THE 23rd Round Norfolk Relay took place over the weekend with Bungay Black Dog providing one of the teams taking part.As the longest multi-terrain relay in the UK, it is a 193-mile run around the perimeter of Norfolk in 17 stages.

THE 23rd Round Norfolk Relay took place over the weekend with Bungay Black Dog providing one of the teams taking part.

As the longest multi-terrain relay in the UK, it is a 193-mile run around the perimeter of Norfolk in 17 stages.

The logistics are complicated because some stages require some navigational skills, six stages are off-road with sand and shingle to tackle and there are no water stations. On the road sections, the runners are accompanied by a cyclist and minibus support.

This was the second year that Bungay Black Dog have entered and team chiefs Sue Potter and Karen Gedge did a great job of co-ordinating the 17 runners to the right locations at the right times, along with accompanying cyclists, minibus drivers and getting timekeepers in place.

The customary BBDRC team spirit was to the fore and the team did incredibly well. Facing elite (and much younger) runners, the Black Dogs were 44th out of 55 teams and well within the time limit of 28 hours. In fact the team was just six minutes adrift of their estimated finish time and completed the race in 27 hours eight minutes and 51 seconds.

Highlights included Karen McMorran, who in her debut multi-terrain race tackled the tough Burnham Overy Staithe to Wells section.

This leg passes through the Holkham estate and is notorious for the energy- sapping sandy going.

Ian Taylor put in his customary strong performance to complete the nearly 20-mile Scole to Thetford leg in 2-20.

Colin Whale, running despite a leg injury toughed out the preceding 19.6 miles from Gillingham.

It was a hard but enjoyable weekend and one they hope to repeat in 2010.

Results - Stage One: (16.32 miles) Bob Paul (2-34), Stage Two: (14.06 miles) Chris Chorley (1-45), Stage Three: (5.39 miles) Karen McMorran (52 mins), Stage Four: (12.76 miles) Andrew Smith (1-48), Stage Five: (8.61 miles) Sally Nicholls (1-31), Stage Six: (7.86 miles) Darryl Oldman (58 mins), Stage Seven: (9.24 miles) Robbie James (1-02), Stage Eight: (7.52 miles) Nigel Gilham (55 mins), Stage Nine: (11.3 miles) Karen Gedge

(1-42), Stage 10: (15.08 miles) Neil Thomas ( 2-11), Stage 11: (19.6 miles) Colin Whale (3-08), Stage 12: (19.67 miles) Ian Taylor (2-20), Stage 13: (13.25 miles) Bobbie Sauerzapf (1-50), Stage 14: (8.8 miles) John Wharton (1-05), Stage 15: (7.2 miles) David Gilbert (59 mins), Stage 16: (5.49 miles) Sue Potter (53 mins), Stage 17: (11.73 miles) Roland Shaw (1-27 mins).

Bungay Black Dog Robin Farrar was the club's sole representative at Sunday's Great North Run. With a field of 54,000 this is the world's biggest half marathon.

The weather was perfect at the beginning, but gradually got hotter.

Robin's time of 2-07:35 in the circumstances was acceptable, although he was 10 minutes slower than last year in his fifth consecutive appearance at this event.

He was 58th in his age group and 15,825th overall.

Also taking part was Margaret Sheppard from Bungay who power-walked the course and achieved an excellent time of 3-01:03 coming in at 35,132nd.