Waveney Valley A C members Kevin Booth and Paul Harrod ran the Broadland Half Marathon on Sunday. Both runners were racing this distance for the first time and they were both pleased with their finishing times. Kevin who was running well inside his training pace finished 93rd in 1.44.50 and Paul used the race as a warm up for the marathon finished in 195th in 2.05.10.

The third fixture in the Suffolk Winter Cross Country League was hosted by St. Edmund Pacers at NowtonPark, Bury St. Edmunds. The firm dry underfoot conditions on the parkland course was ideal for the runners, the only thing that hampered the runners was the strong blustery wind, but still some very fast times were recorded on the 5 mile course.

Waveney Valley Athletic Club who for the past two meetings, had fielded large teams, unfortunately were down on numbers at Nowton Park, but more importantly lacking some of the key runners. But nevertheless full credit must go to the fifteen senior members who turned out for the team, despite slipping down one place in the league; there were some very fine individual performances.

Mark Betts posted a very speedy 33.41 to clinch 13th place. Chris Pimlott was in good form, and looked very strong on the last lap of the course, overhauling several runners to record his highest placing so far this season in crossing the line in 22nd place with his time of 35:42. It was good to see Bill Kingby coming back to form, after being sidelined with injuries for several months, he posted a very creditable time of 40:20 in finishing in 82nd place overall. David Pryce took 2nd place in his age category 65+. The men’s team are still in third place overall in the league, just a few points ahead of Ipswich Harriers.

In the ladies section, Ann Millett was the leading lady for the club, was in top form, and once again she was first in her age group V50+. In the middle of her marathon training, Ann still managed to put in fast sprint to the line to take 126th place overall in 44:02, then after a short break, she carried on to do her usual Sunday long steady run in preparation for the marathon. The ladies team are currently in 8th place in the league. The combined ladies and men’s team are in 4th place overall.

Megan Soanes was the only Waveney runner in the junior section, recorded her hat-trick of wins in the Girls U15 section, in clocking 11.03 in 9th place overall. A good individual performance, especially as she competed the day before, running for Suffolk Schools in the Anglian Schools Championships.

HAUGHLEY Park, Stowmarket, was the venue for the second fixture in the Suffolk Winter Cross Country League. Waveney Valley Athletics Club
fielded a good quality team in the senior race, which paid dividends as the combined ladies and men’s team moved up to third place in the league
table.

In the very competitive men’s section Carl Prewer, obviously found the parkland course to his liking, he made light work of the very difficult
underfoot conditions at Haughley, in clinching second place overall, but top in his age group V40+ in 32:28. Robert Cheverton clocked 34:19 finishing in 11th place overall and second in his age group V50+. Paul Sullivan, Mark Edwards, Seb Herrod, Chris Pimlott and Tim Earl all packed in well, finishing in the top 60. It was a great team performance from all our runners, which earned the men third place overall on the day, but more importantly moved
them up to second place in the men’s league table.

In the ladies’ section, Elise Mann was the top finisher for the club, finishing in 13th place (124th overall) Ann Millett put in a strong performance crossing the line in 23rd position (146th overall) which earned her top spot in her age group V50+. Making their debut for the club in cross country was Catherine Carfoot and Ravenna Bartholomew who both put in creditable performances over the testing course. The ladies team finished in sixth place overall.

Waveney had two runners in the junior race, Jamie Finch and Megan Soanes, who are experienced cross country runners, both did well with Jamie clocking 13:03, to finish in eighth place overall and second in his age group U13s. Megan claimed first place in the girls section finishing in 12th place overall with her fast time of 13:31. Next fixture in the league is at Nowton Park, Bury St. Edmunds this Sunday.

Senior results: 2 Carl Prewer 32:28, 11 Robert Cheverton 34:19, 30 PauI Sulivan 36:59, 37 Mark Edwards 38:00, 39 Seb Herrod 38:17, 48 Chris Pimlott 38:54, 57 Tim Earl 39:37, 76 Alan Fairs 41:23. 90 Jonathan Comyn 42:04, 95 BiIl Kingaby 42:35, 112 Nigel Herrod 44:07, 124 Elise Mann 44:55, 126 Kevin Booth 45:09, 146 Ann Millett 47:39, 159 David Pryce 49:25, 179 Catherine Carfoot 53;54, 190 Stuart Smith 56:08, 193 Ravennna Bartholomew 57:40.

The first fixture in the Suffolk Winter Cross Country League was held at Framlingham which has the reputation of being the most challenging course in the league – and it certainly lived up to its billing. Despite not being quite as muddy as previous years, runners still found it very slippery underfoot especially on the steep climbs out of the moat around the castle.

Waveney Valiey Athletic club fielded a strong team of 16 runners in the senior race, which attracted a large field of 220 runners. The seniors had to face three large laps around the castle. Carl Prewer, representing Waveney in this league, led the way for the team, putting in a strong run to finish third in a very swift time of 27:20, also claiming the top spot in the V40+ category Robert Cheverton was also in fine form crossing the line in eighth place overall. He also won his age group V50+ 1st with his time of 28:40. Young Seb Herrod, who represented Waveney as a junior, and is now making a comeback to the sport as a senior, registered a very creditable time of 31:00 to clinch 24th place.There were several other notable performances – Paul Sullivan, Mark Bee and Chris Pimlott all Packed in well in finishing in the top 35. Alan Fairs continues to improve and was pleased with his time of 34:11 to take 61st place. Jonathan Cowyn, Kevin Booth and Tracy Mayne were making their first outing in cross country running, and are all part of David Pimlott’s beginners group, and have only been running for a few months.

In the ladies section, Sarah Bradley was first home, but close on her heels were her team-mates Ann Millett and Elies Mann. Bradley and Millett both
finished third in their age groups. The Senior Men’s team finished third overall and the ladies finished eighth. The combined team finished fourth overall. The juniors also fared well in their one-lap race, which attracted another large field of about 90 runners. Jamie Finch was the top performer for the club, in finishing in flfth place overall in 9:26 and was first in the U13 boys section. Megan Soanes also Ied the way in finishing in first place
in the girls section, taking 11th place overall in 10:03. Alice Cheverton was the second girl home clocked 10:24 in 17th place overall.
Coach David Pimlott was pleased to see how well the juniors fared at Framlingham Fun Run – Archie Wallis 42nd overall and seventh in the U13s, Zac
Herrod 46th and 10th in the same age group. Juliet Cookson, was also 10th in the girls U13 section.

NEARLY 500 runners pounded the fast, flat 10k course at Great Yarmouth last Sunday in the very popular East Coast Run, organised by Great Yarmouth Road Runners. Waveney Valley Athletic Club boasted an impressive entry of 16 competitors and, from the dozens of clubs represented, only Norwich Road Runners fielded more runners than them. Joining seasoned members of Waveney Valley were several new names and faces, many from coach David Pimlott’s newly set-up Normanston Park training group.

Waveney Valley results: 35th Seb Herrod 39:07; 48th Chris Pimlott 40:10; 67th Tim Earl 41:22; 75th Jonathan Comyn 42:18; 80th Alan Fairs 42:31; 127th Kevin Booth 45:34; 256th Paul Harrod 51:19; 305th David Mower 53:48; 310th Paula Lambert 54:17; 327th Stephanie Pimlott 55:05; 331st Andrea Picton 55:18; 344th David Pimlott 56:19; 354th Stuart Smith 57:03; 434th Jimmy Gailagher 1:03:33; 435th Tracy Mayne 1:03:42: 442nd Angela Mower 1:04.24.

12 members of Waveney Valley AC ran in the 15th Lowestoft Scores Race. First home was Joe Skipper in 29:55 in 6th overall, Chris Pimlott 30:34 (8th) Tim Earl 31:51 (13th) Bill Kingaby 34:27 (27th) Alan Fairs 34.40 (29th) Andrew Friday 35:00 (34th) Glenn Doy 35:58 (40th) Alice Wicks 36:13 (42nd) 2nd lady overall, Nigel Herrod 36:24 (45th) Paul Liles 39:30 (73rd) Lisa Potter 43:40 (110th) Stephanie Pimlott 43:44 (111th).

3 members of David’s Normanston runners raced. The first home was Kevin Booth in 39:09 (68th) David Mower 43:24 (109th) James Gallagher 51:30 (136th) All 3 only recently started running and should be very happy with their times and hopefully looking forward to lots of races in the future.

Waveney Valley AC member Alan Fairs recently ran the 26th Framlingham 10K this hilly race which is run round two and half laps is unusual because you run up hill three times but downhill only twice. Alan completed the course in a new personal best time of 44 minutes 41 seconds to finish in 68th place out of 270 runners.

Alan Fairs ran the third and final race of the Wroxham 5k series, which was also the Norfolk 5k County Championships. There was another high turnout for this popular race with 280 entries. Arriving very shortly before the race began, Alan had just enough time to collect his number before setting off.

Heavy rain before and during the race made the conditions difficutt underfoot however Fairs finished his first race over this distance this year
in a new personal best of 20:46 which placed him 89th.

On 18th July, Tim Earl completed the Challenge Roth Ironman distance triathlon in Germany. The event consists of a 2.4mile swim, 112 mile cycle ride and then a marathon completed continuously. Tim started with a 1:20 swim for his weakest discipline, followed by a 5:40 cycle on an undulating course. He started the marathon briskly, aiming to get round in 3:30, but tiredness caught up with him, and he had to settle for 4:06 in the end giving him a total time of 11:10:31

More detailed race report at: Rockestate – 2010 Ironman Roth

Strong Waveney Valley AC turn out for the Roger Wing Annual 10k race.

On Good Friday, 10 members of Waveney Valley AC ran the Annual Roger Wing 10k race. The hilly course and strong winds made it difficult to run a fast time. Richard Moore was our first runner in 36.52, 8th overall, Chris Pimlott 39.08 (16th), Timothy Earl 41.05 (32nd), Alan Fairs 45.10 (64th), Glenn Doy 46.58 (77th), Stephen Cullem 51.29 (131st), Stephanie Pimlott 55.13 (169th), Lisa Potter 55.15 (170th), David Pimlott 56.40 (183rd), Clare Wyndham 73.16 (224th).

Mark Potter of Waveney Valley AC ran the 2010 Virgin London Marathon in an impressive 3-03:22 which placed him 1,308th out of over 35,000 runners.

Two weeks before the London Marathon the father and son team of David and Chris Pimlott ran the Bungay Half Marathon with Chris, in his first ever race at this distance coming 11th overall in 1-26:48 while David ran 2-11:49 363rd overall.

Great Yarmouth Road Runners held the first of their series of five mile road races for 2010 season along the seafront at Yarmouth. Entered for Waveney Valley Athletic Club were a trio of keen veterans, Richard Moore, Bill Kingaby and Alan Fairs.

Moore put in his customary high standard performance in finishing 12th overall from the 166 runners that took part. His time was 28.59 and he was awarded first prize in the vet 40+ age group.

Kingaby was placed 47th in a time of 33.07 very close to the times he ran in the series last year whilst Fairs knocked more than three minutes off his best time to underline his improved fitness the year. He clocked 34.05 in finishing 64th.