A Record Breaking Running Weekend For Sidmouth Running Club

On Saturday two SRC members headed up to Petworth in Hampshire to compete in The Salomon Serpent Trail organised by Freedom Racing.

Hannah at Serpentine 1/2M

Hannah Maslen ran the half marathon and after a mental tricky start the Mighty Green pulled herself through to get herself a half marathon PB of 2:28:48.

Kirsteen at Serpentine 50k

Following on from her success in the Exeter half marathon last week, Kirsteen Welch competed in the 50k Ultra race as part of the Golden Trail Series. This Mighty Green was the first woman over the line, 9th overall and smashed the woman’s course record and the previous men’s course record! It was the first time in this race that a lady has finished in under 4 hours, which Kirsteen did in 3:56:44 knocking nearly 40 minutes off the old record!

Closer to home on Sunday a small posse of Mighty Greens took part in LME’s Balmy Bicton 10k.

Suzi at Balmy Bicton

For Suzi Rockey it was a last minute decision having entered the race the night before and she was very happy to see the finish line completing the course in 57:20.

David art Balmy Bicton

David Welsh completed the course in 1:05:35 coming 3rd in his age category and Jamie Locke was very happy with his result especially considering there were a few challenging hills.

Jamie at Balmy Bicton

He came 23rd out of a field of 79 runners, 5th male in age category with a time of 50:42.

Niall at Balmy Bicton

Mighty Green, Niall Hawkins, had a fantastic run, crossing the finish line in 42:00, giving him a well-deserved 3rd place overall and 2nd in age category.

Sidmouth Running Club are delighted that Kirsteen Welsh is back flying the Mighty Green flag and what a return!

Last weekend Kirsteen raced in the Run Exe 5k, her first 5k race since running an Exmouth parkrun back in October 2018 and achieved a big PB of 16.59 minutes! Kirsteen said, “There is definitely more in me to go quicker with targeted speed work and more racing to increase my pain threshold to keep pushing the pace even when it starts to hurt.”

Kirsteen

This Sunday saw Kirsteen and new Mighty Green Jamie Locke race in the Exeter Half Marathon organised by City Community Trust.

Jamie

Jamie enjoyed the traffic free, flat route along the footpath and cycle track of the River Exe and Exeter canal, dodging the rain drops and was very pleased with his result, coming in 132 out of 275 runners in 1:50:37. Kirsteen, despite the weather conditions and twisty route, was the first woman to cross the finish line in 77:24 wearing the Mighty Green colours. A fantastic result reflecting the dedication of her training, well done Kirsteen.

David

Travelling further afield, David Skinner had an early start on Saturday to get to Sibleyback lake in Cornwall for the Gecko gathering 5k which started at 8am. David said’ “I haven’t been there before but it was a very nice lake to run (in my case still very slowly) around with a decent cafe. I only do it for the bling!”

A Sizzling Half Marathon PB For Gripper

Sidmouth Running Club run leader, Adrian ‘Gripper’ Horne ventured off to Dorset on Sunday to take part in the Weymouth Half Marathon organised by Just Racing.

Running in the heat

It was third time lucky for the race, having been previously postponed twice from September 2020, but with a staggered start and guidelines in place Gripper was able to enjoy the run.

Cooling down

The popular seaside half provides runners with some outstanding scenery on a pretty flat 1 lap13.1 mile course, which Gripper appreciated. The Mighty Green said despite the intense heat it shows how running on the Sidmouth hills pays dividends as he managed to take 6 minutes off his half marathon PB and finished in 02:02:30 hours!

What an achievement in those scorching conditions: no wonder he headed straight for a paddle in the sea!

Phew what a scorcher

First Hand Insight Of The Warrior Chimps Conquer24 Ultra Running Race by Ross Walton

The Warrior Chimps Conquer24 ultra-running race held at Powderham Castle on 5th & 6th June is an event where competitors complete as many laps as possible of a roughly 5-mile course within 24 hours. The race can be run solo or as a member of a relay team of up to 8 people, starting at midday on Saturday and finishing at midday on Sunday.

I’ve run 50km and 100km ultra-marathons before but nothing which involves running constantly for so long or through the night without sleep. I had a target of 100 miles in mind during my 15 weeks of training, which started in February. My race went pretty much to plan apart from being a bit too optimistic about how much food I would be able to stomach. I managed to clock up 60 miles (12 laps) by midnight using a 3 laps running/1 lap walking strategy which took the pressure off for the second half and allowed me to ease off considerably during the night and through Sunday morning. I hit a ‘wall’ at about 30 miles though, partly due to trying to eat too much early on and partly due to the daunting prospect of not being even a third of the way towards my target distance. Thankfully, the nausea passed after a couple of slower laps and allowed me to get a bit more food down, albeit significantly less than the 9000+ calories I burnt overall.

Ross with his medal

The course was fairly undulating with about 130m of ascent per lap. I found the 2-mile section through the woods in the first half of the lap the toughest as it contained most of the short, steep climbs and seemed much hotter, humid and void of oxygen than out in the breeze of the Powderham deer park. I’ve never run non-stop through the night before, but a misspent youth and a couple of cans of Red Bull and iced coffee very much helped in that respect. Temperatures didn’t drop much overnight so, apart from a couple of laps during the graveyard shift, I was running in just a t-shirt for most of the race. Luckily, the rain held off, save for a very slight bit of drizzle, otherwise the course conditions would’ve quickly deteriorated due to the constant army of feet gradually churning it up. The sky starting to lighten at about 3:30am, and the sun finally making a reappearance at about 5am on Sunday morning seemed to inject a new level of optimism into most of the runners still out on the course, myself included.

I had absolutely no idea that I was in the running for a podium place until I checked my phone during a quick food stop between laps and saw a string of text messages from family and friends watching the live tracker. It wasn’t until the last few laps, when a couple of guys ahead of me started to struggle, that the prospect of finishing 3rd overall looked doable. I managed to complete 21 laps (plus an extra mile with my eldest son Reuben) to reach a total of 104.8 miles, equivalent to 4 marathons, in a time of 23hrs 36mins 34secs, also beating my previous personal bests for 50km by about 8 minutes and 100km by over 3 hours. I finished second in the solo men’s category to a professional ultra-runner who clocked up an astounding 24 laps.

My feet are a mess with blood blisters under three of my toe-nails, a swollen left ankle and a comedic inability to negotiate stairs – a small price to pay for an achievement I’m very much proud of but doubt I will endure again any time soon, if ever. It was great to regularly see my younger brother Guy, fellow SRC runners Naomi Garrick, Jo Earlam and Jane Hemsworth out on the course and also to have my heavily-pregnant wife, Polly, our two boys, Pixel our cocker spaniel and a number of close friends supporting me throughout the weekend.

The Mighty Greens Conquer24

Midday on a hot and humid Saturday in the beautiful grounds of Powderham Castle saw five members of Sidmouth Running Club at the start line of an epic challenge and two of those were preparing to run for 24 hours!

Start Group

Suzi Rockey competed in the 5 mile (1 lap) category coming in 5^th place in a field of 20 with a very respectable time of 45:34 minutes.

Suzi and Naomi

Jo Earlam completed her 78^th marathon by opting to run 6 laps of the Conquer24 course, which actually made it an ultra-marathon. Jo was joined by fellow Mighty Green Jane Hemsworth for her final 4 laps. Jane had already participated in a sea swimming course in the morning and jokingly said she should have cycled to Powderham Castle to make it a triathlon! They both enjoyed the scenic if somewhat undulating (2,500ft of climb!) course.

Naomi, Jane + Jo

Duane Morris had set himself a target of running 50 miles, double the distance of his furthest run to date, and he achieved it running 10 laps in 21:18:51 hours. Duane said he learnt a lot during the run, it was a steep learning curve and he felt things he has never felt before but this did not stop him enjoying the experience and he is very glad he took on and completed the challenge.

Duane

Not only was social secretary Naomi Garrick the top fundraiser of the event, raising £1,516 for Rethink Mental Illness, she was delighted to be the 6^th lady out of 36 to complete the 24 hour challenge running an amazing 65 miles. Teacher Naomi had set up the smile tree her pupils had made for her along the route and she was still smiling right to the end despite the blisters! Fellow running club member Richard King joined Naomi at 4am to compete in the 10 mile dawn dash bringing with him fresh supplies of plasters and cake! Naomi said she met so many fantastic people and running through the woods at night was magical, a really amazing experience.

Richard + Ross

Ross Walton signed up for the solo Conquer24 race after closely following a Devon friend’s progress in the Tarawera 100 mile ultra in New Zealand in February. The MG had been training hard over the past 15 months, running a total of 550 miles including two 70 mile weeks! Ross had planned to run 60 miles between midday and midnight split into 3 x 20 miles, running 3 laps and walking 1 to take on food and drink then hobble/crawl the last 40 miles between midnight and midday on Sunday. The training and planning certainly paid off as Ross finished in 2nd place, running an incredible 100 miles in 22:09:00 hours and 4 x marathons in 23:37:00 hours. Ross is temporarily hanging up his trail shoes to become a dad for the third time much to the relief of his feet!

PB’s For Sidmouth Running Club at The Clinic Maer 10k and Half Marathon

The sun shone on Exmouth seafront as the Mighty Green runners gathered for the start of LME’s The Clinic Maer 10k and half marathon race. A well organised event with an easy route to follow and really friendly marshalls.

Niall

Running the scenic if a little challenging 10k course wearing the Mighty Green shirts for the first time, both Yasmin Salter and Niall Hawkins achieved personal bests.

Yasmin

Yasmin, who enjoyed the perfect weather conditions, ran the route in 49:36 mins coming 4^th in her age category and 8^th female overall. Niall came in 8^th overall and 1^st in his age category with his PB of 41:18 mins despite feeling like he was going much slower than he actually was as he had figured out his splits wrong in his head and was pleasantly surprised at mile 5 when it dawned on him!

Derek and Clive

Four SRC members ran the multi terrain single lap half marathon course climbing nearly 1000 feet along the spectacular coast path; Derek Blackburn, Clive Gilbert and Graham ‘Rocker’ Shepperd ran the first 8k together before Rocker took off while Duane Morris completed the 13 mile course in 1:40:49, coming in 8^th position overall and 5^th in his age group. Rocker completed the half in 2:07:20, 44^th overall and 7^th in age category and not far behind Clive and Derek in 2:09:48, 47^th/48^th overall, 5^th and 4^th in their respective age groups.

Rocker, Clive and Derek

As Clive was running along Budleigh seafront he was approaching a couple of runners from the town who had just passed Derek and Rocker, as he pulled alongside them they said Sidmouth must be the friendliest running club in the world. Both Duane and Niall are new members of the running club and we are proud to see them (and all club members) wearing and representing the Mighty Green-hopefully they agree with those runner’s sentiment as you can’t say better than that!