For a month that is traditionally one of the quieter months on the racing scene, there were a surprisingly high number of excellent performances which yielded a bumper crop of nominations for the August 2018 GRC Member of the Month.
First off (and in no particular order) Matthew Atter secured an excellent new 10K PB at Sleaford (38:26), and then put in a great debut 5 mile performance at Thorney, his 30:46 ensuring he was first home for the club. First home for GRC at the Sleaford 10K was fellow nominee Grant Davies, who finished an impressive sixth with a new PB of 37:13.
Holly Durham showed great form as women’s winner of the Sleaford 10K and put in a fine performance at the Barney Memorial 5K, breaking 21 minutes. Another Sleaford 10K runner nominated was Hannah San Jose, who won her age category and sliced over 90 seconds from her personal best. Claire Fritz was nominated too for her PB at Sleaford.
Richard Payne, whose form has improved considerably over the past few months, also broke his PB at Sleaford, his 39:19 eight seconds better than his 2017 previous best time. In a stellar month for Richard, he also broke his 5K PB at Lincoln, clocking 18:22 and also set a 5 mile PB (31:37) at Thorney.
Another runner who enjoyed a superb August was Joaquim Jeronimo. ‘Flash’ slashed nearly a minute off his month old 5K PB, running 18:30 at Lincoln, ran an impressive 32:09 on his 5 mile debut at Thorney and also a two minute improvement on his previous best 10K, when he ran 40:11 at the Leicester Chase the Sun 10K.
Joe Clarke was nominated for successfully completing his first ‘Ultra’, the seventy mile flavour of the Grim Reaper Ultra-Marathon at Grimsthorpe Castle was a great accomplishment for a runner who has ‘just’ two
marathons worth of long distance racing experience.
Andrew Pask was nominated for his 65:55 PB at the Notts 10, beating his previous 10 mile best he set back in 2015. Andrew also managed the not insignificant feat of beating the steam locomotive on his first attempt at the 14 mile long Race the Train event in Wales. In contrast from one of our most experienced runners, fellow nominee Joss Smith ran brilliantly to finish eleventh woman in her first ever road race, clocking an impressive 1:40:01 at the Newark Half Marathon.
Runner-up for August GRC Member of the Month was Anthony Boyle. A 2018 10 Weeks to 10K graduate, Anthony knocked an impressive five minutes off his 10K PB when he ran 51:39 at the ASDA ‘Run for All’ 10K at Nottingham, just a month after he made his 10K race debut at Lincoln.
All these nominees (and others) can be considered worthy of being crowned August Member of the Month. The clear winner though, after the MotM panel cast their votes, was Sarah Chynoweth. Sarah, a recent addition to GRC, has come to the club with a background in kayaking and CrossFit, and particularly enjoys running mountain marathons.
Training for her debut ultramarathon – the Dig Deep 30 Mile Race in the Peak District, which she successfully completed on August 25th, she entered the Werrington 5K on August 1st at the last minute. With no real expectations and with precious little experience of shorter distance racing, Sarah clocked a fantastic time of 19:50 which, totally unbeknownst to Sarah, bettered the club 5K record by 40 seconds!
Congratulations to Sarah on joining a fairly exclusive club of GRC club record holders and on becoming August 2018 Member of the Month!