CLUB NEWS: Hawks complete 24 hour marathon

Words by Mel Perkins MBE, photos by Jenny Melvin

HETHERSETT HAWKS / YELLOW BRICK MORTGAGES staged an amazing 24-hour marathon event at Memorial Playing Field track to raise funds towards improved facilities at their circuit. Given a title of Pedal2Paris the target was to complete enough laps over the 24-hours to get to Paris – 381 miles. In the end there was at least one person on the track for the whole 24 hours and the club was overwhelmed by the support given by its members and their families, boosted by ex-members, the local Velo Club and a few from the community, so a total of 87 people did some laps!! Not only did they get to Paris but way beyond – 1263 miles to be exact!!

In total 25259 laps were completed with Harley Hamill completing his 12-hour challenge – a total of 2345 laps, a figure matched by Nigel Longlands who only had set himself a 1000 lap challenge. Other 1000 lap challenges were met by Leigh Cossey and Paul Delaiche while Under-10 rider Louis Marling did a stunning 1410 laps – 70 miles!!

The key objective was to raise funds and it looks like, once all pledges have been called in, a sum of between £3000 and £4000 will have been raised. However what the event did show is the tremendous family spirit within the Club with an age range of 4 to 83 taking part and there maybe some new recruits from family members and the community. The event was also a major achievement for the fund-raising sub-committee, led by Russ Marling, which was only formed in February.

After the previous weekend’s Norfolk League weather cancellation, the Hawks are quickly back into action this coming weekend when they are competing in various categories at the British Club Championships in Suffolk.