AVR member Richard Jackson ran the Stour Valley Path 50km Ultra Run that started at Quay Lane, Sudbury and finished in Cattawade, a village near Manningtree (Essex), writes Dave Mutter.

Normal mass races can’t take place at the moment, but the organisers had a cunning plan to keep to social distancing guidelines.

There was a rolling start of no more than six persons that set off at a minimum of three-minute intervals over a period of two hours.

Richard had a great first 15 miles and was fifth at that point.

Unfortunately, his injured knee started playing up and he slowed significantly later in the race to finish 113th out of 180 finishers in 6:54:54.

He was a tad disappointed as although it was a long race, most of the runners were not used to hills, Richard was running them with ease only to be thwarted by injury.