Athletes out in force

With routes varying from five to 16 miles, and 19 of the Great Yarmouth Road Runners took to the course in fine fettle, running through the local villages of Thurlton, Raveningham, Maypole Green and Toft Monks

. With Jeff Helmore, Nicos Symeou, Bob Arnell, Andy Peck and Annette Carter all London marathon training, the chance to tackle the distance and undulating course proved too much to decline.

Other races already on some members of the Road Runners’ calendars are the Silverstone and Norwich half marathons which are quickly coming around and both events will be well attended by the Road Runners.

After all the runners finished their chosen distance it was time for the jacket potatoes and apple crumble which exceeded Ann and John’s marvellous efforts in previous years.

Wednesday saw the local cross-country series and the Road Runners had 13 runners in the field.

Neil Sibley was first for GYRR in 13th place, Jeff was second in 14th and Dave Girling finished 41st. Other club runners in attendance were Chris Harboard and Paul Evans.

It was a long course which took in three laps and covered 7.1 miles which were very muddy and sticky.

Six Road Runners braved the winds to run in the 94th parkrun at Gorleston Cliffs on Saturday.

First in was Matthew Sutton with his time at 21:51. Completing his 50th race was Stephen Leeves coming in at 22:42. Third to finish was Paul Westgate, 24:18. Coming in close together were David Girling with 25:27 and Peter Spandler with a new pb of 25:30. Bob Arnell finished his run in 32:45.

Great Yarmouth and District Athletic Club: On Sunday members ran the Great Bentley half marathon.

In blustery conditions they tackled this 13.1 mile relatively flat course along with 728 other runners, mainly from Essex. All three are in training for the forthcoming Virgin London Marathon on April 17 and it seems that their training has been paying off.

First home was Chris Gay, who hasn’t completed a half marathon in under 1-40 for over two years, so he was pleased with his time of 1-39:39.

Next home was Sue Ryles who rarely competes in organised races, but with London in mind was persuaded to enter — so she was exceptionally thrilled with 2-20:48, well ahead of her expectation of a 2-30 finish.

Pat Brightman has learned how to run again and is now ahead of her times before her skiing accident in 2004 with a finish of 2-41:11.

All finishers received a medal and a Help the Heroes mug.

The next local race is Norfolk Gazelles’ Valentine’s 10K this Sunday — all entries have now been filled so there will not be entries on the day.

Club athletes were selected to compete for Norfolk in the Eastern Area Sportshall Athletic Championshis held at Hatfield Sports Village on Saturday competing against two teams from Hertford, Cambridge and Essex.

The U11 boys’ team finished in third place and the U11 girls’ team were second.

The athletes enjoyed competing in specially adapted athletic events such as standing long jump, vertical jump, speed bounce, javelin and other events using purpose-made equipment.

Gorleston Cliffs parkrun Event 94 welcomed seven new members on Saturday.

Mark Turner, Neil Leeds, Timothy Howard, Jennifer Womack, and Louise, Jay and Richard Farrar.

Despite windy conditions, congratulations go to Nolan Wilkens, Sam Metcalfe, Kane Simonds, Dan Hurren Peter Spandler, Sarah Brown and Nicholas Dyer for achieving new personal bests.

The weekly event is now very well-established and people enjoy keeping fit together. The organisers are now making plans for the 100th parkrun event on Saturday, March 19, which will include a ‘bring a friend, make a friend’ theme.

In his fourth appearance, Nolan Wilkens (SM30-34) of Beckenham RC won for the second time in 17min 43sec. Mark L Thompson (SM25-29) was second by almost a minute. Jonathan Meadows, (SM30-34) of Lowestoft Road Runners placed third in a time of 19:53.

In her 8th appearance, Tina Michelle Jordan (SW30-34) won in 22:34 for the fifth time. Tina was second ahead of Victoria Swanston (SW30-34) by 69 seconds. Cathy Tooley, (VW45-49) of unattached was third in 26:39.

In the age-graded competition, Peter Edmunds recorded a very good performance of 74.18 per cent.

In the points competition Nick Overy has a lead of 446 points over David R Hughes. Pauline Richardson leads Elaine Stone by 15 in the ladies’ competition.

The total distance run at Goleston Cliffs parkrun has now exceeded 25,000 kilometres.

Results: 1 Nolan Wilkens 17:43 SM30-34 (Beckenham RC), 2 Mark L Thompson 18:42 SM25-29, 3 Jonathan Meadows 19:53 SM30-34 (Lowestoft Road Runners), 4 David R Hughes 19:55 VM45-49, 5 Vinny Jones 20:23 SM30-34, 6 Sam Metcalfe 20:41 SM30-34, 7 Darren Cains 20:54 SM30-34, 8 Jethro Walters 21:05 SM20-24, 9 Christopher Cooper 21:18 SM20-24 (Lowestoft Road Runners), 10 Mark Turner 21:34 VM40-44, 11 Josh Clark 21:41 JM14 Great Yarmouth & District AC, 12 Peter Edmunds 21:49 VM60-64, 13 Matthew Sutton 21:51 SM20-24 (Great Yarmouth Road Runners), 14 Neil Leeds 22:12 SM30-34, 15 Nick Overy 22:18 VM40-44, 16 Matt Ellis 22:26 SM35-39 (Lowestoft Road Runners), 17 Luke Blackwell 22:31 SM25-29, 18 Tina Michelle Jordan 22:34 SW30-34, 19 Stephen Leeves 22:42 VM50-54 (Great Yarmouth Road Runners), 20 Kevin Howard 22:46 VM45-49.

21 Kane Simmonds 22:47 JM14 (Great Yarmouth & District AC), 22 Chris Carter 23:03 VM40-44 (Norwich Road Runners), 23 Dan Hurren 23:24 SM30-34, 24 Duncan Harrison 23:30 SM35-39, 25 James Donnelly 23:40 VM40-44, 26 Victoria Swanston 23:43 SW30-34, 27 Ian Timms 23:58 SM35-39, 28 Brian John Hudson 24:05 SM35-39, 29 Paul Westgate 24:18 VM5054 (Great Yarmouth Road Runners), 30 Shaun Taylor 24:20 VM45-49, 31 Neil Read 24:39 SM30-34, 32 Michael Dean Dale 24:46 VM40-44, 33 Timothy John Howard 24:52 VM50-54, 34 Martin Simpson 25:19 SM30-34, 35 Steven Rees 25:22 SM35-39, 36 Dave Girling 25:27 VM45-49 (Great Yarmouth Road Runners), 37 Peter Spandler 25:30 VM50-54 (Great Yarmouth Road Runners), 38 Cathy Tooley 26:39 VW45-49, 39 Howard Wilcox 26:44 VM50-54, 40 Rob Simons 26:47 VM50-54.

41 Matthew John Harrison 26:53 SM30-34, 42 Tim AM Phlett 27:07 VM50-54, 43 Pauline Richardson 27:46 VW50-54, 44 Graeme Kidd 28:36 SM35-39, 45 Gary David Newman 28:52 VM40-44, 46 Rachel Harrison F 29:52 VW35-39, 47 Sarah E Brown 30:15 VW35-39, 48 Tabatha Sims 30:28 VW40-44, 49 Tony Ludlam 30:38 V M45-49, 50 Elaine Stone 31:03 VW50-54, 51 Karen Haughton 31:45 VW50-54, 52 Bob Arnell 32:45 VM65-69 (Great Yarmouth Road Runners), 53 Louise Farrar 33:53 VW40-44, 54 Jean Withington 35:21 VW55-59, 55 Nicholas Dyer 35:38 VM45-49, 56 Wendy Sutton 35:50 VW50-54, 57 Peter John Westgate 37:34 VM60-64, 58 Jennifer Ann Womack 39:34 SW25-29, 59 Anthony Harris 41:55 VM55-59, 60 Jay Farrar 45:10 JM14, 61 Richard Farrar 45:12 SM35-39.