A Rewarding First Night Back For Sidmouth Running Club

This week saw the return of club runs and Chairman Terry Bewes was delighted to welcome so many familiar and new faces on Monday evening.

It was the first opportunity for the new to the area and 2021 beginners to join a club run and they ran exceptionally well.

Terry took the opportunity before the run to present the Mighty Green 3 mile completion certificates to Kathy Jordan and Jo Crockett and the lockdown #3 challenge awards.

Certificates and Prosecco were presented to the Mighty Greens who ran their heart out on Strava around the streets of Sidmouth Valentine challenge: Mark Norton, Yasmin Salter, Dawn Pike, Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker.

The winners of the observational seat location challenge were announced. This was a challenge to identify 65 seats/benches that the club regularly run past. Runner up, Ann Cole correctly located 27 of the benches and won herself a John Lewis voucher while Alexa successfully located 42 of the benches and won herself a voucher for a cream tea for two.

The winner for the off road bridge challenge where you had to name the location of 34 bridges you would have ran past during the off road lockdown challenges was announced. By correctly identifying 20 of the photos a slightly embarrassed Alexa was presented with a further cream tea voucher for two.

Terry then announced the Lockdown #3 Supreme champion- the only member who had completed all 36 lockdown challenges. A magnum of Prosecco and trophy was presented to press officer and run leader Alexa!

Alexa, who hadn’t appreciated that she was quite competitive, thanked John Chesters and Terry Bewes for setting the challenges and her very patient running buddies, Jenny Kay, who at one point had to help Alexa get her leg over a style, Helen Akay, who probably regretted trusting Alexa’s map reading skills on Muttersmoor and Terry Bewes who ran with her on the Lade Foot (not so) low tide challenge! Alexa is looking forward to sharing the cream teas with her lockdown #3 run buddies when restrictions are lifted.

A Dastardly Delight To Finish the Sidmouth Running Club Lock Down Challenges

The final week of lock down challenges had members self-navigating a run to pass past and present care homes and complete a ‘delight’ in Chairman Terry Bewes words.

Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker thought they would get the harder of the two challenges out of the way first, little did they know they would be running 8 miles up numerous hills on a Monday evening! Not that delightful! Kerry Salter ran the route in 10 min/miles, Tim Swarbrick who had the wind and rain to contend with ran 7.21 miles at 9.08 min/miles, Mark Norton was very lucky to see the Otters and a bat en-route, Bert Dykema ran 16k, David Welsh, Caroline and Jon Ball also completed the challenge. Ross Walton ran 8.4 miles at 8.33 min/miles which he found hard going as the previous day he completed 17 miles of trails!

The care home route was much more sociable and Tash Morgan enjoyed seeing fellow Mighty Greens during her 6 mile run. Carol McManus had an early start, Ann Cole combined the challenge with the pub one, David Welsh had a great run 6 miles at 10.2 min/miles, Jenny and Alexa took the direct route round and ran past the homes in 5 miles while Derek Blackburn ran 10.16k at 5.40 min/km and Bert starting from Sidbury ran the challenge in 20k at 6.14 min/km.

Sarah on the SVR

There have been some great distances covered off road too this week, Sarah Burston ran 14 miles around the Sid Valley Ring; Jane Hemsworth and Jo Earlam completed a 10 mile there and back taper run from Tipton to Feniton

Tim taking a tumble

and the Dynamic Duo, Derek and Tim took on an action packed 19.4k OGLE, which saw Tim fall in exactly the same spot as Jo had earlier in the month!

Jo & Leanne

The final lock down off road challenge was part or all of the Tipton 10k course, with a selfie to be taken by the railway bridge in Harpford Woods. Jo Earlam, who designed the course back in 2007, ran the route with Leeann Thomson,

Christine

Christine Hellier enjoyed her first run of the year in shorts and t-shirt, Beccy Johnson and Tracy Scannell weren’t the only Mighty Greens enjoying the challenge on a sunny Saturday morning,

Mark & Rob

Mark Norton and Rob Waggett were out bright and early and Rob, who has only recently completed the beginners course, ran 11k, a great achievement.

Alexa & helen

Helen Akay, Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker wore hats in support of Brain Tumour Research Wear A Hat Day and managed to find the mud but didn’t get lost for a change!

Brigid & Ann

Ann Cole and Brigid McSmith ran the route on Sunday confidently without a map. Skills have definitely been developed this last lock down!

The Masterminds Behind The Sidmouth Running Club Lockdown Challenges

Sidmouth Running Club members are indebted to two Mighty Greens who have kept them focused during lockdown #3, John Chesters and Terry Bewes.
John Chesters has had the Ottery based members of Sidmouth running around the area searching for control points and testing their orienteering skills. He even added a route on Muttersmoor for the Sidmouth based runners to test their skills this week. John said he was pleased to help set the challenges and that it has been rewarding to see people having a go and even enjoying themselves!

With his wife and fellow Mighty Green Ruth, he tended to walk, rather than run, some of the routes used, but only to check details, or create a Strava trace to follow. Most of his planning has been from home, using his knowledge of the local terrain and path/track network. If he sees a path, he needs to know where it goes!John is looking forward to club runs starting again especially as during lockdown he’s found a few new places to show people!

John Chesters

Chairman Terry Bewes found it a bit of a challenge to set 2 road runs and one off road run each week and then record the results, but when he sees 62 members submitting results it makes it all worthwhile, especially as most will be coming out of lockdown a lot fitter than when they went in.
Terry is really looking forward to getting the club back running together again in a Covid secure environment.

Terry

The runners certainly enjoyed one of this week’s road runs, a pub crawl taking in 18 past and present pubs, even though they couldn’t partake in a drink though Els Laureys was ready for a cider when she successfully completed the challenge. Antony Hall used his dad’s local knowledge to find out where the Horse and Groom was and Bert Dykema added The Red Lion in Sidbury to his route.

Beccy & Tracy on the pub crawl

The second road run involved hills though this did not deter Tim Swarbrick who ran 8.28 miles taking in the hill challenge twice! Karen and Christine Farnham surprised themselves when they finished that they had clocked up 7.5 miles, Terry Bewes combined the two road runs and ran 8 miles, Sam Ingram also ran 8 miles by combining 2 previous challenges together while Derek Blackburn combined the daffodil run with the pub crawl and ended up running a half marathon!

Derek & Tim

Jane Hemsworth and Jo Earlam had a good 16 mile training run in preparation for the Plym Trail marathon next month and Dan Prettejohn completed a half marathon by running 41 laps of a housing estate in 1.25.38 hours at 4.04km/min pace!

Christine Hellier ran a measured and effective route finding all 20 controls on the Muttersmoor OGLE, as did Jo Earlam whose map reading skills are improving. Finding 19 controls were Helen Akay, Terry Bewes, Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker (who found themselves in a prickly situation at one point!), the dynamic duo, Tim Swarbrick and Derek Blackburn, found 18 controls using thoughtful route choices, Mark Norton enjoyed the hilly exploration of the area and Brigid McSmith and Ann Cole with Ivey think they ran past 12 controls.

Brigid & Ann

Liz Goodman and Alison Long ran last week’s OGLE and found 9 controls and despite printing off the map before heading up to Fire Beacon, Kerry Salter soon realised she had left it at home so enjoyed a relaxed run around the area instead.

Terry Bewes was pleased to receive the cup this week for having the most participants enter the Grand Western Canal 10k Clic Sargent virtual race at the end of last year. The next challenge is to try to retain it this year-watch this space.

Dates to go in the SRC Diary At last!

Following the Government’s roadmap for exiting lockdown restrictions, Guidance from England Athletics, updated 8th March and last week’s SRC committee meeting, club runs will be commencing in a Covid secure environment on Monday 29th March and the off road season begins on Monday 5^th April. The club appreciates it is very much a live programme liable to change if the Government issues new restrictions and the EA further guidance after updates from DCMS and Sports England but is looking forward to seeing its members again.

The 3^rd October is firmly in Toby Garrick’s calendar as he was the only member to meet the club’s criteria for the London Marathon place and will be representing the Club; we look forward to cheering him on and the other Mighty Greens who have a place in this prestigious event.

When MG Antony Hall ran the latest lockdown road run challenge, you do not want to read that he found it hard as you know there is no hope for the less experienced runner! In all fairness he did run from Sidford and back and completed 3 reps of pyramids of Convent Road with a recovery run down Bickwell Valley at the end of each set! David Welsh and Derek Blackburn also completed 3 reps, with Derek having the added incentive of Chairman Terry Bewes and fellow MG Helen Palmer cheering him on! Christine and Karen Farnham were surprised to see they had clocked up 8 miles, running the 3 reps in the rain while Kerry Salter ran 3 reps, aided (sensibly) by driving to the start. Carol McManus, Jane Hemsworth, Bert Dykema, Adrian Horne, Mark Norton, Jenny Kay, Alexa Baker, Caroline and Jon Ball took the 2 rep option!

The second road run challenge set by Terry involved a nice 5ish mile loop around the valley, for some-Ross Walton added mileage and ran at 7.14min/mile pace and Tim Swarbrick ran both of the road runs together, 8.43 miles at 8.53min/miles! Carol McManus is now enjoying her 6am runs in total daylight and early evening runners are managing to run the challenges mostly in daylight-the days are drawing out and what a difference it makes! As always the weather plays a big part and weekend runners including Liz Goodman and Alison Long found they had four seasons of weather in their run including hail. Mark Norton enjoyed the break from the hills and Tash Morgan finished the loop on a precise 6 miles. Also completing the challenge was Derek Blackburn, Bert Dyekema, David Welsh, Els Laureys, Beccy Johnson, Tracy Scannell, Jenny Kay, Alexa Baker, Caroline and Jon Ball, Christine and Karen Farnham.

Other Mighty Greens spotted running this week include Sam Ingram, Kate Jenkins, Rob Waggett, Kate Kirk, Adrian ‘Gripper’ Horne who ran the Sid Valley Ring anti clockwise, Leeann Thomson who ran 3 challenges in one, David Millen who ran his first run in 3 months and Brigid McSmith and Ann Cole with Ivey the dog who completed the Weston Trig off road route..

The Ottery based members of SRC saw Tom Knight complete OGLE 4 (Ottery Group Lockdown Exercise) and Emma Grainger tackled OGLE 3 and 11, where she encountered mud, rain, bogs, sun, gales, hills, thorns and hail!

Tim

The off road challenge set this week was an OGLE on and around Fire Beacon, set by John Chesters which gave the Sidmouth based runners a chance to try out their orienteering skills. Christine Hellier set the bar high, running past all 20 control points in a very efficient route. Also visiting all 20 controls were the Dynamic Duo, Tim and Derek, although they failed to find the elusive blue bird. The big, blue bird comes out to congratulate those that run all the control points in numerical order as Ross Walton found out.

Ross and Bluebird

His numerical run of 15 miles with 2851 feet of elevation at 10.53 min/miles was celebrated with a rare sighting of the bird!

Exhibit A

Although, the bird must have felt sorry for Jenny and Alexa (who are known to have difficulty following the easiest of instructions, never mind following an OS map with numbers on it) as it appeared in front of them just as the path they were on petered out. What followed was a lot of laughter as they scrambled up through brambles and trees trying to find somewhere they recognised! Amazingly they visited 10 control points.

Kyle and Bluebird

Sunday saw Mark Norton, Terry Bewes, Kyle Baker, Karen and Christine Farnham take on the challenge. Terry’s plan to follow Christine’s route didn’t quite pan out but they had great fun with a few steep climbs. Terry took time to sit on a bench (control 4) with the big blue bird and Kyle found it perched on the trig point (control 3).

Mark and Bluebird

New MG Mark enjoyed meeting up with Terry and Kyle part way round and ran (socially distanced) with them for a while before discovering the blue bird nesting in the under growth.

Christine & Karen

Christine and Karen, who did not encounter the bird but earned extra kudos for running from home and back, enjoyed the run except for the part where they were ankle deep in mud. We await John Chester’s scoring.

Daffodils Delight Sidmouth Running Club Members

Week 8 of lockdown#3 saw beginner Dawn Pike complete her 3 mile non-stop run with SRC chairman Terry Bewes becoming a fully-fledged Mighty Green, a great achievement.

Dawn Pike

The participants of Terry’s lockdown challenges were deceived into thinking the ‘daffodil run’ sounded a lovely route to take you past the glorious displays of daffodils appearing all around Sidmouth. What it did involve was, as Bert Dykema said, a lot of hills-circuits of Boughmore Road, Convent Road, Cheese Lane and Cotmaton Road to Foxes Corner, all the way to the top of the grass above Jacobs Ladder, which is where the daffodils came into it! On top of that was a section of running on the pebbles which for Tim Swarbrick was reminiscent of Seaton parkrun but unfortunately for Cheryl Boulton meant she ended up with a very swollen ankle!

Cheryl and Susan

Running under the stars Mark Norton, Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker didn’t see the daffodils but ran two circuits (5 miles), one in each direction as instructed whereas Carol McManus was up bright and early on St David’s Day and enjoyed the host of golden daffodils. Newly appointed MG Rob Waggett ran one circuit and later in the week ran over 7k, his longest run yet. Taking advantage of the weekend sunshine and running two circuits were Jane Hemsworth, Yasmin Salter, Caroline and Jon Ball, Susan Reeve, Cheryl Boulton, Alison Long and Liz Goodman. Running three circuits David Welsh covered 8.09 miles and Graham ‘Rocker’ Sheppard 12.91km and accepting the gauntlet Terry threw down, Ross Walton ran an amazing four laps which including the distance to and from his house amounted to 15 miles with 1768 feet of elevation at 9.34 min/miles!

Ross with the daffodils

The Chairman’s second on road challenge involved self-navigation around local landmarks some of which needed a bit of local knowledge (or googling) to find, especially the old cinema site, where the convent was and the hanger. Ross Walton was the first MG to complete the route; he ran 6.28 miles at 7.40min/miles. Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker ‘ran’ into Mark Norton as they converged at the rugby club from different directions, Tash Morgan included a run up to the rugby ground at Sidford to cover herself, Ann Cole missed the Knapp, Beccy Johnson and Tracy Scannell enjoyed the challenge as did Kerry Salter who was pleased to fit a run in this week.

Beccy and Tracy

Carol McManus, David Welsh, Tim Swarbrick, Yasmin Salter, Christine and Karen Farnham also completed the challenge and know that the hangar is the wooded area below Beatlands Road and above the river!

Christine and Karen

Leeann Thomson was back with a vengeance this week completing four challenges, Sam Ingram ran the first landmark challenge and the Primley figure of 8’s, Christie Ward and John Sharples ran the Bickwell Valley laps, Kate Jenkins and David Welsh both knocked off time on their unofficial SRC park run, Cheryl and Susan ran the lamppost challenge in 58.18 mins, Kyle Baker fitted in the Malden Road challenge, running 3 miles at 7.24 min/miles before the running club committee meeting started on zoom and Dan Pretttejohn ran a marathon in an impressive 4.29 hours taking in Ottery, Budleigh, the coast path, Sidford and East Hill strips!

Dan running an off-road marathon

The Chairman’s off road challenge also involved the coast path, a visit to Weston trig and over 2,000ft of elevation. The dynamic duo, Tim Swarbrick and Derek Blackburn completed the run in under 2 hours, Stuart Coles in 3 hours and the clock stopped for Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker! Running on Sunday Christine and Karen Farnham enjoyed the whole route and Brigid McSmith and Ann Cole (coming back from injury) ran the first part.

John Chester’s challenging OGLE’s have seen Colin L’Anson run 15.8 miles and take in all 12 control points of OGLE 9, Kate Jenkins started OGLE 10 and Jo Earlam completed it running 6 miles, Hamish Spence and Tom Knight completed OGLE 4 and Emma Grainger revisited OGLE 7 and ran OGLE 10. Word is the Sidmouth based runners will find out what an OGLE involves next week!

Donation to Foodbank & Lockdown Challenges

Not all Mighty Greens are runners, Jeanina Puckey, the Sidmouth Running Club’s Auditor, recognised that many people are struggling through this pandemic and wanted to help them out. So, very generously, she decided to forego her annual fee from the Club for this year and asked that it be donated to the local food bank. The Club decided it was such a nice gesture and an excellent cause that they would match Jeanina’s donation. Sid Valley Food Bank, based at Manstone Youth Club, seemed the obvious choice, an organisation that supported around 60 local families at its busiest. So on Friday Tim Clay Treasurer of Sidmouth Running Club, handed over a cheque for £200 to Renee Forth, Chair of the Trustees for Sid Valley Food Bank. Renee thanked Tim for the donation, adding that the Food Bank was extremely grateful for all the support it received from local businesses and organisations.

Renee receiving the donation

Jo Crocket is a beginner no more; she successfully ran 3 miles without stopping with Chairman Terry Bewes and will now be running the lockdown challenges as a Mighty Green. Rob Waggett, Tilly Austin and Kathy Jordan did a great job completing two challenges this week as MG’s.

Jo Crockett

This week’s lockdown challenges were figure of eights around the Primley Road area and Malden Road circuits. The close proximity meant several of the runners did both challenges together these include Kerry Salter, Els Laureys, Carol McManus, Tim Swarbrick, Derek Blackburn, Bex McDonald, Zsa Zsa Croft, Ross Walton, Susan Reeve, Cheryl Boulton and new member Stephanie Brown.

Emma Grainger attempted Ogle 10 this week and enjoyed the lack of mud, Amelia Frankpitt ran her first Ogle route and found 6 control points where as Colin L’Anson found all 20 controls on his 12.5 mile Ogle 7 run.

The unofficial parkrun route remains popular and this week mum and daughter, Paula and Amelie Farrand ran the route as did Andrew Swain, David Welsh, Lottie May, Tracey Scannell, Beccy Johnson, Zsa Zsa Croft, Bex McDonald and Mark Norton with a great time of 25.15 minutes.

Paula & Amelie

SRC special mentions must go to Antony Hall who has had a cracking week catching up with the lockdown challenges, running two or three of them in one outing and including running the Primley/Malden loops at 6.52min/miles; Dan Prettejohn ran an amazing 30.04km at 6.15km/min pace, Bert Dykema ran an outstanding 31.10km at 6.02 km/min pace on Monday and Sarah Burston really enjoyed being out in the sun and ran 15.4 miles along the coast, river and through woods.

With no Chairman’s off road challenge set this week, it gave runners a chance to catch up with previous off road challenges they had missed. Ross Walton ran week 3’s 12 mile route, Adrian Horne ran the Harpford Woods challenge and Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker enjoyed last week’s Mincombe Woods challenge in the sun. Fellow MG’s ran their own off road routes; Alison Long and Liz Goodman ran to High Peak, Susan Reeve ran three trigs, Allan Kay and Kyle Baker ran Otterton to Budleigh Salterton and back, the dynamic duo, Tim Swarbrick and Derek Blackburn ran the Sidmouth Ring anticlockwise, and Jane Hemsworth and Jo Earlam met Terry Bewes on their 11 mile run as they were running to Weston trig in different directions. Hmmmm, wonder where next week’s off road run will be!