Run with us

Dear member,

Merry Christmas!

This year has been a challenge at all levels and everyone has experienced some disappointments, confusion and anxious times - but there have been some joyful and satisfying moments.

As a club we started off the year with our Horford XC, which had the biggest ever attendance-Over 150 runners. Tony took a team of members to the National XC and Glyn led the NRR trip to the Southern National XC at Parliament Hills.

Way back in early March, the second Roarr! half marathon was a great success and we will visit the Dinosaur Park again.

‘Virtual’ became a word well-used as many of our annual events changed in format, including the Round Norfolk Relay and Ekiden with Norwich Road Runners posting some excellent results. We were able to support local charities, Priscilla Bacon Lodge and Nelson's Journey by the wonderful efforts in Virtual 5k and RED Lockdown Challenge. In a bid to keep people running safely and remain in line with ever- changing guidelines, many members led small groups on informal runs, individuals posted their own achievements and all of these encouraged others to step out of the door and run! The commitment of the organisers and runners has been incredible. At the time of sending this message, some of you are out running as one of our 4 teams entered in the Norfolk Orienteering Christmas Cracker- Thanks to David and Jo for organising.

The Junior branch of NRR benefitted through the first lockdown from daily efforts sessions le ad by Ally Hayden, and once permitted, groups have met on Saturday mornings under the careful eyes of Alma and the other Junior coaches - thank you to them and Junior parents for sticking to the necessary rules.

The committee has continued to meet via Zoom and can report that the club is in a good financial position, ready for the year ahead. We have plans for 'real races' and hope we can run together again. This year has shown how important running can be and we are keen to share individual stories and views - there is a blog spot on the website for anyone who fancies writing a blog.

Although events may not have been as expected or wanted, one thing is sure - we kept running!

One final note, the NRR email addresses are not working at the moment. If you would like to send a message to your committee/membership please use the temporary email address below:-

Norwichroadrunners@virginmedia.com

On behalf of the committee, best wishes for a peaceful, safe and healthy Christmas and New Year

The term legends means an ‘extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field’.

The term I feel is misused but in the case of their previous achievements and for RED, Stacey Harper 261 miles) and Roly Cook (368), I for one am happy to call both ‘NRR club legends’.

Many thanks to Gary Stevens for presenting the trophies (and running around delivering medals) and to Jodie Causer for help with this challenge. Over 250 signed up for the challenge, most of which were club members. It was also great to send just over £360 to Nelson’s Journey thanks to your contributions.

Does anyone fancy another challenge?

Glyn/Gary/Jodie

Congratulations to Alicia Lacey and John Hudson who ran the Milton Keynes Winter Half Marathon on Sunday 13th December 2020 It must have been a great feeling running an actual race all be it one run under Covid 19 restrictions.

They both did the club proud with Alicia taking the first female position in a time of 1:20:48 while John crossed the line in 1:17:24 taking 13th place overall. 

Alicia also achieved a club record for the half marathon that had been held by Anne Flanagan for 13 years. A good weekends work!

Not a bit of it! The Club has a Christmas tradition of dressing up, running  to a suitable hostelry to drink, eat  and be merry.  This year our race director Jodie Causer, organised a socially distanced run  that complied with the covid restrictions on meeting outside for exercise. Meeting in different parts of the city ,groups of six runners gathered together and made their way to an Inn. Well not actually an Inn but the Carey's of Norwich mobile 'Coffee Box" at the corner of Spixworth Road and Quaker lane. There was enough room at the inn for the Santas, wise men, elf's ,robots and others to meet in a socially distanced manner to enjoy one of the Coffee Box's Christmas specials .Heres hoping that next year we will have the freedom to descend en-masse into the City of Norwich! (see the 2016 photo!)