Bishop’s Stortford Running Club members take on Round Norfolk Relay
An intrepid 17-strong team of Bishop’s Stortford Running Club members took on the 198-mile Round Norfolk Relay.
Each leg of the relay is a different length, with some being fast, flat roads, mostly run in the middle of the night, and some encompassing hilly coastal paths and sandy beaches along with a few legs of mixed terrain.
Teams finish in times varying between around 21 and 30 hours, with each stage acting as a race within a race.
The Stortford squad completed the relay 6min 30sec ahead of their projected 29 hours with the smoothest event experienced for years. Nobody got lost or injured, everyone was in the right place at the right time and the weather offered perfect conditions.
Team captain Matt Ironside started with the baton at LynnSport in King’s Lynn at 5.30am on Saturday and handed over to Rob Thorpe at the Hunstanton Lighthouse 16 miles later. The former casually completed a parkrun and then returned later to support with logistics.
Thorpe had the joy of an early-morning coastal 14 miles and handed over to Peter Wenzel, the team’s oldest runner aged 73.
Paul Walker took the baton to finish on the pebbly beach at Cley, ready for Andrew Wilson to take on the beastly stage five, the hilliest of them all.
At Cromer, Richard Foweraker took the baton off the coastal path and onto the roads, handing over to Eilidh Malcolm in Mundesley in the afternoon sun.
Rohit Dayama took on leg eight for the third time, handing over to Vicky Simpson Thomas at the iconic Horsey Mill.
She handed over to Andy Pooley in Great Yarmouth as the team made the switch from daytime cycle support on the roads - Vicki Maddox took on a large chunk of this role - to nighttime vehicle support.
Stortford had built up a good reserve of time and the night runners had to scramble to assemble in time.
Simon Judkins carried the baton to a new checkpoint in Ditchingham before Paul Newton took on the longest leg of almost 19 miles, picking off 11 runners ahead of him.
Mark Palmer took the baton through Thetford Forest before handing over to his son Peter Palmer at the Feltwell checkpoint marshalled by the BSRC crew.
Martin Howe led the team into their second sunrise of the event before handing over to Francesca Palmer, fresh from her two-mile Serpentine Swim less than 24 hours earlier. Phoenyx Harritt returned the baton to the finish line of the running track with 28hr 53min 30 sec on the clock to be met by some of the team, most of whom had had very little sleep.
Ironside and Wenzel were both awarded a medal for their 10th entry into the event.
