On the lovely sunny morning of Saturday the 20th of May, five Grantham Running Club members attended the Grim Reaper, a multi distance event at the stunning Grimsthorpe Castle where runners had options for solo 100, 70 and 40 mile distances as well a 10 mile day race and night race. Team GRC opted for the 10-mile option.
Runners could expect a mixture of estate roads, ancient woodlands, a disused Victorian railway, limestone tracks and grass trail and they were warned that trail shoes might be the weapon of choice if conditions were wet.
First in from the GRC was Russell Maksymiw, who put in a fantastic time of 1:19:32, especially given that he ran his first marathon at Manchester only a few weeks previously. This gave him an impressive 1st in his age category and 9th place overall.
Next in was GRC newcomer and trail newbie Daniel Wallace who came 24th with a time of 1:30:40.
Trail loving Dale Towning, who also ran Manchester Marathon recently, followed shortly after with a time of 1:32:12 and 26th place.
Jon Whittaker followed up his London Marathon debut with a finishing time of 1:42:25 and a position of 48th. Soon to follow was Catherine Wallace who has made an amazing return to running with great results at a variety of distances. She was pleased to cross the line in 1:51:37 and 3rd in her age category.
First male in from the 10-mile day race was Steven Shepperd with 1:02:41. First female was Suzanne Moon in 1:18:41. Members commented that it was a fantastic, well organised event.
Report by Dale Towning