Great Yarmouth Road Runners

SIX Seasiders took part at the parkrun as a prelude to Silverstone and Wymondham.

Winners was Matthew Sutton (19:19), followed by 8th Stephen Leeves (21:15), 19th Paul Westgate (23:11), 28th Al Ward (24:38), 37th Pauline Richardson (26:44) and last GYRR over the line was Dave Girling escorting a first-timer around in 32:53 (full parkrun results on page 58).

On Sunday it was the choice of two events. One group took to the raceway at Silverstone to compete in the Adidas half marathon where 14 of the club runners were in an attendance.

With a couple of the runners being new to the distance, target times were set and many personal bests were set. Special mentions should go to Dianne Crosby, Chuck Weigand and the Spandler brothers Peter and Paul who took to the distance with ease.

Dave Girling also had a great run after trouble getting to the start with car issues. Carol Spong, Bob Arnell and Andy Peck will also be happy with their marathon training as the London Marathon date is looming large.

Results and times from Silverstone for Great Yarmouth Road Runners – first home was Andy Peck 1-38 (576th place), Dave Girling 1-46 (1283th), Dave Kelf 1-48 (1495th), Ira Smith 1-57 (2634th), first lady and 3rd in age group Carole Spong 1-57 (2686th), Paul Spandler 2-05 (3516th), Peter Spandler (first 1/2m) 2-06 (3564th), Chuck Weigand 2-16 (4488th), Dianne Crosby (first 1/2 m) 2-17 (4601th), John Bound 2-20 (4815th), Bob Arnell 2-30 (5448th), Jim Spong (5790th) and Roger Andrews 2-40 (5792th) and finishing well while carrying a injury was Peter Westgate 2-46 (5939th).

Some more of the club runners took to the Wymondham 20 mile course.

On a pretty good day for distance running, with only a moderate wind to contend with, six of the Seasiders made their way to Wymondham for the annual 20 miler.

All six have various spring marathons on their minds, from the local Bungay marathon to London and Paris.

All six had one target and that was to have a good run and assess how their training had been going and it seems it has been going well as there was four pbs and an age category win out of the six runners.

First home for the Seasiders and having a much better run than he thought in a new pb was Neil Sibley in 2hr 16min 10 sec.

Next to finish and running strongly as always in his first race back for the club and also winning the 60-plus age group by an excellent 18 minutes was Richard Blake in 2-21:22. Third in was Matthew Sutton in a time of 2-33:51 in spite of running the park run the previous day.

The next three Seasiders in were making their debut over the distance and were all very pleased with their performances. Fourth place went to Mark Mountain in 2-58:28 and a pb. Fifth place went to Andy Baker in 2-58:38 and a pb and coming in sixth despite having had a calf niggle all week was Steve Stringer in 3-6:53 and a pb.