Hadleigh Hares is a great name for the friendly athletics club based in the ancient Suffolk market town of Hadleigh, situated next to the River Brett, between Sudbury and Ipswich.

On the day their top runner Claire Jacobs was setting a new club record of 1:18:45 to finish second in the Verona Half Marathon, the rest of the club was busy promoting their popular annual 10-mile and 5-mile road race in rather different weather conditions!

It had been pretty wet and windy but the sun came out on Sunday (20th November) as the 389 runners in the main races and 52 youngsters in the Junior Fun Run 2K got underway at Hadleigh United Football Club.

The juniors were off at 10:00am and the winners were under-16 Fergus Quinn (8:28) and under-14 Poppy Pike (8:59). The leading Hares were under-14 Thomas Davis (8:33) in second place overall and under-10 Elissia Bell (9:43) – sixth female finisher.

There was a rare sub-50-minute winner of the Turners Blinds and Shutters Hadleigh 10 Mile Road Race, starting an hour later at 11:00am running on the undulating country roads through Layham and Shelley. Kieran Clements (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, 49:06) – with a PB by 15 seconds despite the conditions – was in charge from the start and finished well clear.

Four men beat the hour and the sub-60-minute runners-up were Scott Ramsey (Ipswich Harriers, 53:55), M40 Mark Hayward (Newmarket Joggers, 57:47) and Henry Catling (Felixstowe RRC, 59:49).

The top three women were W50 Wendy Smith (Saint Edmund Pacers, 1:10:18), Cinthia Mateo Pena (Woodbridge Shufflers, 1:12:16) and Amanda Pattinson (W55 unattached, 1:13:29). 

Regular participant Kirsty Marsh (Felixstowe RRC, 1:56:33) knows the score with the cake stall and posted on Facebook: "Cakes and sausage rolls were lovely. Had to buy at the start as normally sold out when I make it in! Thank you. x". 

Jack Wilkinson (Ipswich Jaffa RC) ran a tidy 28:00 to win the John Chisnall Hadleigh 5 Mile Road Race and W45 Vanessa Dolling (Boxted Runners, 35:10) took the women's award. The aforementioned cake stall raised £341.83 for Melanoma Focus in memory of John Chisnall.

Full results are available via runABC South race listing here

Image courtesy Hadleigh Hares on Facebook