The Larking Gowen City of Norwich Half Marathon has been held at the end of November for several years and had the reputation for having poor weather.

This year the organisers moved the race to April in the hope of better conditions. It proved to be a case of be careful what you wish for as temperatures topped 23 degrees in the bright sunshine, keeping the volunteers at the water stations very busy.

Nine Great Yarmouth Road Runners ventured to the Norfolk Showground with 2,000 other runners for the 10.30am start. The race description said that the first half of the course was flat with a couple of bumps in the second half. Obviously the word ‘bump’ means different things to different people as most of the runners would have described them as testing hills.

Marc Evans was first home for the club, coming in with a time of 1:30.18 in 53rd place. Andrew Baker was chasing him for the whole of the race but couldn’t quite catch up. Andrew finished in 57th place with a time of 1:30.35 and was pleased with getting third place in his age group.

Triathlete Matt Buckoke ran the race with London Marathon trainee Mark Stone and they both finished with a time of 1:44.30. Nathan Roberts had a strong race, coming in with a time of 1:49.26, closely followed by Paul Westgate in 1:51.30.

Claire Baker was the first woman home, coming in under two hours with 1:59.49. Ivan Lees was next home for the club in 2:06.49, still running strongly following his Seville Marathon earlier this year. Rebecca Oldman-Hands completed the team, coming in with a time of 2:37.03.

On the same day the Brighton marathon saw over 20,000 runners take to the roads on the hottest day of the year. Of those, three were from Great Yarmouth Road Runners.

The course took the runners through the town before heading up the cliffs and back down again, and after some twists and turns finishing in front of Brighton Pier supported by an enthusiastic crowd.

Andrew Dormer, running his first marathon, was the first from the club to finish in an amazing 3:28.55. Nadine Heseltine managed to sneak under four hours with a time of 3:59.14 and Jane Trudgill finished her first marathon in 4:14.26. Not put off by the heat, all three are looking forward to their next marathon.