Bungay Festival of Running

Bungay Festival of Running is an annual event hosted by Bungay Black Dog Running Club which consists of three running races in the local countryside - a 10k, a half marathon, and a Junior Fun Run. The routes start and end at Bungay Area Running Centre (BARC) and take the runners through beautiful Suffolk and Norfolk scenery. The club hosts the event every year in the spring and is very popular for runners, both young and old, for those who are local and those who travel from further afield.

This year’s festival of running took place on the 14th  of April 2024 on a very warm and sunny day – perfect conditions. The Junior Fun Run around the track at BARC kicked off the morning to a great start, and before long the 10k runners were set off along their route too. I had the pleasure of marshalling at one of the water stations 3k from the finish of the 10k and found it amazing to see all the participants enjoying themselves and working hard to complete the race.

The amazement continued when around an hour later, the half marathon lead runner came sprinting past on his final mile and a half of the race, and the trail of other runners came bundling past. Being able to support and motivate the runners onwards was a great experience, and a wonderful day of helping to support the club.

Back at BARC, the runners had a range of refreshment opportunities with a bake sale and burger van to replenish their energy after a tiring race! The race director, Teresa Penfield, was based at BARC overseeing the day, and I had the pleasure of speaking to her after the festival to hear about her thoughts. She said: ‘It was fantastic to welcome runners from across East Anglia and beyond to run with us at our Bungay Black Dog Running Club Festival of Running.  We had runners of all ages and abilities taking part and it was great to see them enjoying the day.’  And I am sure all will agree with Teresa in that it really was wonderful to see all of the organisation of the event come together, and the day run smoothly for everyone, and to see lots of people taking part.

So overall, the Bungay Festival of Running was a great success this year, and hopefully it will take place again next year – a highlight on the runner’s calendar!