Waveney Valley Athletic Club entered two teams of six runners in the Ekiden relays at Woodbridge
on July 17 and achieved a remarkable victory in the mixed team category. The event has been organised by Ipswich Jaffa running club for more than 20 years over a multi terrain
course but it was the first time Waveney Valley had taken part. The race has its origins in Japan and the marathon distance of 26.2 miles is covered by six runners in relay legs of 1×7.2km, 3x 5km and 2x 10km. There were 178 teams entered overall with 72 in the mixed race which must have a minimum
of two female runners. Waveney’s team 1 had road race captain Chris Pimlott on leg 1 and he finished the 7.2k in 27:52. Next was new member Dylan Neeve who ran the 5k second leg in 19.02. Rose Nicholson took over for the 10k third leg and her time of 38:34 proved to be the second fastest on the
day by a female. Karim Ouaddane put in a very solid run on the 5k fourth leg with a time was 18:30, the fastest vet 50+ time on the day. Matt Jeffries then recorded 34:09 for his 10k fifth leg, bringing the team into the lead as Sam Jacks was tagged for the 5k final leg. She coped very well with
the pressure of maintaining the lead and finished in a personal best 19:33, securing a hard-earned first place for the team. The overall time of 2.37:44 was a course record for a mixed team and they were fifth fastest of all of the 178 teams.
Waveney’s team 2 also put in a good performance to finish 23rd in the mixed race. New member Tim Moore 7.2k in 31:12, Catherine Earl 5k 32:10, Daniel Harris 10k 44:05, Jayne Richardson 5k 29:55, Tim Earl 10k 44:52 and Steve Gibbs 5k 24:12.

Displaying her willingness to tackle the toughest of events, ex Royal Navy seamanship specialist and mum of five Lisa Joyce, ventured to Oxfordshire to take part in the Dixons Carphone ‘ Race to the Stones’ event. Described by the organisers as the UK’s biggest ultra on Britain’s oldest
road, there was a choice of distances of 50km or 100km along the ‘ Mighty Ridgeway ‘. Unsurprisingly Lisa took on the longer distance and running solo, whilst many other competitors ran in groups, she completed the race in 17 hours and 30 minutes. She was placed 530th out of 956 athletes and 43rd from 119 in the vet 40+ age category.

Other results: Bungay 10k race 3, July 20; 17 Lloyd Scriven 42:01, 23 Peter Rogers 42:59, 27 Bob Milner 44:03, 35 Steve Carruthers 45:40, 46 David Mower 47:16, 66 Steve Gibbs 50:19, 69 Duncan Carter 50:30, 94 Jay Butcher 54:35, 105 Cheryl Goymer 57:19, 115 Chris Bradford 59:39, 118 Beth Bell
1.00:11 personal best, 120 Suzy Knights 1.00:17, 122 Jo Fisk 1.00:27 and 124 new member Francis Guildea 1.00:31 debut 10k, 150 finished. Wroxham 5k race 2, July 21 – rescheduled from June 15(Roads and HQ flooded ) – 113 Kyle Bowles 19:57 and 161 Bill Kingaby 21:23, 434 finished.