Humber Bridge Half and Winterton Ten Report 

Keeping in mind the atrocious weather during this alleged summer of ours, the Viking Striders have been very lucky in their recent outings, dodging downpours at both the Humber Bridge Half Marathon a couple of weeks ago and also at Sunday’s Winterton Ten, which if anything was too hot for running -- although nobody was complaining. 

Both courses are undulating and quite hard work, which goes some way to explaining two sets of largely below-par times, although Giles Harris would argue with that having come away from Humber Bridge with a personal best.  Giles doesn’t run half marathons very often but on this occasion was over 10 minutes ahead of his closest Striders rival. 

David Byass did well in his first half in club colours, as did Michaela Shepherd and Caroline Walker who may have found it heavy going but can be proud of their debut efforts.  The same can be said of Mike Harvey at Winterton.  Mike has only started with the club this year but this was a very promising start to his long distance career. 

The Striders usual front runners went AWOL at Winterton, in fact no-one went under 70 minutes in a well organised but poorly attended event.  Richard Bramham had the biggest smile of the day, as he did at Humber Bridge, with both performances exceeding expectations by a considerable margin.  Richard hasn’t run these distances for four years but has dropped back effortlessly into a training regime that is sure to bring even more improvement. 

Humber Bridge times:  Giles Harris 83.42, Neil Bentley 93.52, Nigel Warner 96.41, David Byass 97.12, Richard Bramham 99.21, Ray Smith 101.16, Dave Pullman 106.20, Patsy Fenelon 120.00. Jo Mouncey 136.59, Michaela Shepherd 138.00, Caroline Walker 141.12. 

Winterton times:  Nigel Warner 72.30, Richard Bramham 75.38, Mark Thompson 75.41, Ray Smith 76.24, Dave Pullman 80.10, Keith Wilson 82.30, Dot Pullman and Mike Harvey both 93.08.