The third and final race in this years Bungay 10k evening series brought a very strong turn-out from Waveney Valley Athletic Club. Fifteen members took part with many achieving well deserved personal best times after a summer of hard training.
Nigel Herrod led his clubmates home, finishing in 33rd place from more than 200 runners, in a time of 42:29. Nigel is in very good form this season and this was his best time for 10 years. Bill Kingaby was just a few seconds behind in 35th in 42:34, his fastest 10k for 6 years.
Mike Quantrill finished 48th in 43:38, for his first 10k. Steve Gibbs was 68th in 46:10 and Rob Knights was 79th in 47:42, knocking around two minutes off his previous best time. Another first timer at the distance was Peter Andrews who recorded 49:19 in 94th.
Becky Langford finished very close to her best, with a time of 50.58 in 109th and Rebecca Harris was 114th in 51:32. The performance of the evening came from Suzy Knights, who recorded a time of 53:47, a massive p.b by some five minutes, finishing in 132nd.
Bob Milner was 136th in 54:01, Stuart Smith 137th in 54:11 and James Gooch, in his first 10k, finished 160th in 58:33. Cheryl Goymer ran a personal best time of 59:09, in 166th place and Michaela Gooch was 170th in 1.00:54. Nina Hopson-Pope, in her first road race for the club, ran close to Michaela, and finished 171st in 1.01:12.
A few evenings earlier, at a very wet road race held at Worstead, near North Walsham, four club members splashed their way round the five mile course, organised by North Norfolk Beach Runners. Rose Nicholson finished 26th from a big field of 359 runners, in a time of 30:38 and was the trophy winner for 2nd lady. Chris Pimlott was 32nd in 31:17, Bill Kingaby 77th in 34:22 and Stuart Smith 272nd in 44:48.
Most puddles on the country lanes were unavoidable but at least the runners arrived back home before the severe flooding that affected the area overnight.
Personal bests were recorded at the Gorleston 5k parkruns by Jo Fisk on July 18 (30:14) and then the following week (29:09). Last Saturday, Suzy Knights achieved a new best time of 25:46..