NS Poly Grand Prix, 3rd December 2024

Despite it being a bitterly cold night at the coast, we once again had a fantastic turnout for this month’s Grand Prix, with 29 of the possible 32 Claremont representatives making it to the start line.

Niamh Garratt was the first sky blue home, finishing in an excellent 9th place, with Aoife Monaghan next, just missing the top 10 in 11th place. Chloe Glover was our other top 20 finisher, coming 15th, and I would have loved to see the finish between Lena Lou and Rose Hawkswood as they were given the same time in 22nd and 23rd place!

Unfortunately I was some way behind, having not had the best of nights! I knew that I had benefitted from a good handicap last time out, and that it would be much harder this month. I started in a large group and, apart from one guy who just stormed off and left us all for dead, we traded places at the front until somewhere around the Spanish City. I had tried to tuck myself in behind two Poly runners to shield myself from the wind, but they suddenly seemed to up the pace – or I slowed down! – and a gap had opened up by the time we descended down the slope into the scary, dark stretch. It was only now that we seemed to be mixing in with some other groups, though I had neither passed nor been passed by many as we turned to head home. Thankfully the wind was now behind us, so I was hopeful of picking a few runners off on the return. I now became aware that my left shoe felt a bit loose and soon I realised that the lace was undone. Not really wanting to stop, I decided to risk it but, by the time we were on the prom, the lace was clearly a danger. Common sense prevailed and I stopped by one of the “pebbles” to sort it out. The next problem was that my hands were so cold, I struggled to tie it. Serves me right for running without gloves.

I now had to set about retaking the numerous runners that I had actually managed to overtake who were ahead of me for the second time! I still had one humiliation to come – I stopped running before the finish line! I wasn’t the only one as the woman behind me stopped too – in our defence, we stopped at the first cones that marked the finish funnel and were strolling nonchalantly, when an official said “The finish line is here”, pointing to a chalk line with the word “FINISH” clearly written. You would think I would know better by this stage of my running career, wouldn’t you? Never mind, it should all help my handicap for January.

After 4 events, Rose is still top of the overall standings, and other Claremonters are very well placed too. With Zoe Jukes in 4th, and Eddie Smith 5th, we have a strong presence at the top. Lena Lou (12th), Dean O’Brien(19th), Nina Jensen (21st), and Mark Anderson (22nd) are also in the mix.

The individual performances feed through to strong team performances too. True Blood Blues are very well positioned in 2nd, with a big gap to 3rd place. Rock’s Stars in 5th and The Full Claremonty in 7th are also doing well, but The 3rd Wheelers have a bit of catching up to do in 25th.

Afterwards we had a bit of a social back at our house, where non-runner Gill had taken on the roles of chef, babysitter and hostess with the mostest. Hopefully everyone enjoyed it.

Position	Team*	Runner	Race Time	Actual Time
9	TBB	Niamh Garratt	38:47	29:17
11	TFC	Aoife Monaghan	39:09	24:39
15	T3W	Chloe Glover	39:24	25:14
22	RS	Lena Lou	39:41	29:51
23	TFC	Rose Hawkswood	39:41	27:51
36	T3W	Aaron Mansell	39:56	27:26
48	T3W	Jim Crinnion	40:06	23:16
62	TBB	Zoe Jukes	40:14	29:44
63	TBB	Eddie Smith	40:14	28:24
69	TFC	Nicki O’Brien	40:19	25:09
82	TBB	Dean O’Brien	40:23	24:53
85	TFC	Alex Harding	40:25	26:15
86	TFC	Roberto Marzo	40:26	20:16
89	RS	Mark Anderson	40:27	19:17
93	RS	Tara Hipwood	40:28	27:18
106	T3W	Julie Cross	40:35	25:45
121	T3W	Sophie Richardson	40:44	30:34
125	T3W	Anton Mirafsari	40:46	21:16
126	RS	Holly Porter	40:46	24:36
130	RS	Paul Robinson	40:49	22:19
147	TBB	Janet Palmer	41:00	30:50
148	RS	Nina Jensen	41:03	25:13
149	TBB	Harry Mawdsley	41:03	19:53
169	T3W	Cate Walker	41:10	27:00
168	TBB	Ann Smith	41:22	35:12
171	TFC	Tom Tinsley	41:25	23:55
185	TFC	Rachel Hurdman	41:39	29:09
194	T3W	Luke Woodend	41:49	30:19
196	TBB	Jenny Roberts	41:50	29:40

* TFC=The Full Claremonty, TBB=True Blood Blues, RS=Rock’s Stars, T3W=The 3rd Wheelers