and had to stop walk for a bit. Biggest running achievement: Taking part in my first half marathon and... Continue Reading →

Occupation: Postman Years Running: 6 Favourite Race: I have a few favourite races for different reasons, and in fact i don't race as much as I should. But my best race I guess will be my last one - Rockingham 10k. Reason for this is because I not only ran for a Personal Best, I... Continue Reading →

Age: 33 Occupation: Water Engineer. Years Running: Just over a year. Favourite race: Newton's Fraction, as it was my first race. Why did you start running? To try and get fit and healthy for my children. Injuries received? Few blisters and the odd stiff back, nothing serious, touch wood! Furthest Distance ran? 15 miles. Trainers... Continue Reading →

Occupation: Science Teacher Years Running: 8 years 6 months (14 marathons) Favourite Race: Ashby 20, lovely undulating course, great support and the goody bag consists of a nice warm hoody and a cheese cob. What's not to like! Least Favourite Race: I don't really have one! If I was being fussy then I'd say cross... Continue Reading →

Age: Male Senior Occupation: Retained Firefighter/Lorry Driver/Delivery Driver Years Running: On & off since I joined the army at 18 (16 years). However, I only started competing in races in December 2014. Favourite race: So far I would have to say the Thunder Run 24 (even though I wasn't there for the full 24 hours).... Continue Reading →

Age: MV40 Occupation: Motorsport Picture Desk Editor Years Running: 36. I was hooked the moment I finished second at the Reception class Sports' Day sprint race. Favourite race: The 2013 Leeds Abbey Dash was the most pleasurable I've ever run, especially the opening 3k. Literally thousands of fast runners heading out at near flat out... Continue Reading →

Age: 34 Occupation: RAF Aircraft Avionics Engineer (currently Typhoon) Years Running: My first race was the Sleaford Half Marathon 2010. Before I started training for that I did no exercise whatsoever. Favourite race: The London Marathon is a must do for all runners. I ran it in 2013 and although I didn’t have the best... Continue Reading →

Age: 25 Occupation: Teacher Years Running: 17, though I only started thinking about it and training more efficiently a few years ago. Favourite/ Least Favourite race: I haven’t run enough races to have favorites yet. I enjoy the Men’s Health Survival of the Fittest 10k obstacle course races though. Why did you start running: I... Continue Reading →

Age: 24 Occupation: Special Needs Teacher Years Running: 4 Favourite race: London Marathon 2013 Least favourite race: Nene Valley 10 2014! Why did you start running: To raise money for charity (London 10k for Great Ormond Street hospital) Injuries: IT band, Plantar Fasciiatis. Furthest Distance ran: 32 mile ultra-marathon Trainers worn: Cloud-runners by On Favourite... Continue Reading →

Member of the Month for August after he broke two Personal Bests and set two new club records at races in July.

Age: FV50 Occupation: Manager of a local charity, Home-Start Grantham – a charity that recruits and trains volunteers to support parents with young children at home with situations as diverse as isolation, bereavement, multiple births, illness, disability, mental health or who are just finding parenting a struggle. Previously I was a teacher. Years Running: In... Continue Reading →

Age: MV35 Occupation: Self-employed photo editor for motorsport agencies. I spent 10 years attending F1 Grands Prix all over the world. Now, thanks to the advances in technology and a young family, I no longer need / get to travel. Years Running: Ever since I finished second in the reception class school sports day, I... Continue Reading →