Wayne Baxter of Grantham Running Club completes the Manchester half marathon

Wayne Baxter made the early start to head north for the Manchester half marathon as the sole Grantham Running Club representative.

There were 16,000 runners ready to tackle the relatively flat 13.1 miles which started near Old Trafford before heading up to Deansgate and then a sharp turn lead them to Stretford and Sale before heading back to finish outside Old Trafford cricket ground.

Having signed up for the race some months ago, the plan was for Wayne to have a crack at getting near his PB of 1:53:57 achieved at the same event back in 2016.

However, life had other plans and training didn’t quite go as he had wanted.

He wisely reverted to a Plan B to use the event as a training run and just to enjoy the atmosphere.

The crowds and support on the streets of Manchester were fantastic. Wayne soon felt comfortable and settled into a consistent pace with his splits and even had enough petrol in the tank left for a push in the last mile.

Having struggled of late with his running, he was happy to finish with a time of 2:11:57 and pick up some great bling to head home with.

Four runners from Grantham Running Club took part in the Stilton Stumble.

First home for GRC was Dan Pearce 41:50 (4th V40 men) while Stef Latter was next with a course PB of 42:35 (sixth V45 men) and also a season's best at the distance.

Stuart Reader ran 48:18 (ninth V50 men) and really enjoyed the race while Anna Harding, the only GRC lady, clocked a time of 50:00. Though she did take a stumble en-route, she finished fourth FV45.