Stage 1: Kings Lynn to Hunstanton - With the first 3 teams having started at 6.30am, the Lincoln and Reepham teams set off at 6.45am, just after dawn.  Rebecca Wilkinson took on this challenging leg with an aim of finishing in 2hrs 30mins.  Rod Renfrew was escorting on his bike.  Working with the Reepham runner, Rebecca set off at a fast pace and made very good progress for the first hour before settling into a steadier pace when running on the shingle and sand of the beaches.  Due to the length of the stage, there was plenty of time for the support vehicles manned by Simon Kimpton, Anne Gilroy and Andy Dickinson to stop for a leisurely breakfast at Tesco (experience has taught us to take the breaks when and where we can during this race!!).  With encouragement from Rod and from the Reepham runner, Rebecca kept up a good pace to arrive in Hunstanton just ahead of schedule in 2:24:18 - a good run on a difficult course and set a new senior ladies course record.

Stage 2: Hunstanton to Burnham Overy - Taking the baton from Rebecca was John Holmes who was escorted by Shirley Devlin for the road sections of his run.  Setting off with the Reepham runner again, John made a good start and soon eased away from the Reepham runner. John's stage varied between running on the A149 main road and on the coastal path around North Norfolk.  This required good co-ordination between himself and Shirley, who had the unenviable task of finding John as he rejoined the main road at various points. The final part of the run had John running on the coastal flood banks in sight of the finish before turning back to the road and running in to the pretty harbour at Burnham Overy.  Although struggling over the last few miles, John kept going to the handover to finish in a time of 1:52:44, more than 7 minutes inside his target time.

Stage 3: Burnham Overy to Wells - Nick Penistan ran the short stage to Wells.  As this stage is now entirely off-road, Nick ran without an escort (although Shirley still had to get herself to Wells for the next stage).  Although only just over 5 miles, this stage is made much harder by the sandy track and the number of walkers on it.  Nick ran a well-paced leg to finish near the entrance to Wells harbour in 0:40:30.  Although slightly slower than target, Nick gained our joint best stage position (13th) and took several minutes from most of our near rivals.

Stage 4: Wells to Salthouse - The fourth stage is another tricky mix of on and off road running, with the course changing slightly with the tide (no, he didn't have to swim!).  Ian Mair took on this stage with Shirley Devlin escorting on the road sections.  One of the unusual features of this race is that you rarely see other runners during the early stages.  Ian managed to break this and catch and overtake one of the teams that started at 6.30am, setting a good precedent for the later stages.  Having joined the main road at Morston, Ian kept up the pace through the bottleneck that is Cley and ran on into Salthouse, finishing in 1:33:45 - just over 6 minutes inside his target.

Stage 5: Salthouse to Cromer - Taking over the baton from Ian was Trish Penistan, escorted by her husband, Nick.  Trish had been nervous about letting the team down before the start.  She needn't have worried.  Setting off only a couple of minutes ahead of the Old Gresham team, she extended this lead to about 20 minutes and also took a minute or two out of the next team ahead of us.  With Nick keeping up the encouragement, Trish maintained a good pace throughout the whole run, especially up the long drag into Cromer.  Despite turning the wrong way for a second at the last junction, Trish finished in 1:20:52 - nearly 10 minutes ahead of schedule.

Stage 6: Cromer to Mundesley - Our youngest runner, Sarah Kimpton, took over the baton for the short but hilly run to Mundesley, with Nick Penistan escorting again.  With Nick's encouragement, Sarah attacked the course and managed to overtake the Yarmouth runner a couple of miles from the end, moving us into second place on the road.  Using the speed that Sarah has shown on the track this year, she completed her stage a couple of minutes over target in 0:41:58, with our joint best stage position (13th) and finishing first junior lady.

Stage 7: Mundesley to Lessingham - Taking the baton from her daughter, Pat Kimpton took us towards Lessingham for the 3rd time (she ran this leg in 2002 and 2003).  Shirley Devlin should have been escorting but, due to traffic problems, her bike did not arrive at the start on time so Nick Penistan carried on.  Having famously gone the wrong way in 2002, Pat was keen to stay on the right course and keep ahead of the Yarmouth runner who was closing her down.  Running her normal pattern of a slow start and a faster finish, Pat held off the challenge and finished the leg about 2 minutes ahead of the Yarmouth runner.  Having not expected a great time, Pat came in at 1:32:06, nearly 3 minutes ahead of target.

Stage 8: Lessingham to Winterton - With the support vehicles back in the right places, Craig Brewer took over the baton for this stage with Ian Mair escorting.  Craig was in fine form and ran quickly throughout the stage to build a large gap to the teams behind us and slightly reduce the gap to the only team ahead of us on the road.  Despite this, he still had enough breath left to chat to Ian and find out that he used to teach one of his children at De Aston.  Craig finished in an amazing 1:15:24, 25 minutes ahead of target!  This meant that the team were running around 1 hour ahead now and we were in danger of runners not being in place in time.

Stage 9: Winterton to Great Yarmouth - Shirley Devlin, like Pat Kimpton on stage 7, has run the 9th stage in our previous appearances in the RNR.  This year was no different, and Simon and Pat Kimpton escorted in a car as the daylight was fading.  Shirley managed a good pace throughout the run and gave us time to call all of the runners and escorts yet to start to tell them that they will be starting an hour earlier than planned.  After the usual traffic problems in Caister, Shirley had a clear run into Great Yarmouth to finish in the dark in a time of 1:16:31, more than 3 minutes ahead of target.

Stage 10: Great Yarmouth to Geldeston - Having had to make a rushed departures from relatives in Norwich to get to the start in time, Jo Diffey took on the baton for the first of the full night stages of the race, with Paul Boutle escorting.  The first half of the run saw Jo navigating her way our of Yarmouth via the docks area before heading out on the open road to get to McDonalds in Geldeston.  Jo set a cracking pace, far faster than expected, to arrive at Geldeston in 1:54:00, more than 20 minutes ahead of target.

Stage 11: Geldeston to Scole - Next up was Barry Carey, escorted by Ian Mair (who set some kind of record by running, biking and car escorting during one race).  Barry's stage started in the pleasant surroundings of McDonalds car park and continued along one road for 19.6 miles to finish next to a field.  Although shorter than previous year's, this is still the longest stage in the race.  Controlling his excitement, Barry ran a good, if lonely, race to finish in 2:24:58, only 5 minutes over target.  Barry made significant inroads into the lead of Hunts AC, taking more than 25 minutes off them.

Stage 12: Scole to Thetford - Having negotiated the ploughed field that served as a car park in his BMW sports car, Jon Hughes took over the baton from Barry and had Anne Gilroy escorting in her car.  With his stage almost as long as the previous one, Jon had the excitement of navigating through Scole village before heading out on the main road to Thetford.  With no other runners in sight ahead or behind, Jon's run was as quiet as Barry's and he kept the gap to Hunts AC at around 20 minutes.  Jon completed his stage in 2:04:38, another 25 minutes ahead of target.

Stage 13: Thetford to Feltwell - Gary Martin took on the baton for this stage, escorted by Anne Gilroy initially as the team were now nearly 2 hours ahead of schedule and Simon & Pat Kimpton (who had sneaked off for a few hours sleep) did not quite arrive in time for Jon's handover to Gary.  However, normal order was restored 1/2 mile into the stage as Simon & Pat caught up with Gary, giving Anne the chance for a brief rest.  Gary set off at a good pace up the hill out of Thetford.  After a few miles, the route turns into Thetford forest, initially on tarmac but then changing to a sand track with large ruts.  Gary ran well over this section despite the escort vehicle's best attempts to illuminate alternately the tops of trees and the road 6ft behind Gary.  After passing through Weeting, Gary was suddenly able to see a flashing orange light ahead of him.  He rapidly caught the runner ahead and left him behind just as quickly to finish 5 minutes ahead as the first runner (on the road) in the race now.  Gary finished 10 minutes up on target in 1:39:59.

Stage 14: Feltwell to Southery - Taking the baton on from his Lincoln & District team-mate Gary, Steve Dickinson set off to consolidate our lead, escorted by Simon & Pat Kimpton.  After passing through Feltwell village, Steve arrived at a road section that is more than 3.6 miles dead straight and was concerned at how long it took cars to disappear around the bend at the end of the road.  As he progressed along the road, it was possible to see one then two and three flashing lights behind.  Initially, the lights didn't seem to be closing on us but, as we approached the end of the stage, one of the lights was clearly closing very fast.  This turned out to be Mansfield Harriers flashing past us.  Steve held off the other two chasing teams to reach Southery in 1:02:13, 7 minutes faster than his target.

Stage 15: Southery to Downham Market - In a flash of excitement as four teams passed through this changeover within 5 minutes, Sylvia Strangeway took the baton from Steve and set off to Downham Market with Simon & Pat Kimpton escorting.  Just after we had joined the A10, we had the fun of three runners all together and the escort vehicles jockeying for position to try and match the positions of their runners.  After a couple of miles, the order had settled down with the other two runners slowly pulling away from Sylvia.  She continued on into Downham Market finishing in 1:05:47, about 6 minutes over target.

Stage 16: Downham Market to Stowbridge - The plan for this stage had Anne Gilroy escorting Pete Walker on her bike.  As were still nearly 2 hours up on the plan, it was still too dark so Simon & Pat Kimpton carried on escorting in their car.  Pete had done a full recce of his stage the day before and this showed as he navigated the flat fenland roads of his stage.  Making a good pace, we could see the lights of the escort vehicle ahead of us, but made little headway into their lead.  Pete maintained his pace to finish in 0:45:35, bang on target (thanks Pete - at least someone go it right!).

Stage 17: Stowbridge to Kings Lynn - As it was still too dark for escort bikes only, Dave Strangeway set off with Anne Gilroy escorting on her bike and Andy Dickinson escorting in the minibus.  After about 30 minutes, it was light enough for Andy to peel off and head straight back to the finish in Kings Lynn.  Dave and Anne continued on about 5 minutes behind the next team, but with more than 30 minutes to the next team behind them.  Navigating the new road restrictions on the way into Kings Lynn, Dave made good progress to bring us in to the finish as the fourth team home, completing his stage in 1:27:45, about 3 minutes outside the target.  This gave us an overall time of 25:03:03 to place 30th overall and 5th in category.  The team finished more than 1hr 40mins earlier than expected.  My thanks go to all the team members who responded to all the phone calls and got themselves in position much earlier than expected.

So why did we finish so far ahead of schedule.  I'd like to think that it is because all of the runners were on form and had a good run on the day.  The alternative is that I am rubbish at scheduling and that can't be right (or can it???).  Another lesson we need to learn is to have more support vehicles to transport runners and riders around.  This will greatly reduce the load on the few of us that were doing it this year, aid for better co-ordination, and build a better sense of team spirit.

As for next year, a number of our runners have expressed an interest in taking part.  I hope that we do get a team together again - and probably with a joint team from the Lincoln clubs again.  However, I would like someone else to take the lead in planning and organising the runners, escorts and support vehicles.  I am more than happy to deal with the paperwork and the interface with the race organisers (and to give advice/assistance to the team organiser).