Waveney Valley A.C. members Bill Kingaby and Becky Langford attended the Leathes Prior Norfolk Grand Prix series awards evening at the Assembly House in Norwich on 17 Nov. The 2017 series had ten races from which points from the best seven for each runner were calculated to find the top three in each age category. Bill finished top in the Men’s 65+ category.
Medals were also awarded for the Norfolk ‘ Postal ‘ Marathon Championships. With no marathon taking place in Norfolk, eligible runners were invited to send in their best times at events during the year. Becky was awarded 2nd place in the Female 40-44 age category with her time of 3:34.51 achieved at Milton Keynes in May.
At the Snetterton Race Track Half Marathon a few day’s later, almost all members taking part either recorded a PB or were running the distance for the first time. Steve Carruthers finished 46th out of 775 in a PB 1:28.58. Leon Neeve was 101st in 1:34.22 (PB) with 131 Anthony Croucher 1:37.23, 146 Ricci Wilson 1:38.34, 208 Stuart Spurgeon 1:43.30 (PB), 233 Steve Gibbs 1:45.14 (PB), 486 Lee Roth 2:04.32 (PB), 508 Demelza Hammond 2:06.32 (PB), 604 Sarah Etherton-Nicoll 2:14.30 (PB) and 638 Emma Hollidge in a debut 2:19.08.
In the Hadleigh 10 mile race, Tim Earl finished 55th from a field of 265 in a time of 1:11.03. Mark Smith’s challenge of completing ten marathons this year in aid of Prostate Cancer UK concluded with the ‘ Running the Rift Marathon ‘ in Uganda. With just six day’s rest since race nine in New York, he found the very hilly terrain even tougher but still managed to complete the race in a time of 5:42.16.
Around half of club members competing in the Southwold 10k recorded personal best’s. Results: 25 Lloyd Scriven 40:13, 28 Steve Carruthers 40:33 (PB), 40 Tim Moore 40:48, 60 Andy Ayers 42:32 (PB), 81 Matt Baldry 43:51, 92 Billy Underdown 44:27, 159 Jason Browne 47:13, 203 Tris Holtzer 48:26 (PB), 250 Anita Drake 50:49, 251 James Drake 50:50, 272 Jon Andrews 50:47 (PB), 330 Louise Harrod 52:52 (PB), 417 Dave Catchpole 55:54 (PB), 468 Beth Stephens 56:56 (PB), 469 Rob Knights 56:47, 496 Kate Holtzer 58:06, 536 Demelza Hammond 59:01 (PB), 647 Angelene Ayers 1:04.44 (PB), 683 Sarah James 1:08.09, Jo Illingworth 1:09.43. There were 732 finishers.
Member’s 5k parkrun personal best’s for November: Josh Smith 22:09, Demelza Hammond 29:01, Simon Cross 33:50, Emily Harding 45:15, Tim Moore 19:36, Fiona Houghton 29:05, Tara Carroll 30:10, Theo Chong 22:22, Rebecca Harris 23:46, Pat McCabe 24:22, Lisa Cone 27:15, Caroline Clamp 27:15, Michelle Lyman 27:27, Natalie Brown 27:42, Sarah Jones 32:00, Bev Hudson 32:28, Phil Acton 25:18 and Emma Hollidge 27:31.