Race Report: Richard & Margaret Shaw
This year the Half Marathon was advertised as part of Bungay Festival of Running which also included a Marathon and for the first time a 10k. All three races follow the same route with the Marathon runners completing two laps of the course, Half Marathon one lap and 10k peeling off at around 3 miles and rejoining the main route at approx 5 miles. All three races were sold out prior to race day. All chip timing.
Bungay is an attractive village situated centrally on the Suffolk/ Norfolk border in the Waveney Valley and is just over 500 miles round trip from Stone. You may well ask, why compete in a Half Marathon such a long way from home? It is a race we have previously seen advertised and Suffolk is where my Mother was born and many of my relations still live. Also, this year as I have reached the ripe old age of 65, I decided to run a different race in a different county each month.The Bungay Marathon was one of the many Marathons run by our late club member Vernon Olivant and was included in “Vernon’s Stupid Heroes League”.
The races start and finish on the outskirts of Bungay with the Marathon starting at 9.00am and the Half and 10k at 11.00am. The route skirts the villages of Mettingham and Barsham before reaching the half way point in Beccles. The runners snake their way through the quaint streets of Beccles then over River Waveney which is part of Norfolk Broads into open countryside through the villages of Gillingham and Gelderston then at 11 miles the run takes you along the old railway line back to the finish in Bungay. The route starts in Suffolk, runs into Norfolk and back into Suffolk for the finish. A scenic route but not a P.B course.
The winning times were as follows:
Marathon. 2:50:22 runner from Ipswich Jaffa Running Club
Half Marathon 1:17:49 runner from Colchester Harriers
10k 35:32 runner from Colchester Harriers
My Chip time was 1:54:05 finishing 229/502 with Margie 2:20:27
A good club run as 10k and Half Marathon runners set off together for first 3 miles also the Marathon runners are at the start of their second lap roughly at same time as we start, so at some point all are running together. It was one of the hardest Half Marathons I have run and now know why it was included in the ” Stupid Heroes League”. However, a very enjoyable race and good to run with runners from numerous running clubs not usually seen in Staffordshire.
All finishers received a well stocked goody bag, medal and can of Adnams of Southwold Ghost Ship Beer which was well deserved and went down very well after the race.
As already mentioned, I am running a different race in a different county each month and so far have completed the following :
January. Twin Piers 10k in Llandudno Gwynedd
February. Alsager 5 in Cheshire
March. Stafford Half in Staffordshire
April. Bungay Half in Suffolk
The following races I have entered:
May. Market Drayton 10k in Shropshire
June. Kingham12k ( 40th Anniversary Race) in Oxfordshire
July. Bewl Water 15 miles (British Masters Multi Terrain Championship) East Sussex
August. Kimbolton Half in Cambridgeshire
Sept. New Forest Half in Hampshire
October. Tissington Trail Half in Derbyshire.
Only November and December to arrange!
The muster for the start was different – there wasn’t an obvious voice directing the herd and the time-based colour pens weren’t pens like the Great North Run, but signs you kind of stood by until the off. It was a little bit confused at first. I’d been allocated to the second last group and was worried about how to get towards my pace group. The benefit of loose waves though was that we could edge up – there were people in the forward groups edging back at the same time. 
The course involved a bit of out-and-in with two loops, one around Altrincham; and the other around Sale. Once away from the start the running was very residential with occasional town centres which felt very similar to the mid-section of the Great North. It quickly became striking how flat the course was. I’d not noticed before but hills do gently help regulate pace and their absence seemed to make for consistent running which could trap you if like me, you went out too hard. I counted five ‘bits’ of gradient all the way around that any of the club runners would take in their stride. If though you wanted to break yourself in, there was an option to run a relay in teams of two and four which appeared to be really well marked – it is a very accommodating event.
The organisers, Xtramile events (xtramileevents.com) also do a range of endurance events, triathlons mainly, so after you’ve done the marathon, you may get tempted to have a look at some other disciplines while you are on. Hope this of some use, cheers. 
Thursday evening was a lovely night and what a good night for the first part of the Spring Treble. I didn’t run any of these races last year being new to the club so not being a fan of hills I wasn’t quite sure what lay in store, but safety in numbers Julie McArthur Lucy Carter and myself said to one another “well I will if you will”. To be totally honest we all run on a Thursday evening anyway so we thought why not have a change of scenery (with a few hills thrown in.)
Unfortunately things didn’t finish quite so well for Chris Eardley who decided on a sprint finish and pulled a calf muscle, which possible puts him out of action for a while certainly Milford he will be marshaling now .
Well, what can I say? The race started wet, then got wetter, then we were absolutely drowned by the rain! It’s so nice to see so many runners from all clubs who were daft enough to race in between the raindrops. A few of us managed to get the obligatory group photo done before the run.
STONE Master Marathoners held their annual awards night on Friday at the George and Dragon, Stone.
While everyone else were preparing for Stafford Half I went looking for additional mileage in preparation for London so booked myself in the Ashby 20. I ran it last year and enjoyed it. I ran Manchester Marathon on the back of the training that I’d done for this race (thanks Julie Ebrey for that conversation). This year Ashby was to be treated as a training run for London. The week leading up to the race was a nightmare; I was working more hours than a factory cat some of which involved ‘lugging’ computer equipment around so no resting for me. I drove to the race alone trying to think of how I felt that the hills were nothing more than little bumps last year and remembered my sprint finish hoping that I could recreate this run or even better it.
The morning of Sunday, 22 March for Stafford half marathon turned out to be perfect running conditions 8° partly cloudy with a fantastic representation from Stone Master Marathoners! There was over 3,000 participants and 500 for the fun run. We had twenty seven representatives from the club, this included members from the beginners group who were participating in their first half marathon to veteran runners of our club including the legend that is Chris Barlow!
The deputy mayor of Stafford Councillor Thomas A Holmes started the race with the countdown at 10 o’clock and we set off – the advice from Bill Clarke was – don’t go off too fast! The course took a new route for 2015 due to the major work carried out by seven Trent Water causing a road closure between Weeping Cross and Milford Common and as such produced many personal best’s from the club. The route took us out on the Newport Road up through Highfields, back along The Wolverhampton Road, up Radford bank to Rising Brook then a long stretch along Beaconside back to pick up the old route into Stafford. The extremely well organised, well marshalled race included water stations in abundance every 3 miles & even offers of free wine but unfortunately no cider! There was massive support from the local community with offers of jelly babies, drumming bands and very loud motivational music.
At the finish you could receive a very welcome free sports massage by students from Staffordshire University for acing calves and collect the bright yellow T-shirts to match the colour of the bananas! Brilliant running everyone very well done!
The weekend of December 7th I put myself up for the Weston Park 10k expecting it all to be on paths, but no – it was about half on paths and half over muddy tracks (do not listen to Dave Griffiths if he finds a race to run). Three members took part with Dave Griffiths 1st for the club in 58 minutes, followed by Anne Griffiths in 60 minutes and myself a few seconds behind. On the same day, Tim Hulse ran the Stockport 10 miles, a race that he does every year, with a time of 1:16:24.
Wednesday 17th saw the annual quest to find the members who can predict and accurately achieve a running pace. The distance for the annual Chairman’s ‘Bare Wrist Run’ is an accurate 4 miles and each competitor is asked to predict their time. Watches are not allowed!