There is no definitive set of routes for the NorfolknGood audaxes.
We almost never used the same route twice, so each year we planned, from scratch, 4 Nips 100 rides, The Old Squit 200, and the Norfolk Mardle 100. The 2 versions of the Seething 600 were nothing like Jacqui and Paul Denny's original routes from the 1980s. We also organised a National 200mile event from JIC, and several rides from Swaffham with Breckland CC.
Once we got to the stage where we had more than 50 riders, we realised that there were very few food stops in Norfolk or Suffolk that could cope with such numbers, so we hired village halls and self-catered using our incredibly hard-working team. Since the catering labour was free, we had no trouble feeding riders on a 200 for little more than £1 each, and could do a weekend event for a fiver.
From 2003 to 2010 we used the staff canteen at John Innes centre and were very lucky to be trusted to use the cooking facilities without supervision. When catering was contracted out, we were forced out of the facilities. We used the hall at our local church in Hellesdon for several years until we finished.
Our events became victims of their own success in many ways. They would fill up months in advance and we would then be fielding emails and phone calls from friends who had been trying to enter a few weeks before a ride. Groups of local club riders tended to treat the rides as though they were in the pro peleton and we had several unsavoury incidents.
All the time, our wonderful team were getting older and it was an easy decision to finish the events.
Keith and Sue
