With a gap in the Norfolk road race calendar, several North Norfolk Beach Runners took the opportunity to clock up some serious miles elsewhere.Brothers Andy and Rob Kett ran spectacularly fast times at the gruelling Snowdonia Marathon.

With a gap in the Norfolk road race calendar, several North Norfolk Beach Runners took the opportunity to clock up some serious miles elsewhere.

Brothers Andy and Rob Kett ran spectacularly fast times at the gruelling Snowdonia Marathon.

The race is renowned as much for its two huge climbs as for its wonderful scenery and most runners find themselves running at least 20 minutes worse than their best time. So Andy Kett's 3-10:25 for an amazing 27th place in the field of over 3,000 was a tremendous achievement. And with Rob less than seven minutes behind (3-17:23), it was a great day for the Kett family.

Super-vet Malcolm Ball defied horribly wet conditions and strong winds at the British Masters Half-Marathon Championships at Stevenage. The tireless 76-year-old ran a very decent time of 1-59:08 to take a British Masters silver and a gold in the Association of Running Clubs Championships.

Struggling with the same appalling conditions was long distance specialist Vinnie Purdy, who took on the 39-mile Marriott's Way Ultra from Norwich to Reepham.

But the extreme weather proved to be no problem for the Cromer runner as he gobbled up the miles to finish fourth in an excellent time of 5hrs 51mins.

Also on Marriott's Way was Colin Stark, whose work commitments have hampered his recent training plans. He chose the 18-mile race, but still had a terrific top-10 finish.