W/E 22.03.25 - WAC20!

Lastly on this week’s review – our very own WAC20 – the 3rd race of the Sportlink Grand Prix Series this year and the last stop for many on their marathon training plan before their big day!

**WAC20**

Overall the day was a brilliant success and a big thank you goes to our race committee and race directors Sue Stirling & Wendy Watton Burgess. Our amazing marshal crews provided the best setting for the runners taking on our countryside 20 mile course and we even got a new Course record to celebrate! 🙌🏻

As a club we had 21 runners take part on the day – first home for WAC was Billy Wheeler in a time of 2hr 9min 53sec; followed by Gareth Seville (PB🎖️- 02:12:58) & Mark Banfield (02:18:34). Our first WAC female on the day was Gemma Barnes in a time of 2hr 24min 25sec; followed by Alison Armstrong (02:34:13) & Eloise Peek (CR PB🎖️ - 02:35:49).

We had 4 new 🚨shiny🚨 Personal bests to celebrate; Gareth Seville (PB🎖️), Eloise Peek (CR PB🎖️), Dani Gilbert (PB🎖️- 02:48:31) & Kimberley Powles (PB🎖️- 02:56:13) all smashing out times to celebrate. We also had two club records as Eloise (CR🏅 PB🎖) was joined by Tim Seville (CR🏅- 02:33:22) in making Eva update her records - Congratulations to you all! 🙌🏻

Along with the personal achievements listed above, we also had 4 age category winners with; Billy Wheeler 2nd🥈 M50-54, Todd Lake 2nd🥈 M60-64 (02:26:38), Tim Seville 1st🥇 M65-69 (CR🏅) & Graham Walsh 1st🥇 M75+ (03:02:31) as scooping up prizes on home turf – well done you four and a big well done to all our runners on the day! 🙌🏻

Thank you to Sportlink Specialist Sports Ltd for thier continued sport of road racing in this area & to Total Race Timing for their assistance on the day - lastly the brilliant snaps from 📸Dreampace 📸 also! 🙌🏻

One of our runners wrote a piece for the Wymondham Magazine also;

The annual Wymondham AC 20-Mile Event was held on Sunday 23rd March. Conditions for the 462 finishers were perfect: a cool climate with the sun occasionally checking in. The event was part of a Grand Prix Series sponsored by Sportlink and supported by Neil Featherby, the Course record holder from the very first event in 1989. This year, however, Colchester Harriers AC’s Dean Williamson stormed around the course in 1:47:38, knocking two minutes off the record, a mighty effort on the course’s challenging undulations. Dean commented, “What an event it was! The support out there and the Marshalls were class all the way. The very best kind of race!”

The first female finisher was Norfolk's own Eleanor Grubb of City of Norwich AC, in 2:10:54, another usual spellbinding performance from Eleanor, who, like Dean, is in training for upcoming marathons.

Wymondham Athletics Club had 21 of its own runners taking part. Our first finisher was Billy Wheeler in 2:09:52. Huge congratulations go not only to the other 20 Club runners but, indeed, all who braved the day.

A further quick thank you to the Etude Coffee crew for providing additional prizes to the 1st Male/Female on the day, and, last but not least, the Wymondham AC Race Management team led by Sue Stirling and Wendy Burgess - who are probably already planning the 2026 event.

#TeamWAC💜🤍💜🤍