“Eye of the tiger!”… “Absolutely brilliant!”… “Go on Rocky, you are an animal!”
It’s 3am and I’m on a bike riding alongside Colin Tricker, who is running a 19 mile leg along an almost deserted, but far from quiet road on the Norfolk / Suffolk border, writes Mike Walter. Ahead are a series of flashing orange beacons attached to minibuses following runners from rival teams. Behind us is a support vehicle driven by Pete Buckingham sitting alongside enthusiastic passenger Nick Brown, who is leaning out of the window.
The shouts for Colin come thick and fast and become louder and more bizarre each time he overtakes a competitor. I lost count how many runners we caught; it was certainly at least 14, could have been 15, maybe 16.
Colin’s eyes remained fixed on the road ahead and he kept an impressive pace throughout his run. His performance was due mainly to determination and months of training… but may have been helped in a small way by the support received en-route.
Throughout the 22 hours plus of PWAC’s participation in the Round Norfolk Relay a small but dedicated (and sleep deprived) band of runners and supporters stayed out on the road the whole way round the county to cheer on our team. Runners were grateful for the support and those doing the shouting were happy to be part of a magical event.
Many of us had woken before sunrise on the Saturday to get up to King’s Lynn for the start of our race at 10am – and we were still awake as sunrise broke on the Sunday. As Rob Rowland crossed the finishing line to bring the team home, the prize many of us were hoping for was a comfortable bed.
* Overall the weekend was great fun, but there was sad news which overshadowed this year’s race. A runner from City of Norwich AC collapsed and died towards the end of stage four. Our thoughts are with the runner’s family and his club.
