Dean Windass fired the starting gun for the 13th Humber Bridge Half-Marathon last Sunday and set more than a thousand athletes off on a 21km run across the bridge to Barton and back.
For the last few years runners have endured high temperatures during the race but this year it was cool and windy and much more comfortable for running.
Rob Snaith was the first member of Beverley Athletic Club to finish. It was his first race since the London Marathon as he has been busy setting up his new print and marketing business, footprints media. He used the race as a steady training run and finished in 9th place in 1:22:07.
Julie Donald was the first Beverley lady to complete the challenging course. She has run this race many times and this year’s performance was the fastest for several years. She finished in a commendable 1:41:54.
There were a number of other notable performances by Beverley athletes: Jordan Arnott finished almost eight minutes faster than the last time he ran this race in 2009; Chris Curry was five minutes faster than last year; Jody Horth beat his previous best by more than two minutes; Lucas Meagor recorded another PB; and Pete Watkinson was third MV60.
Race Director, John Curry, described the race as “an absolutely tremendous event, despite the very changeable weather conditions.” The last two miles back over the bridge were particularly difficult for runners due to strong winds.
There were 1367 finishers and the race was won by Pumlani Bangani in 1:13:45. The first lady was Tara Spillings in 1:30:42. Beverley AC Juniors performed well in the fun run with Ethan Dalton and Harry Powell finishing in second and third place respectively in 15:00 and 15:24. Lauryn Garwood was the second girl to finish and 11th overall in 16:42.
The fun run was won by Luke Chapman of Hull Achilles in 14:53. His older sister, Jessica, was the first girl. She finished in fourth place in 15:38.
Beverley AC finishing times – Half-marathon
Rob Snaith 1:22:07; Andy Arnold 1:34:09; Lucas Meagor 1:34:18; Jordan Arnott 1:34:21; Jody Horth 1:39:41; Pete Watkinson 1:40:32; Jeroen Pasman 1:41:15; Julie Donald 1:41:54; Julia Baggs 1:45:15; Kelvin Arnott 1:48:51; Debs Brant 1:52:53; Angela Collins 1:54:46; Tony Beck 1:55:41; Steve Hadley 1:55:46; Neil Sergeant 1:55:58; Christian Curry 1:58:32.
Reported by Kay Farrow
