In 1995, 1996 & 1997 LBAC took part with seventeen other teams in a developing event that was founded in 1987 called the Round Norfolk Relay. There are not too many current members who will have taken part in the events which were organised each year by former captain, chairman & secretary, Steve Goodlad. It was a pretty big undertaking as the relay is 195 miles around the edge of Norfolk, consisting of 17 legs of various lengths, from five to twenty miles.

Since those days the event has grown hugely and is now restricted to a maximum of sixty teams, but the basis is exactly the same. Still 195 miles over 17 legs. Each team picks their own start time based on a finish of 9.00am and every runner must have an escort all the way, of a bike during the day and a car during the night.

In addition to running with Leighton on a Wednesday, there is a small collection of LBAC runners who also train with Milton Keynes on a Tuesday and Andy and Amy Inchley have been doing this for a while so are very well known to "The Dark Side". Milton Keynes were entering the relay for the eighth year in succession but with an aging team were struggling to find anyone to do the two 20 mile legs! Foolishly, Amy & Andy let it be known that they are in marathon training and were preyed upon by the MK organisers.

So, having agreed to do the two longest stages of this ridiculous event they then found out when the legs were actually happening. If all went to the predicted schedule, Amy would be starting leg ten (20.06 miles) at 20:20 on the Saturday night and Andy would be beginning leg twelve (19.67 miles) at around 01:10 on Sunday morning! Clearly this created all sorts of issues around what to eat and when, how much supporting of the other runners was possible and when do you sleep?

Having arrived in Norfolk early, Andy & Amy headed up to Horsey Mill for the start of the leg before Amy's and collected numbers and instructions for their runs. They then headed off to the front in Great Yarmouth where Amy's leg would begin a little while later. Eventually the time came for Amy to head off on her trek to Bungay and she began with a couple of miles running down the front in Great Yarmouth, weaving in and out of the bemused hordes of tourists out enjoying their Saturday evening.

With Andy following immediately behind in the car Amy set off at a good pace although feeling like the pasta she ate earlier in the evening may have been a little too late. After about three miles the route left the main town and that was the last place of any decent size that they saw all night. Despite the claims to the contrary, Norfolk is not entirely flat and there were regular climbs for Amy to negotiate throughout the route and after about seven miles the combination of lonely running, missed timed food and a long tough run started to make the run very hard.

Gels and water were taken on board, but increasing stomach ache made Amy slow down over the third quarter, but eventually she stopped for a minute to try to bring up the issue!! Somewhat surprisingly, this worked and suddenly she was flying again as the clock approached 10:30 in the evening and the last four miles were covered in very good time as she arrived at the changeover in Bungay for a total time of 2:55 for the leg.

With Amy have recovered a little and grabbed a shower at one of the very few finish points where this was available, the headed off another fifteen miles to Scole where Andy would be starting his leg. The facilities at Scole consisted of a field with a portaloo and a burger van (which was still serving, despite it being 1am!) so Andy was not exactly raring to go, particularly after his last lousy effort at running a 20 mile event. Almost exactly on time, the leg eleven runner came in to hand the baton on to Andy who was hoping to complete the route in under 7mpm, but the temperature had dropped to five degrees and the leg was basically 20 miles in a straight line!

Getting going as the clock ticked past 1:15am proved a little challenge for Andy as four of his first five miles were over seven minutes, but with the occasional orange light of the support cars seen on the horizon he had a couple of target teams to aim for and he gradually picked up the pace, but didn't get to his average of 7mpm until twelve miles had ticked past.

With what seemed like endless inclines to focus on and a number of teams on the horizon Andy felt much more comfortable than he did two weeks previously and continued to improve the pace until he peaked at 6:25 on the uphill finish on the outskirts of Thetford, crossing the line after 2:14 at about 3:25am.

After going to the next changeover point and grabbing an hour's sleep they then followed the runners through the last few legs before Amy volunteered to cycle the penultimate five mile leg as the sun had come up and she clearly felt a second wind. Having seen Amy put in the extra miles, Andy didn't want to be shown up so volunteered to cycle the final lovely 11 mile leg to Kings Lynn with friend of LBAC, Martin McPheat.

All in all, the event is ridiculous. The best part of 1000 people running all the way around the edge of one of the UK's largest counties, taking an average time of around 25 hours. Yet, it is sold out each year, within about a week of the entries opening, many people come back year on year and almost everyone gets drawn into the atmosphere of supporting your team mates on their own individual adventure. It's crazy, but great fun really, ideal for Stu…….!