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 in the nominating process.
The club’s main event in July was the Thunder Run 24 Hour Race, an event where there are countless tails of heroism and an argument to be made for multiple nominations. However, as the event is, for most, very much a team event, picking out an individual performance over and above anyone else’s proved clearly extremely difficult as only one name was put forward from the multiple GRC teams taking part. Matthew Williamson was nominated for completing an impressive seven laps in an event that took its toll on many. As a solo competitor the efforts of Paul Davis were easier to track and he was nominated for completing five laps despite running with a ‘dodgy knee’ that has largely curtailed Paul’s running for the whole of 2018.
Away from the Thunder Run, Rob Howbrook was nominated again for a string of fine performances in races over 5K, 10K and 6 miles, several of them over the much prized 80% age grading.
Joaquim Jeronimo may be a new member to the club but he has made quite an impression on those he has trained and raced with. He has made huge strides since March, improving his parkrun time from 23:26 to 19:36 in July and setting an impressive 19:21 on his 5K debut at the Stamford 5K. Finishing runner up in the July 2018 Member of the Month award, Joaquim has already made a huge performance improvement in August. He is rapidly establishing himself as one of the club’s quickest runners and fully deserving of his ‘Flash’ moniker.
The runaway winner of July’s Member of the Month is Peter Bonner. Peter is a prolific racer and parkrunner – he took part in eight events in July, but the quantity is being matched with performances of very high quality. July 2018 was a particularly excellent month for Peter – he pulled out all the stops to break 19 minutes for the first time (18:58) at the Newstead Abbey Dash. A week later Peter ran 40:20 at the Bedfordshire AAA 10K, slicing 23 seconds off his 10K PB and has now set his sights on breaking 40 minutes for the first time. In addition Peter bettered his previous 6 mile best at Whissendine, finished 22nd overall at the Winterton Show 10 Mile Race and twice more broke 20 minutes over 5K and parkrun.
Many congratulations to Peter on a thoroughly well-deserved Member of the Month award!