The North Norfolk Beach Runners have been active over the last couple of weeks.

The Stowmarket half marathon, run over the rolling hills of the Suffolk countryside, was the chosen race for the last competitive run before the London Marathon for Chris Merrylees, Paul Muffet and Colin Stark. This proved to be a good decision as they won the Team Prize. An outstanding performance by Chris gave him first overall in 1:14:11, a peronsal best. Paul was eighth in 1:21:20 and won the M50 category, closely followed in ninth by Colin (1:21:27, pb).

Andy Kett ran the Lincoln 10km in 36:08, finishing 42nd out of 4,375 runners. Further afield Malcolm Ball ran the gruelling 18km Cartmel Trail race in the Lake District over deep mud and rocks to win the 70+ age group by over a minute in 2:13:15. Joined by Alec Fraser a week later he ran the Coniston 14, with Malcolm coming second in the 75-80 group in 2:19:59 and Alec third in the 70 -75 category in 2:20:52.

Back home the Beach Runners put on a great show at the Mad March Hare 10km race with three of the women outdoing the men and winning trophies. Charlotte Neale was first in the 15-40 group in 45:18, beating Ellen Similon to the post by six seconds. Lucy Collyer was first in the 45- 49 in 44:09 and Andrea Osborne first in 55- 59 in 48:44, beaten home by 14 seconds by husband Rob.

Tony Witmond, Darren Armstrong and Michael Sadler achieving 21st, 22nd and 23rd with only eight seconds between them, with the fastest at 40:51. Paul Cockaday ran in 43:34 shortly followed by Vernon Hoare in 45:25.