With most of the Grantham Running Club crew heading to Peterborough for the Great Eastern Run, on a crisp Sunday morning Wayne Baxter made the early start to head north for the Manchester half marathon as the sole GRC representative.
16,000 runners were ready to tackle the relatively flat 13.1 miles which starts near old Trafford before heading up to Deansgate before a sharp turn leads them to Stretford and Sale before heading back to finish outside Old Trafford Cricket ground.
Having signed up for the race some months ago, the plan was for Wayne to have a crack at getting near his PB of 1:53:57 achieved at the same event back in 2016. However, life had other plans and training didn’t quite go as he’d wanted so Wayne entered the start area feeling somewhat under trained and under prepared. He wisely reverted to a Plan B to use as the event as a training run and just to enjoy the atmosphere.
The crowds and support on the streets of Manchester were fantastic. Wayne soon felt comfortable and settled into a consistent pace with his splits and even had enough petrol in the tank left for a push in the last mile.
Having struggled of late with his running he was happy to finish with a time of 2:11:57 and pick up some great bling to head home with.
First male was Jack Rowe 1:02:40 and first female was Lauren McNeil in 1:10:01.
