Sidmouth Running Club was represented in three of the four distances of the Beer Blazer on Sunday with an equal mix of adult and junior runners.
This multi terrain race organised by Beer Primary School PTA is no walk in the park, starting and finishing by Pecorama the route passes over some of the Grizzly territory including fields, tracks, cliff tops, open common, the challenging pebble beach between Branscombe and Beer Head, the undercliff and the Stairway to Heaven!
Running the 10 mile option Becky Knapman said it was hard to get her head around the fact it was like running the Grizzly but in reverse and Naomi Garrick agreed how strange it felt too. Scott Chown found the first few fields awkward to run as the tractor ruts had dried up and become ankle breakers and all of them said how hilly, hard and hot it was!
Toby in fine form
Mighty Green Toby Garrick who’s not long back from his travels and perhaps coped with the heat better, had a terrific run finishing in 4th place out of a field of 114 in 1:22:16. Results: Becky Knapman 2:12:31; Scott Chown 2:14:03; Naomi Garrick 2:19:58.
Four juniors took part in the 5k option and despite being as hot, hard and hilly too really enjoyed their run. John Dunsford was the first Mighty Green to finish in 31:56, 13th out of a field of 40, with Christopher Witkowski finishing next in 37:12, followed by Emily Smith 43:11 and Amelia and Grahame Womersley-Westlake in 45:29.
Mighty Green Beer Blazers
Running her first event as a Mighty Green Junior, Catherine Witkowski, enjoyed the fun run alongside her mum Helen and 55 others.
Further afield, Derek Blackburn took advantage of the holiday day in the Netherlands and took part in not one but two park runs at the weekend. Derek is becoming a bit of a super star in the park run community, which slightly bemuses wife and travelling partner Anne, who had to listen to park run chat at Bristol airport where there were a lot of park run runners taking advantage of this double park run weekend, all wearing their park run t-shirts and hats and on the flight.
Derek on his park run travels
The Mighty Green ran the Zuiderpark on Saturday, gaining himself a ‘Z’ in the park run alphabet and fitted in a spot of sight-seeing with Anne before they both attended a social evening organised by the race director of the following days’ parkrun. It was an evening of swapping stats and discussing favourite park runs and Anne heard more than once, oh you’re Derek Blackburn!
Wearing his Mighty Green shirt Derek ran the Delftse Hout park run the following day and caught up with Sidmouth Running Club friends Jemma and Jason Blount-it’s a small (park run) world!