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, Chris Limmer, Jonny Palmer, Andrew Pask, and Catherine Payne. Catherine was nominated for winning her age category in her comeback race after serious injury; the others were nominated for strong showings, including a PB for Andrew.
John Southwood was nominated for completing the Waterway 30 – a 32 mile multi terrain race which was double the distance John had ever taken part in!
A new event – the Oundle 10K – saw the remainder of the nominations for January, including the overall winner. Naomi Jepson-Rivers and Tracy Webb were both nominated for clocking new personal bests in very challenging conditions, as was Sam Dodwell, who smashed his old best by nearly seven minutes.
Joaquim Jeronimo was nominated for his strong eleventh placed finish which helped secure the club the Men’s Team Prize along with fellow nominee Matthew Kingston-Lee, who survived a shoe malfunction mid-race to finish second.
The runaway winner of January GRC Member of the Month (Joe Clarke and Sam Dodwell were equal runners up with a vote each) is Ian Williams. Ian finished just behind MKL at the Oundle 10K – third place securing a small piece of history for the club with its first ever double podium finish.
His 30 second PB of 36:48 was especially impressive given the winner and Matthew were both two minutes down on their best 10K times from late 2018 due to the near gale force winds affecting the course. Two weeks later Ian backed this performance up with a 17:06 clocking at Belton House parkrun. Although not taken into account in the voting process, this time has most impressively already been eclipsed twice by Ian, clocking 16:57 and 16:49 in February to become the quickest GRC runner at Belton House parkrun. A fantastic start to the year with the potential for much more to come.
Many congratulations to Ian on being January 2019 GRC Member of the Month!