Road race fixtures for March provide a plentiful supply of events and Waveney Valley Athletic Club have had several to choose from to enter.
At the Stowmarket Half Marathon on Sunday, one of the club’s long distance specialists, Lee Cook, became Suffolk County half marathon champion. Lee finished second in the race, from a field of more than 400 runners, in a personal best time of 1-15.10 but the first Suffolk entrant to finish.
Also on Sunday, a dozen members competed in the Mad March Hare 10k, which was held on the former RAF Coltishall air base. A total of 444 runners raced round two laps of the base in very windy conditions with Chris Pimlott first to finish for Waveney in 14th in a time of 39.30. Despite the strong wind, five members managed to record personal best times and the first was Matt Baldry in 52nd in 43:50. Wayne Freeman was 72nd in 44:17 with Billy Underdown 73rd in 44:19 in his first 10k race. Chris Pitman was 104th in a PB 46:37 and Bill Kingaby 120th in 47:17.
Becky Langford added another personal best to her recent performances, finishing 164th in 49:36 with Sarah Norman 210th in 52.57. Camilla Darling was 301st in 57:51, Amanda Scarff 309th in 58:43 (PB), Demelza Hammond 325th in 59:34 (PB) and Graham Jackson 389th in 1-06.10.
At the Broadland Half Marathon on March 12, Bill Kingaby finished 121st from 360 competitiors in 1-45.58 and was awarded first prize at his first race in the M65+ age category. Mark Smith will be running in five marathons this year in aid of Prostate Cancer research and he successfully completed the first at Cambridge, achieving a personal best 4-02.25.
At the Vitality North London Half Marathon, Lisa Wilson, tackling the distance for the first time, recorded a time of 2-12.06 while Alan Richardson ran a PB 1-49.45 at the Colchester Half Marathon finishing 776th out of almost 3,000 entrants.
On Sunday, the final fixture in the Suffolk Winter Cross Country League takes place at Haverill with WVAC topping the league and hoping to secure their first team victory in this league.