Blazing a trail with third Sandringham victory

As the hooter went off, he was gone.It was the first, and last, time anyone got near Mitchell Bunn as he stormed to another scintillating Sandringham win.The 23-year-old’s success was his third in a row at one of the local flagship 10k races – an outstanding feat as the Sutton Bridge speedster shows he’s more than just one of the most talented runners around. He’s already one of the greatest the area has ever produced.Blazing a trail in the heat, his red vest must have looked like a passing fire for those watching the race as he ripped around a tricky course he is the master of. His nearest challenger, Christopher Ingram, finished a full minute behind him with a time of 35 minutes and two seconds.What’s most impressive about the athlete that is best known as Mitch, other than how humble he is, is not just his speed. It’s his mental strength to keep turning up and putting himself into the pain cave.Time and time again he goes to the wall. He does it alone, he does it in track races, he does it across every distance. And he never seems to drop a stinker. His consistency is unfathomable.Who knows where he can go in the sport with personal bests of 15 minutes 25 seconds for 5k and 32.50 for 10. A continued focus on shorter stuff will only help when he turns his marathon focus back on – having a 2:38.23 under his belt is that good it’s almost laughable. West Norfolk are lucky to have him in their colours and plenty of runners around here, myself included, are lucky to have trained with him or run alongside, ok behind, him at some point. On a personal level, it’s his never-ending ability to push his brain and body to its limit that I admire most.My build-up to standing on the same start line as him at the weekend was littered with some serious mental struggles around performance.Somehow, after a short break from training, I found myself ready to get out there and dug very deep to clock 37.01 for fifth out of 1,312 runners. The stopping demons were shouting quite loud as I got dropped hard at 2k but I found the inner strength to rejoin the group at 4k and move myself into a maiden top-five position as an adult at a race.At 37-and-a-half, there is every reason I’m still looking at someone almost 15 years my junior for inspiration. Bunn has all the talent in the world but without the right mindset that’s useless. Yes, he’s gifted but he’s also committed, disciplined and keeps showing up.Third-placed finishes at GEAR will, no doubt, be bettered in the years to come from a runner who really has made Sandringham as homely as the royals have.It wasn’t just Mitchell Bunn who was on sensational form this weekend. On Saturday I made a, sadly, rare trip to enjoy King’s Lynn parkrun for a shakeout run ahead of the next day’s Sandringham 10k. And boy did I pick a week to turn up.A group of Ely Runners had made the trip over and one left his mark on The Walks in the most incredible way. That’s right, after six years, the course record was finally broken.Callum Stanforth’s brilliant time of 15 minutes and 31 seconds was beaten by Julian Moynihan’s 15.23. And it was a privilege to witness.All taking part realised they were witnessing something quite special as the 18-year-old opened up a huge gap, weaved through traffic seamlessly as he lapped other participants and never seemed to slow down. As news filtered round that he had indeed broken the previous best, there was a beautiful buzz and plenty took the opportunity to congratulate a special effort.I jumped at the chance to pass on my praise, helped by the fact I know one of his club mates, and was staggered to find out he’d only been running for a year.The funny thing with the sport is that however quick you are, there’s always going to be someone quicker than you. And while we were all eyeing who may one day topple Stanforth’s time, someone new swept in and grabbed the glory.Only time will tell if this record will last for as long as the last one did. The silence you can hear is the lack of grumbling from The Walks.King’s Lynn Town fans are notoriously hard to please but at the moment are voicing their pleasure at what is shaping up this summer under new ownership.Homegrown talent returning in the shape of Fletcher Toll, young prospects signed from professional clubs like Sam Collins and now, a Linnets legend returning.I’m sure most fans never expected to see Adam Marriott in the blue and gold again but that’s what will be happening after manager James Rowe swooped to prize him from fierce rivals Boston United. Marriott is arguably one of the finest marksmen to play for Lynn, plundering 66 goals in 99 games while forming one half of an iconic strike partnership with Michael Gash in the process.He didn’t excel at Boston but has found the net plenty of times elsewhere and had the best spell of his career in West Norfolk.Concerns about him being 34 needn’t be heard as he’s a finisher and his game doesn’t rely on pace. Hopefully his arrival will go some way to increasing the goals-for-tally that held Lynn back at times last campaign.Who better for Toll to learn from as he seeks to become an even better striker having jumped up two levels to return to Lynn?If the Linnets are going to become sustainable they need to increase gates by playing attacking football – supporters demand it. They can do that by bringing in young, athletic and energetic players who are learning their trade, and then selling them on. Experienced bodies around them, like Marriott, will ease transition time as those players grow and mature.