I travelled down to Thurston in Suffolk to take part in the Tarpley 20 mile race for the first time. There was also a 10 mile event and a total of 299 runners completed the 20 mile race with a further 316 completing the 10 miler. It was a bright sunny morning but the fresh breeze made it feel very cold as we lined up on the start line. The course consisted of a single lap route which went out into the villages of Felsham, Thorpe Morieux and Brettenham before heading back to the finish in Beyton, just outside Thurston. The route can definitely be described as undulating (!) and a reasonably strong headwind on the way out meant that the first 10 miles were tough going. However there was good support out on the course with a well marshalled route and supportive marshalls. As we looped back and reached the 14 mile mark, the 20 mile route rejoined the 10 mile course and after running on my own from around the 6 mile mark it was good to have the target of some of the runners in the 10 mile race to catch and go past! As we neared the finish, mile 19 included quite a steep incline which was a hard struggle at that stage of the race, although the steady downhill section in the last mile was much appreciated before another small incline to finish on the field of Thurston Sixth Form College. I managed to hold on to a top 10 finish in 8th place overall, 3rd place in my age category and knocked 50 seconds off my PB which was very pleasing! However, I was way behind the winner from Spa Striders who was almost 16 minutes ahead of 2nd place, finishing in an incredible time of 1:45:30!! The event was very well organised by Saint Edmund Pacers and was well worth the journey. Definitely a race I will look to do again.
The Lingwood Leg-its held our first ever organised race on Remembrance Sunday and it was great to see the Coltishall Jags well represented with 16 club members completing the mixed terrain route. The trails through Buckenham Woods and down towards Buckenham Village are particulary good to run on and we were granted permission to use a trail through the grounds of Strumpshaw Hall. The second half of the route was tough with a climb up Barn Hill and then up and over Mill Hill, which is the highest point in Broadland with views towards the East Coast and south over the Yare Valley. There was a club bonus of a Jag leading the race with Franklyn Plume setting the pace as the runners ran through Lingwood Village Hall sports field. The feedback from the race was extremely positive and we will be considering whether to make this a regular event on the Norfolk Race calendar
I was once again lured into Cambridgeshire with the promise of a fast flat PB potential course and this time the weather was reasonably kind. This is a very friendly race with a 300 limit, which was sold out well in advance. After a very moving 2 minutes silence for Armistice day we got under way into typical open Fenland countryside. It was flat and fast, with just the last 800m snaking though a housing estate, then seemingly out of nowhere was the finish line. My time was 40:01, a PB and age group win and my first platinum standard. Very happy but can’t help thinking about the 2 seconds I needed for a sub 40.