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 race debut-making team at the Green Wheel Relay was nominated. All bar one were nominated not only for seeing the club sixth overall in the 50 mile race, but for individual performances in other events too. Joaquim Jeronimo broke 38 minutes for the first time over 10K at the Summer Solstice and then clocked a big PB over 5K a few days later at Lincoln.
Ian Williams finished fifth overall at the Woodhall Spa 10K and his PB 34:27 is his second club record of the year now the books have been revised to consider first claim members’ times only. Matthew Kingston-Lee bagged a top ten finish at Woodhall Spa while helplessly watching his old club record broken, and then ran well at the Lincoln 5K to break 17 minutes.
Dan Ancliffe comfortably broke 40 minutes in his first ever 10K at the Summer Solstice. Peter Bonner was at his prolific best, breaking his 5K PB twice in June with 18:56 and 18:50, breaking 40 minutes at the Woodhall Spa 10K and setting a fledgling one mile club record 5:22 at Lincoln shortly before running another swift 5K. The team captain at the GWR Chris Limmer clocked a 37 minute run at the Woodhall Spa 10K, then led the club home at our own Summer Solstice 10K before running his fastest 5K n five years at Lincoln.
Samuel Jepson-Rivers is the final nominee from the Green Wheel Relay. He, in addition to Peter Bonner, deserves special mention for going above and beyond the call of duty in taking on extra miles in poor conditions when mishap befell the team.
Of the non GWR nominees, Russell Love was cited for his three minute PB at the Doncaster Half Marathon. Jack Dodwell was nominated for coming first in the Bottesford Bumble 5K Fun Run, breaking his 5K PB by nearly a minute at Lincoln and setting a new 10K PB at the Solstice. Willow Stacey received her nomination for a near two minute improvement over 10K at Woodhall Spa and Rachel Pattison broke the hour bettering her 10K time by over five minutes at the Summer Solstice. Jamie Walpole who broke 40 minutes in impressive manner with 39:06 in his first race with the club, was also nominated for his exploits at the Solstice.
April’s Member of the Month Jonny Palmer paced the sub-40 minute runners to perfection at the Summer Solstice. This came just two weeks after he finished a superb fifth in the South Downs Way 100 Mile race in an incredible 16:41:30.
As in April his partner Sarah Chynoweth is June’s MOM runner-up. At the opening round of the Peterborough 5K GP Series she bettered her own club record with a four second PB, clocking 19:46. Later in the month at the Summer Solstice she took her second race victory of the year; outstanding achievements made all the more impressive considering she ran the Edinburgh Marathon in the final weekend of May!
The winner of June’s Member of the Month did so by the narrowest of margins – an ultra-rare casting vote was required. The recipient is a runner I well remember passing as I warmed up for the Oundle 10K back at the start of the year: a wholly unremarkable event, memorable only in that he was running with his brother and ever since then I’ve established a mental block in remembering which one is which.
Sam Dodwell joined the club not long after completing the 2018 London Marathon in six and a half hours. Thanks to good training with the club and away from it and no doubt some friendly rivalry with his slightly more experienced running brother Sam has, in twelve months, improved his parkrun time from 27:54 to 21:00. Moreover in June itself Sam broke his 10K PB for the fifth time in 2019 at Woodhall Spa before breaking it once more at the Summer Solstice. His time of 43:53 was nearly 13 ½ minutes quicker than the time he set at the 2018 Solstice. Sam also broke his month old half marathon PB by seven minutes at Doncaster, breaking the 1:40 barrier with 1:38:59, and bettered his 5K PB by over half a minute at Lincoln, clocking 20:48.
Hopefully this impressive and inspirational rate of improvement can continue through 2019 and for many years to come. Congratulations to Sam on being June 2019 Grantham Running Club Member of the Month!