A strong Ivanhoe team, most members in the middle of their training for spring marathons, travelled to Lincolnshire on Sunday 15th February to participate in the Stamford Valentine’s 30k race.  With a course mainly on undulating country lanes before a tricky grassy finish, the race is renowned as a challenging pre-marathon tester with energy-sapping hills combined with a tough distance making it a particularly hard event.

First home for the club with a fabulous run in his first ever outing at this distance was Mike Trott, finishing in a fine 21st place in 1:57:51. Ramzi Sidani, also making his debut at the unusual distance, finished next and was also delighted to come home under 2 hours, finishing in 31st place in 1:59:34. Dave Hobbs was the next Ivanhoe finisher, having an incredible run to beat his previous personal best by some 21 minutes, crossing in 2:12:25 in 83rd place and just overtaking club mate Ian Bolton, another 30k debutant, before the line, Ian’s great time of 2:12:31 bringing him 84th place.  Becca Hallam, running with husband Dave Hobbs as the first of Ivanhoe’s valentine’s couples, finished 17th lady as she also set a great new personal best of 2:16:38 (115th). Alistair Chambers was next as he continued his return from injury, 130th in 3:18:24 ahead of Tim Sturla also running well to finish in 180th place in 2:24:41. The second Ivanhoe valentine’s pair, Barry and Kelly Alldread, finished together next in 186th and 187th places (2:24:30 for both). This was a big new personal fastest time for Barry and a debut 30k time for Kelly. Ian Kirk was next with another good run, 257th in 2:32:07 ahead of Julia Blewitt-Jenkins who had an excellent race finishing very strongly to set a new personal best time of 2:39:28. Next finisher was Jason Green, continuing his excellent year as he shaved 14 minutes off his personal best crossing in 2:43:43 (359th place). Building on her excellent first year at the club Karen Hartland was running her longest ever distance and her first 30k with a fabulous performance, completing in 2:44:34 in 369th. Ruth Green, along with husband Jason the final Ivanhoe Valentine’s pair, was next finisher with yet another personal best of 2:48:53 in 400th place. Heather Swan was next, just outside last years’ time finishing in 2:52:16 in 423rd place. Sarah Sanganee also used the race as her longest ever run and had an excellent day, finishing very strongly in 3:03:45 (495th place) ahead of super veteran Elaine Moulton who rounded off a great Ivanhoe team as she finished in 615th in 4:04:30.  Such strong performances from the whole team should set them up very well for their marathons later in the year.