Grantham Running Club travel to Quibell Park Stadium in Scunthorpe for the North Lincs Half Marathon

Eleven members of Grantham Running Club made the journey to Quibell Park Stadium in Scunthorpe to take part in the North Lincs Half Marathon which saw some great performances including several new personal bests.

First held in 2012, the Tape2Tape hosted event makes full use of the famously flat Lincolnshire landscape, with only two road bridges in the third and 12th miles spoiling a near pancake-like elevation profile.

The sun was shining and, with minimal winds, it made for better-than-expected race conditions on the exposed, flat roads.

Finishers ran towards the line on the running track, accompanied by drummers who helped to motivate on the final stretch towards the finish.

The first runner home for Grantham Running Club was Joe Clarke, who bagged an impressive new personal best of 01:19:11.

Clarke felt the conditions on the day were perfect and was pleased to race with negative mile splits.

Not far behind him was Matthew Kingston-Lee who finished in 01:20:07.

He was followed by Peter Bonner, who ran focusing on heart rate and finished in a time of 01:27:37. Both were comfortable and impressive sub 90-minute times.

Also in attendance and achieving a new personal best was Alan Carley, who ran well to finish in 1:33:13.

Just over a minute later and running a race of two halves, Matthew Atter was next home for Grantham.

The first six miles were steady and focused on heart rate and then the second half of the race saw Atter increase his pace to finish in a time of 01:34:15.

Cameron Hoggan crossed the line next in 01:36:27.

Hoggan raced as part of his London Marathon training block and was pleased with his performance despite finding it tough from 10 miles onwards.

Another member achieving a personal best was Johnny Gilbert, who finished in 01:39:24.

Gilbert felt both the course and conditions of the day were perfect for racing.

First female back for the club was Holly Wragg, who achieved a new personal best by two minutes 26 seconds after completing the distance in 01:51:30.

This gave Holly a much-needed confidence boost ahead of her first marathon in April.

Zoe Wragg followed shortly behind her sister to finish in 01:52:10, giving her a five-minute improvement on her previous half marathon time in Benidorm at the end of 2024.

Next home was Catherine Pell in a time of 01:56:05, getting comfortably under that two-hour barrier.

After a challenging few weeks battling with injury, the final finisher for Grantham was Addelle Towning who was more than pleased to finish her first half marathon race in 02:05:52 which proves that her hopes of a sub-two-hour race are more than achievable once she is back to full fitness.

The race was won by Gavyn Chalmers of Leeds City AC in 1:06:12 with Charlie Thornton of Lincoln Wellington AC the winner of the women's race in 1:15:28.