A crowded summer racing schedule saw Bungay Black Dog Running Club switch its usual Tuesday evening training session into an opportunity to stage a revival of its much-loved annual 10k handicap event.
More than 40 club members toed the start line in an order based on their 2015 personal best times; all starting separately with the (unlikely) aim of finishing together.
An out and back course along a reverse of the Black Dogs’ Summer Series 10k route gave some shelter from a relentless early evening sun as the runners negotiated a route from the Bungay Area Running Centre in Pirnhow Street to a turnaround point beyond Ellingham Mill and back.
The winners of some fine glass trophies were:
Novice men’s winner, Andrew Pottruff; Novice ladies’ winner, Clare Clarke; Vet men’s winner, Robin Ashe; Vet ladies’ winner, Judith Masters; Senior ladies’ winner, Christine Ashe; Senior men’s and overall trophy winner, David Neeve.
The sun also proved to be a challenge for some of the Black Dog club’s fastest 5k runners who qualified to match the sub-20 minute entry criteria for the 5k Norwich street race which, each year, provides the curtain raiser for the Lord Mayor’s street procession.
Always a tough run, this year the blazing sun and cauldron-like heat made the race even more gruelling but it was an ordeal rewarded by the enthusiastic cheers of support from 50,000 onlookers.
The Black Dogs completing the race were Marcus Sladden (18:16), Graham Jenvey (18:18), Simon Cowley (18:24), Jo Andrews (who took second in the Ladies Vet category, finishing in 19:16), Jason Hurst (19:37), Daniel Gardiner (19:45) and David Neeve (20:32). Tom Pullinger and Sean O’Laughlin creully missed the halfway cut, whereby athletes are eliminated from the contest for exceeding a 10-minute guillotine, by six seconds.
On Sunday Ian Taylor completed what he described as a “hilly and humid” Potteries Marathon in 4:24 while Christine (1:40) and Robin Ashe (1:27) ran the Eccup 10 mile race near Leeds, describing the run as “hilly in lovely rolling countryside”.
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