Brass Monkey, 15th January 2023
The perfect conditions and the most wonderful winter sunshine graced eight Claremonters over in York for the 40th anniversary edition of the iconic Brass Monkey, a fast and flat course starting at the York racecourse and taking us through the villages of Appleton Roebuck and Bishopthorpe, before looping back to the racecourse.
But before we could start our run across one-way roads and Yorkshire villages, we had a very early start, with most of us joining Heaton Harriers at Cochrane Park at 6.45am to start our bus journey down to York. When we got to the racecourse we were graced with a very warm and comfortable indoor event space, including all of the many promised options for toilets, and a super organised set-up.
And after dropping our bags and having many involved conversations over how many layers everyone was wearing, off we went! With pacers every 10min, the promised downhill for the first half was surprisingly tougher than anticipated, but the several marshals, villagers and families along the road kept us all motivated. The cold, slightly breezy but sunny morning made for ideal race weather.
The team delivered and this was a record-breaking day for several of us, with Sarah, Maria, Tara and myself all achieving new half-marathon PBs. Sarah’s incredible time of 1h24 put her as 5th in her age category and 21st overall female. Both Sarah and Maria surprised even themselves with a much better finish time than they were aiming for.
Julie made a fantastic return to the world of half-marathons, coming in 5th in her age category after 15 years of not having raced this distance. Also 5th in his age category was Mungai, back to form and finishing with a great time!
Nina took a break from her regular marathon running to join us for “just” a half finishing with a very respectable time and age category position.
Kim was taking it easy so instead decided to support both me and Tara on our runs. Kim kept me company for the first half of the race, as we kept ahead and then ran alongside the 2h pacer. I decided that a sub-2h was not in the cards, so fell slightly behind while Kim caught up with Tara, and encouraged a sprint finish and they crossed the finish line together, as Tara finally reached that elusive sub-2h!
And although I found it very hard going, I managed to keep a fairly steady pace and beat my GNR time, so I would definitely consider that a good result for my second ever half.
| Position | Runner | Time |
| 321 | Sarah Kerr | 01:24:45 |
| 651 | Maria Dueñas | 01:34:52 |
| 822 | Mungai Wairia | 01:40:51 |
| 902 | Julie Cross | 01:44:12 |
| 1025 | Nina Jensen | 01:48:12 |
| 1285 | Kimberley Metson | 01:57:42 |
| 1286 | Tara Hipwood | 01:58:12 |
| 1380 | Mariana Mouzinho | 02:04:17 |
