Stamford Valentine's 30K 2026 - Grantham Running Club

Now in its 32nd year the Stamford Striders St Valentine’s 30K has long been an important waypoint to check your progress on your way to a successful spring marathon. Athletes run it because it is tough not only because it is longer than the preceding races but because it has hills and plenty of them.
This year proved to be tougher than most with sleet falling on flooded land and the rivers threatening to take over the lower lying roads.

Host club Stamford Striders sent out members with brushes in a curling homage to sweep the water back into the fields to try and give the runners a better chance to see the potholes and avoid them. Despite their best efforts it was impossible to ignore the extreme cold and the 2026 race winner was almost 10 minutes slower than 2025’s with the medical team having to attend several cases of hypothermia. The sensible 20% of the entrants decided the duvet was a better option and forfeited their entry fees only to record a DNS (did not start).

At exactly 11:00 the frozen starters lined up outside the Stamford Welland Academy for a much welcomed extremely brief final instructions from the race director before the gun. By this time it was snowing quite heavily as it would for the next two hours. The first couple of miles are downhill to get the runners off to a fast start or to save energy and have an economic start, the flip side of this is it an uphill finish 18 miles later when your sense of humour has left the chat along with any sense of feeling in your sodden feet.

Grantham Running Club had seven hopefuls out using the buzz of the mass start to try and find a bit extra. The fastest was Peter Bonner coming home in 2:16:26, well short of where he would have been if he had not opted to respond to a medical emergency with a fellow runner and wait the paramedics arrived with the ambulance, his outing at the London Marathon in a few months is unlikely to suffer the same setback as the nearest medic is never less than 400m away at that race.
First lady home for GRC was Catherine Payne in 2:24:46, outside her PB but good enough to give her her final category prize in the FV55 class as she moved up one a few days later.

Robin Atter was next back in 2:44:10 having to dig pretty deep after a year off distance work, at the time has was sure his smile for the camera was fooling them that it was fun. He is now taking a serious look at Lincolnshire’s Boston Marathon in early April.

Jo Grace is having a good 2026 having already secured a PB at 10k in January, working on controlling her pace she took it steady for the first third allowing her to increase her speed over the next 20k and finish strongly in 2:47:02. She is in the sort of shape she needs to be to when she returns to Boston to try and beat her PB at the 26.2 miles she set on that same course.

Holly Wragg is one of the lucky recipients of this year’s club London Marathon places and a first timer at the Valentines 30k where she was able to appreciate the Love Heart themed distance markers and motivational slogans. Despite the hills and the less than ideal weather Holly came home in 2:50:26 inside her target time giving her confidence for the trip to the Capital.
Craig Drury was predicting a 2:55:00 based on his January 15 mile race at Folksworth so was delighted to clock 2:50:34, later analysis of his power up the hills means that a Continental marathon is likely this spring.

Emma Duncan was another first timer at the 30k and is glad she was able to control her pace through the ups and downs all the way to the welcome finish line in 3:07:59, a tough confidence builder before the Manchester Marathon.