Well, we are done for another year and no incidents this year!
(small print: one late replacement due to Covid, one flat tyre and one runner off course)
Results can be found here where as an open team, we came 47/57 teams.
We completed the event in 27hr 44 mins against our projected time on 28hr 11 min
A HUGE thanks goes to Sue Flute who organises the team setup and on the day a full assist from Paul Youngman, Chris Hamlin and Jason Corner who somehow are on the case for the entire event (with few hours either side).
Anyway, below are some ramblings of some of the runners and helpers with a few pics.
CHRIS HAMLIN
As my first time running a support wagon rather than as a competitor: I found it amazing to watch the sheer number of moving parts that this event involves. Just in our team, there’s as many if not more people on support and admin than there are people running. Most people are assigned a leg, turn up to run it and then go home. What they don’t see is clipboards full of paperwork, routes, hand drawn notes, sheets of phone numbers and the like that are all essential and have to be prepared in advance. There’s bikes, lights, clothing, food, bad weather gear, sat navs, stopwatches, van signage, hazard lights, rule sets to prep and absorb. We’ve got to know the layout of the course and be able to get from one stage to another, in the dark, while navigating hundreds of other bikes, runners, vans and public. Not knowing exactly how long it’ll take to get anywhere.
Driving a van at 7-8mph for the entirety of dark hours overnight is draining and very complicated. Not to mention having to allow faster runners and van to pass, while negotiating our team overtaking others.
Each team has to perform the same job for their runners and run the various different handover spots with military precision.
In the light of it being more complicated than ever to put on events, the fact that this one can even be run amazes me!
The fact that we’re doing it all through the night with basically no sleep is absolutely astounding!
How Sue, Paul and Jason turn up every year and make this work, often with little help, going from 4am Saturday to 10am Sunday with no real breaks is frankly, a miracle!
All that being said, I actually had a lot of (type 2) fun doing the event as a supporter for the first time. It was great to see all the runners chugging through the night and doing their best as part of the wider team.
It was great watching with anticipation when our runners slowly reeled in and overtook a competitor, or watching the sudden kick in pace when they caught sight in the distance of someone they could “run down”.
It was a great event, spending time with a great group of people and we didn’t kill anyone.
It’s a win!
Oh, and I met Ghandi, which was nice!
JAMES CRAWFORD
Stage 13: Thetford to Feltwell (15 miles / 24.5km )
In what was (I think) the final schedule I was expecting to start running just after 3.30am. Fortunately I didn’t sleep well with a 215 alarm set and when the RNR tracking suggested I might be starting at more like 315 I got up before the alarm ever sounded and decided to get to my changeover by 250 which was lucky cos I got the baton at 305!
The stage starts traversing the sights of North Thetford with a few km that include a couple of uphill stretches to get you properly warmed up. Not having run this distance for a few months I’d set a target pace around 5:15/km but having managed around 5 dead to the A11 junction I threw caution to the wind as we headed into the darkness of the forest on a gentle descent and settled into 4:50s.
The miles flew by as I chatted to Ken on bike support who kindly passed me drinks and gels on demand (and not so kindly almost ran into me on occasion as the tiredness kicked in!). I managed to pass several teams as well as being passed a couple of times. Having a runner ahead to aim for is the kind of incentive I need, and I kept plugging away, really enjoying the run in the dark of a cool, clear night.
With around 10km to go we came to a right turn to find a runner who had “done a Philo” coming at it from the opposite direction. We fully caught up as they had a debate at the next turn which way to go and we all got chatting. Rosie from Biggleswade then held a pretty solid 4:40-4:45 and I felt compelled to keep up as the remaining miles ticked by, although the increased pace didn’t stop a cycling club mate on bike support giving some banter as he sailed past with a focused Bure Valley Harrier.
With a mile to go we took the final turn, saw the lights of RAF Feltwell ahead and I had enough left in the legs to kick for home. Rosie capitulated on the slight incline, blaming the extra distance she’d done, and encouraged me to go for it so with one final push I hit the changeover and handed the baton to Steve. Jason threw me my goodie bag, car key and a phone number for Darren and I set off to find he’d parked me about a mile away. A quick change into fresh warm clothes and I headed off to find the start of stage 15 where I was due on the bike 45 mins later. Really enjoyed the run – sounds weird but middle of the night is really great! – and recommend the event to anyone.
JASON CORNER
Another Round Norfolk Relay. A whole weekend of sleep deprivation and logistical anxiety, why do we do it to ourselves? For me it is about the little moments, I am not naturally a social person, and many aspects of the RNR shouldn’t suit me, but it is hands down one of my favourite weekends of the year. I do the full Lynn to Lynn support because I really like seeing the race unfold, stage 1 was Jane starting at 5:30am, a time I have never deliberately run, it was cold and dark but she went about her run like it was a normal training day handing over to Carl with a kiss (I noted this custom and will try it when handing the baton over next year), Carl in his first RNR was impressive.
stage 2 is very hard, starts on sand and finishes on a raised horseshoe walkway which is always into a swirling headwind, it is a long leg and draining, the hill to the windmill makes or breaks you, it made Carl, handing to Janice
stage 3 can be lonely, no support on this one, just you and the dunes, but Janice seamlessly executed her stage and then handing over to Mark
stage 4, having run this last year I can attest it is indeed very hard to navigate, and the traffic through Cley is always horrific, but he buckled down and pushed hard to the end,
stage 5 is epic, the undisputed hardest stage (they are all hard, but this is next level), it was expertly navigated and executed by David (who requested this stage, who even does that!!!),
stage 6 is deceptive, looks short, easy right? Nope, it is a series of very brutal North Norfolk hills, and Jon had an equally epic rainstorm to contend with, I was cycle support for Jon and I think this storm brought out the beast, his last three miles were really something to behold and I very much enjoyed encouraging that epically focused side of Jon, over to stage 7
Kitty who absolutely demolished her predicted time and handed to stage 8
Abbie, who also smashed her predicted time into dust, our support vehicle had a puncture at this point and as Paul (support crew legend) was calmly changing the wheel I cycled onto the next stage to ensure timekeeping got done, as I cycled past Abbie she shouted ‘I am smashing it’ and yes, she was, onto stage 9 where the excellent support team had been doing some mind reading and got everything sorted whilst the wheel change was getting done
Heidi was predictably excellent and again coming in very much under her already very impressive predicted time, handing to stage 10
Nicole who had stepped in at the last minute, to my mind this is what the RNR is about, people stepping up for a common goal, Nicole didn’t break the roll our team was on and took massive chunks out of her predicted time, I was driving behind and myself and Paul concluded her stage was almost entirely uphill, handing to Kevin stage 11
Kevin is a seasoned RNR professional, and for good reason, he expertly banged out his run and yet again dropped time from his prediction, handing to Duncan at the longest stage
12 Scole to Thetford where I was cycle support and thoroughly enjoyed watching Duncan do a monumental progressive run which I believe took a ridiculous 20 minutes off his predicted time, handing to James at Tesco for stage 13,
James had been in Tesco carpark for about 6 weeks, and his commitment to being early and not stressing out the support team was much appreciated (as was his excellent support which carried onto the finish), he had an excellent run, which I did not witness as the sleep deprivation was starting to catch up and I was in an ‘interesting head space’ and luckily on my own at this point, James handed over to Steve at stage 14,
it was Steve’s first RNR for Tri-Anglia, and he did an expert job, incredibly reliable pacing, he’d given a very fast prediction and was good to his word, handing over to Darren at stage 15,
if you know Darren you know his pacing is as dependable as the sunrise, and as the sun rose Darren pounded out his miles consistently and managed to put a considerable dent into his (already very fast) predicted time, handing over to Adam for stage 16,
it was Adam’s first RNR stage and it shouldn’t be underestimated how stressful that is, he calmly executed an excellent run and handed over to me at stage 17,
I would like to be modest at this point, but that wouldn’t be sincere and I absolutely battered my prediction after 36 hours without sleep, where I found the energy is beyond me, except it isn’t, it was the inspiring culmination of knowing that I was part of a very selfless group of people who all played a huge part in our getting the baton back to Kings Lynn well under our prediction, the baton was nurtured by everyone, what a wonderful example of what humans can do, and exactly why I will keep coming back to Kings Lynn on dark cold Saturday mornings in mid September,
if I have missed anyone out I haven’t intended it, I am still tired and can barely string a sentence together still, I appreciate every single one of you’.
KEVIN MACE
DITCHINGHAM TO SCOLE 14.9
After a long day watching dots and WhatsApp it’s 9pm and time to head off to DITCHINGHAM the familiar yellow flashing lights tell me that I’m there and its real.
It’s nearly 11pm and I’m running into the night sky soon onto the A143 and the long run to SCOLE with HUGO on the bike and Ken, David in the van (cheers guys great job the miles tick by and we hit the hills time to dig in and hold the pace praying that Billingford comes soon nearly there and I’m blowing one more hill then a right turn to the change over at SCOLE..Gave it absolutely all Max effort for a great TA team and all the nighttime stages completed by me…
MARK PHILO
Stage 4 Wells to Cley, 11.1 miles
I was late to my station last year … by ONE minute. But that was branded into my soul by the ever-forgiving Team Tri-Anglia. Still, this is a new year and clean slate. So, I made it to my start nice and early and eagerly awaited Janince to have over the baton to be underway on my coastal path route. I love the coastal path. I have run and walked in many times and even though I know it, I put the route on my watch mapping to ensure I took the right trail. Not that I need to look at it, so I didn’t. Until I did at around 7 miles into the run and I realise I should have branched off at Blakeney instead of sticking to the coastal path. I was a mile off course!! Quick text to the group of admission and retraced my steps to find the official route and catch Jason waiting for me. I’m sure he want’s to be first to take the p*ss, but maybe my oncoming expression makes him back off and he resorts to some great encouragement for my last 2 official miles. But I’m mentally spent now and what was a nice pace of sub 8 min miles drops to 8:45s as the legs and mind went over-budget. I finish on the few yards of soft stones that Dave Hudson is about to endure for miles and await my wrath. But it’s OK. Things happen and I made the best of it and like that, the crew are gone as that baton just keeps moving and can’t dwell on what’s happened.
For me it was over to Mundesley and spend the afternoon marshalling at Coronation Hall. Well fed by the local W.I. and ducking in and out from occasional deluges of rain. My thanks here go to Tony Wenlock, Sue, Brockhouse, Kat Wlodarczyk and Dave Hudson for directing people and traffic from 2 pm till 7.30 pm
DARREN WOODWOOD
2nd weekend of September so of course I was going to join in the 24hr or so madness that is known as the Round Norfolk Relay!
Not to be defeated by my niece’s scheduling of her wedding on the Saturday I strategically plumped for the sunrise leg Sunday morning, Stage 15 from Wissington to Downham Market.
Regular readers and others who know may be aware of the notoriety of this stage from 2024? So I was determined to not extend this infamy… However whilst still a few miles from the handover, I get a phone call from Chris Hamlin to inform me that Steve Ely was running a stonking leg ahead of me and my presence was required imminently!
Adrenaline suitably boosted I arrived, parked my car, gave keys to Ken, met the handover team pinned my number on and almost immediately received the baton from Steve and was off!
I used the first km as my warm up, setting off at more of a parkrun pace than 10 mile pace!
Setting down to something more sustainable, the route proved to be pretty straightforward and by that time of the morning there were a few other teams around which provided some targets to chase. The chilly, misty start soon warmed up the temperature and seeing the sunrise was a real boost. A late diversion to the route to avoid roadworks shaved a little bit of distance of as we approached Downham Market and then all to soon it was over, as I handed over to Adam for the penultimate leg about 5 mins ahead of my predicted time.
Thanks to the 14 runners who collaborated in getting the baton to Wissington for me, and also to the 2 who brought it home after my bit.
Thanks again to James who provided friendly banter and encouragement throughout my leg and finally massive thanks to the support team of coordinators, drivers, cyclists, handover crew, goody bag preppers, motivational banana writers and anyone else that made it possible for the 17 of us running to only have to concentrate on moving forwards.
DAVID HUDSON
It was great to be able to run stage 5 (10.8 mile Cley to Cromer) as the route goes past my static caravan at Beeston Regis.
I had practiced the course and set a realistic time 9:30/ mile pace although I twice had to make this slower from my original estimate.
The stage is stunning but tough because the first 4 miles are on a shingle beach and then the 2nd half has 2 big hills- Skelding Hill and The Beeston Bump.
Favourable conditions on the day with the wind helping and some great support along the way. It is amazing what a race number and a baton can do. My wife was able to get me drinks bottles at the 2 agreed points and even managed a surprise 3rd and she also took some great photos and a finishing video.
I paced it well and with no navigation errors managed to run just over a minute faster than my target time.
Official time 1:41:19. for 40th position out of 58 runners for the stage.
STEVE ELY :Stage 14
Sunday 14th Sept 3:30am, I didn’t exactly leap out of bed but got up pretty promptly when I read our group Whatsapp which told me that my team mates had done a brilliant job and were ahead of schedule. A few mouthful of Rice Krispies and we were on our way to the Wild West of Norfolk (Feltwell) for stage 14 of RNR. I was starting to sweat when the messages were coming through that James was due in at 5:05am ish whilst the sat nav told me we were due to arrive at 4:55am.
I parked up, ran to the start, found our time keepers to get my race number and had just finished pinning it to my vest when in sprinted James. I grabbed the baton and was off into the darkness. Fortunately I had driven round my stage the previous weekend though it looked different in the dark and I didn’t remember any up hill’s (funny that!). Paul (my cyclist) kept me company with good conversation and water when required. With day dawning and before I knew it the change-over was in sight, I made an attempt to sprint in before handing the baton over to Darren for stage 15.
By time I had my breath back the sun was shining and it was time to head to Kings Lynn for breakfast (after all I had promised by son Thomas a McDonald’s breakfast for getting up at 3:30am ). Our final stop was LynnSport to cheer the teams in as they finished. There is something special about running in the darkness at stupid o’clock and RNR delivers on that one! RNR has to be my favourite race weekend of the year and hopefully I’ll be part of the team in 2026.
