Kingston-Lee beats Hopkins to take his 30k club record

Now in its 21st year, the race in the picturesque Lincolnshire town of Stamford is a popular pre-spring marathon training race, renowned for its tough, constantly undulating course tempered with romantically themed kilometre markers and goody bag, featuring a packet of Love Hearts sweets for every finisher.

Long distance runners collectively rejoiced with the rest of the country on the morning of the race when the day dawned sunny, dry, and free of the seemingly relentless galeforce winds of recent weeks.

This part of Lincolnshire has largely avoided the floods that have blighted swathes of the country; conditions on the course were nearly ideal for racing with just a small section of the course showing a reminder of the extreme volume of rainfall this winter.

The Stamford race is now something of a local event for Kingston-Lee, now a Grantham resident - who was joined by a large contingent from his second-claim club Grantham RC.

Hopkins and Kingston-Lee began the race together, running the opening 5k in 18:30.

A couple of kilometres later, Kingston-Lee eased away from Hopkins on one of the abundant hills on the course.

Hopkins, who went into the race suffering from a heavy cold and with heavy legs following a spell of high mileage, would go on to run a fine race nevertheless, coming home 19th in 1hr 57min 1sec.

Kingston-Lee, who was inadvertently well tapered for the race after losing the best part of a week to injury, continued the good form shown when he finished sixth at the Folksworth 15 in January.

Running at his intended marathon heart rate, he tackled the course at just over an average of six minutes per mile, crossing the line 15th in 1:52:38.

This broke Hopkins’ unofficial club record over 30k set last year when he ran 1:54:01.

The pair will both return to full training ahead of their forthcoming spring marathons - Hopkins taking part in the London Marathon and Kingston-Lee competing on the same day in the Rotterdam Marathon.

The race was won by Aaron Scott of Notts AC, who broke the nine-year-old course record by more than a minute, clocking 1:37:52.

The winning lady was Philippa Taylor of Nene Valley Harriers, who finished in 1:58:09.

Kenilworth Runners’ Carolyn Box travelled to the south coast to take part in the Brighton Half Marathon.

Starting on the seafront between Brighton Pier and Brighton Marina, competitors enjoy bracing cliff tops and panoramic city views in addition to a two-mile stretch past the colourful beach huts of Hove.

Box was delighted to clock a PB 2:26:38, finishing 6,133rd out of 7,000 finishers.