Grantham Running Club take part in the Oundle 20-mile race

Four members of Grantham Running Club took part in the Oundle 20-mile race, alongside 384 other runners, on Sunday.

The race took place over an undulating course and sent runners through pretty Northamptonshire villages and round country lanes to give an excellent base indicator for those training for spring marathons.

First back for GRC, and the club's current men’s marathon champion, was Piers Pye-Watson. He completed the race in a great time of 02:24:40.

Next was Kevin Wallace who crossed the line in 02:52:58.

Kev is in training for the Manchester Marathon and this was his longest run to date, so he was pleased with the time he completed it in.

The first and only female for the club was Zoe Wragg, who finished in 03:04:59.

Zoe was happy with her pace over the long distance and hopes to do the same in her marathon next month.

Focusing more on building distance and less on speed, in preparation for his ultra-marathon later this month, Dale Towning completed the race in 03:24:09.

James Fisher from Long Eaton Running Club won the race in a speedy time of 01:57:33. First female back in a time of 02:09:04 was Claire Frankland.

It was a somewhat grey and miserable Mother’s Day that greeted around 1,500 runners who gathered in the Market Square in Nottingham to take part in the Run for All Nottingham 10k.

The event returned with a new city centre route which started in the Old Market Square and wound its way round the city before passing by the Motorpoint Arena and the Park Estate before finishing inside Nottingham Castle’s ancient walls.

Julia Hallam and Sylv Hull from Grantham Running Club joined in the fun which was started at 9am by the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Once runners left the square, the route seemed to climb endlessly uphill with the odd bit of downhill relief to try and claw back some recovery and pace.

Julia had entered after a break from racing to give herself a benchmark for the year and to give herself a training goal.

She was very thankful that she had been working hard on her hill training at Belvoir parkrun over the last few weeks as the course was absolutely brutal, with the endless climbs and uphill finish which made sprinting over the line almost impossible.

Her main ambition for the event was to beat the 1hr 10 pacer dressed as Superman, which she more than managed, posting a very respectable time of 1:06:14.

Sylv Hull had no real ambitions other than to run a race, having also had a break from events.

Realising early on that the course wouldn't be helping her out, she stopped looking at the watch and posted a time of 54:30.

The men’s race was won by James Mellor of Rotherham Harriers in 34:39. The ladies race was won by Sarah Gaunt in 42:31.

The event was extremely well organised with closed roads and great support.