If any of you have seen Grease 2, you’ll know that sequels rarely surpass the original, so apologies in advance if this doesn’t quite match the quality or completeness of Lara’s excellent updates!

Saint Edmund Pacers AGM

Our Annual General Meeting took place last week and thanks to everyone who attended. Following Ian’s Chair report (attached for anyone who would like to read it), the existing committee stood down and a new committee was elected. A huge thank you to Lara for all of her hard work and dedication over the years, and thank you to everyone continuing in their roles. We’d also like to welcome new committee members Izzy Hollands and Sophie Seward.   Your committee for the coming year is:

Ekiden Relay

It was a beautiful day at Woolverstone Hall School on Sunday, overlooking the River Orwell, as hundreds of junior and senior runner teams took part in this year’s Ekiden Relay.

Our juniors enjoyed fantastic success, securing 1st and 2nd places in the Under-16 Mixed, 1st place in the Under-16 Girls, 1st place in the Under-14 Mixed, 3rd place in the Under-12 Mixed, and 2nd place in the Under-14 Girls.

The senior teams were equally impressive. Competing across 193 teams in the marathon-distance relay, Pacers claimed 1st place in the Men’s Veterans (40+), 2nd in the Men’s Open, 2nd in the Mixed competition (from 107 teams), 1st in the Men’s Super Veterans (50+), 1st in the Ladies’ Open, 2nd in the Ladies’ Super Veterans, and 1st place in the Over-70s category, setting a new course record in the process.

Quite a haul of podium places!

A huge thank you to Ian, Mel and everyone else involved in organising the day.

Friday 5

The final race of this year’s six-race Friday 5 series took place at Great Bentley on Friday. Congratulations to Chris Mower and Katie King for winning their senior age categories, and to the ladies’ team for winning on the night.

Across the senior series as a whole, Saint Edmund Pacers retained the overall team title, finishing just ahead of Ipswich Jaffas. Individually, there were age-category podium finishes for Jenny Morgan (1st FV70+), Andrew Southwood (1st MV45), Stacey Mockford (2nd FV40), Anita Ward (2nd FV55), Claire Brown (2nd FV60), Philip Hymers (2nd MV70+), Anna Slater (3rd FV45) and Mark Stratton (3rd MV50).

The juniors showed similar strength, with Pacers securing 3rd place overall as a club. Individually, Violet Lillistone-Highlands finished 3rd overall in the girls’ standings, while Bobbie Seager and Jack Seager finished 2nd and 3rd overall in the boys’ standings. Across the age categories there were runners-up finishes for Oliver Broughton (MU11) and Abbie Dockerill (FU13), while Noah Duncan (MU9), Mia Ligieza (FU9) and Bethan Southwood (FU15) all secured 3rd-place finishes.

Taken together, these results demonstrate the incredible strength and depth of running talent across Saint Edmund Pacers, from our youngest juniors through to our most experienced veterans.

However, if you think I’m also going to list everyone’s PBs after all of that… sorry, not this week!

Around the Club

There were also Pacers out in force at the track event in King’s Lynn last week – a full report will follow.

Finally, I’m not quite as well connected as Lara, so I’m going to need your help. Please either connect with me on Strava or drop me an email with any race results, achievements, upcoming events or club news you’d like shared with members.

Don’t be shy! Hearing about fellow Pacers’ successes is always inspiring. Whether it’s a podium finish, a first race, a shiny new PB, or simply getting out of the door for a run when the weather is trying its best to persuade you otherwise, your stories help motivate the rest of us to enter that next race, try something new, or simply lace up our shoes and head out for a run.

Matt