Great Yarmouth and District AthleticS Club: With the cross-country season nearing its finish several Yarmouth athletes have earned their county vests and will be competing for the Norfolk County AAA at Birmingham in the inter-counties championships tomorrow.

Amy Dowsett, Victoria Simmonds and Phoebe Baker will be running in the under-13s, Catherine Lee and Kelly Pywell in the under-15s.

In the under-15 boys’ race Kyle Ella, Keelan Pywell and Josh Clarke will be running with Dominic Oliver competing for Suffolk in the same race.

Two weeks later the English Schools’ Cross-Country Championships are held at Nottingham and again several athletes have earned places in the teams from preliminary races.

In the junior girls, Victoria Simmonds with Alice Watson-Flower reserve; inter-girls, Catherine Lee with Kelly Pywell reserve; senior girls Polly Davies and Tamsin Desborough both representing Suffolk; inter-boys Kyle Ella, Keelan Pywell, Daniel Gnomes and Dominic Oliver will be representing the Suffolk schools.

Great Yarmouth Road Runners: The Mannings did a shorter run at the weekend over the Horsford cross-country and it was muddy — up to Karen’s ankles in many places.

Andrew came fourth overall, slightly quicker than the previous run in January, and Karen took well over a minute-and-a-half off her last time, finishing well up in the field.

Matthew Sutton took to the longer distance and ran the Cambridge Boundary marathon on Sunday. Matthew took the race steadily and still finished in the great time of 3hr 45min.

Eight members of the Great Yarmouth Road Runners attended the Gorleston Cliffs Parkrun.

First in for the club and second in the field was Philip Quantrill with 18:34.

Next to finish was Stephen Leeves in 21:24. Matthew Sutton was home in 22:06 and Paul Spandler got a personal best time of 24:07.

Cathy Tooley and Peter Spandler both finished in 26:02. Bob Arnell completed in 30:35 and John Bound got a pb 31:05.

Steve Stringer, Andy Baker and Jeff Helmore did the Nowton Park, Bury St Edmunds cross-country midweek.

The conditions were very wet and slippery, but otherwise good. Jeff came in 11th, Andy 24th with Steve 35th.

It was a five-and-a-half mile, two-lap, gently undulating course.

Both Andy and Steve enjoyed their runs, and both did very well, especially Andy, as he ran in normal running shoes.

While all these events are taking place, training still carries on, with half-marathons at Silverstone next weekend and the Norwich half the following week.

A strong club turnout is expected at both of these events with good finishing times hoped for.

After weeks of tough training it’s time to reap the rewards of the hard work.

If, after reading this, you feel the need to slip on your trainers and tackle a challenge, Great Yarmouth Road Runners have a five-mile series of events coming up soon.

Check out website www.gyrr.co.uk for race information, where you will be able to enter the series on-line.