Simplyhealth Great Bristol 10k

This race makes the most of Bristol’s picturesque backdrop. Largely flat, the route shares much of its course with the half marathon. Starting and finishing in Bristol’s historic Harbour side, it takes in the stunning Avon Gorge, and twice passes under Brunel’s famous Clifton Suspension Bridge returning via Spike Island and the Cumberland Basin.

Taking a road trip up the M5 neatly turned out in their new Mighty Green shirts were two of the clubs newer members determined to do the club proud in their first race in club colours and they did not disappoint. Jodie Suzanne Hawkins finished in 1:06:11 and Julia Haddrell in 1:16:00. Julia was another member of Justin Ashby’s 10k training course and she thanked him for pushing her well out of her comfort zone which enabled her to achieve that time.

Meanwhile nearer to home Suzi Rockey put away the books she had been studying over the last few months to become a Legal Genius and put on her Mighty Green to run the 5k Land and Sand race in Exmouth and finished in a respectable 30 minutes.

Further afield, James and Emma Salter were in Wales for a wedding and took the opportunity to run up Mount Snowdon as you do. After a heavy night celebrating, James reached the top in 1:11:00 and Emma in 1:53:00. The weather was glorious and the views from the top were panoramic.

The Beer Blazer

Janice and Alicia

Once again it was Kate Marriott who brought home the silverware for Sidmouth Running Club, this time from the Beer Blazer. This race starts and finishes at Pecorama in Beer. It is a multi-terrain race in the true sense of the word over either a 5 or 10k traffic free course run over some of the famous ‘Grizzly territory’ and private land covering fields, tracks, the challenging pebble beach between Branscombe and Beer Head, the Undercliffs, The stairway to heaven, cliff tops and open common, all with breath-taking views of the Jurassic Coast.

Kate, who is 13 ran the 5K in the F13 category and was competing against many older runners. She came in 5^th overall and was the first female in a time of 23:13. Also in the F13 another of our young runners Alicia Ranson finished in 33:35 and the video of her swerving past two adult runners in the last 10 metres shows there is a lot more to come from her.

Not to be outdone by the youngsters David Skinner who joined the beginner’s course in January took on this fairly tough course for his first race in the M70 category and was very pleased finishing 31^st in 26:05.

The Mighty Green had a good showing in the 10K with five club runners taking on this course for the first time and one setting a new club record. These five were also the first club runners home. Julian Bartlett 56:07 (club record), Rob Edwards 1:03:15, Karen Farnham 1:07:28, Christine Farnham 1:07:53, Hamish Spence 1:08:28. Hamish has been training with Justin Ashby over the last seven weeks and it has really improved his running and he was delighted with his time. Don Cawthera 1:11:26, Debbie Marriott 1:11:28, Terry Bewes 1:13:25, Janice Ranson 1:15:15.

Terry caught up with Janice on the cliff top before the run down into Branscombe where she was rolling around in the grass with severe cramp in both legs, he offered to help, but she said no carry on and I will catch you up and she nearly did. The question is whether it was her new shoes that caused the cramp and the blisters on her heels or retribution for leaving behind her Mighty Green shirt for the second time.

Salcombe Coastal Marathon

As the song goes ‘what a difference a day makes, 24 little hours’.

Saturday morning dawned sunny and bright and Katie and Joe Kent, along with Danny Painter all Sidmouth Running Club members prepared for another marathon. Following all of the razzmatazz of the London marathon the week before this one is on a more modest scale.

The Salcombe Coastal Marathon is more of an event than a race as it is a minimum of 26.2 miles but may be longer due to diversions resulting from landslides and with over 4500 feet of ascent considerably tougher than London. The event starts at Torcross and finishes at Bantham passing through Salcombe, with a ferry across the river and along some of South Devon’s most beautiful coastline.

You have the choice of either a full or half marathon and while some took it seriously others set out to enjoy the day, scenery and the various refreshment outlets along the way. In the marathon Danny took the serious option finishing fifth in 4:17:00. He was not feeling so good and the mile uphill walk from the finish to the car park finished him off. Joe also took the more serious option but with various stops on the way to re-fuel finished the 26 plus miles in 5:45:00. Katie chose the half marathon running 14 miles with her friend Anna Russell and their two dogs Crunchie and Obi finishing fifth overall in 3:15:00. It was an amazing day blessed by glorious weather, fantastic views, great company and temperatures between 12 and 15 degrees.

And then Sunday dawned, cold, wet, windy and miserable for Helen Palmer to lead an 18 mile training run through the Otter valley. This run was for the ladies taking part in the upcoming Women Can Marathon at the end of May. Six runners turned up to run from Newton Poppleford following the river down to Budleigh Salterton then back up to Tipton St John and finally back to the start. In the wet and slippery conditions and with tiredness playing its part in not picking up her feet Helen had a nasty fall leaving her bruised and grazed. Hopefully this will act as a warning to the ladies taking on this marathon who are not used to off-road running.

It may be early in the year but entries are already coming in for the Wooden Spoon award the latest being from Rob Edwards. Rob who was running with the Friday group on Woodbury Common stopped for a comfort break. Emerging from behind a tree the rest of the group had disappeared. Not knowing where he was he eventually came across a couple of mountain bikers and asked for directions; unfortunately the little rascals sent him to the wrong car park, however after listening to his tale of woe a good Samaritan gave him a lift back to where he started 15 minutes ahead of the rest. By this time he was freezing as all his clothes were locked in one of the cars. However he was in luck as Polly Walton and Els Laureys had run up to the Common from Sidmouth as part of their training for the Women Can Marathon and Polly taking pity on him agreed to run back to Sidmouth with him to warm him up.

All’s well that ends well? Well not quite as over the bank holiday Polly was down in Cornwall keeping up her training with a run along the coastal path when she stumbled and hurt her ankle which has put her on crutches and out of the marathon. Running can be cruel.

As for Rob he has set himself a challenge of trying to run a 5k at the same pace he ran a marathon 24 years ago (3:13:30). He has joined the Exeter 5k series to achieve this and on his latest outing was pleased he was not last and finished in 23:20 but still needs to find another 8 seconds a mile. Success is on the horizon.

Member: 24 7 loans

The London Marathon

It was a day of mixed results this year for members of Sidmouth Running Club running the London Marathon. Pride of place must go to Justin Ashby who smashed the club record for the distance.

Justin who trained really well last autumn, (finally after 5 years of trying to break 36 minutes for a 10k succeeded in 35:30) and through this year has been feeling really strong with no injury worries and with the weather being perfect he thought he would have a crack at the record so he went for it. The club record was set back in 2014 by Malcolm Bayer a founding member of the club in a time of 2:42:55.

Justin finished in an outstanding time of 2:41:40 knocking 0:1:15 off the record. His overall pace was 6:09 minute miles and he was especially pleased with the negative split times (second half slightly quicker than the first) he finished 378^th overall and was 17^th in his age category. It was his day, his time and all those hours of training finally paid off. In his words “I loved every minute of it” you can bet there were many thousands of other runners thinking quite the opposite. A truly remarkable day for him.

Another runner having an “awesome day” was first timer Emma Salter. Emma’s training programme was blighted by illness and injury but the determined young lady was always going to start and finish and with the encouragement of family and friends she was “absolutely chuffed” with her time 04:56:03 and was “on top of the world” at the finish. She held a steady pace the whole way round and was really pleased with the even split times. She had a special thank you to fellow club member Helen Palmer for her help and company on the long training runs and said she wouldn’t be there without her. That is the spirit that runs through the club.

There was a bitter/sweet strawberry story for Naomi Garrick who went for the world record dressed as a strawberry. She did beat the record by fourteen minutes in 3:59:38 but after crossing the line she was informed that another strawberry had squashed her time. She was berry upset and wanted to go bananas. She has now run out of juice but proud that she has completed six London Marathons all in less than four hours and four of them in silly costumes.

Steve Saunders

Steve Saunders had a race of two halves as they say in football but carrying a foot injury into a marathon is not a good start. He did manage to run the first half but the injury took its toll in the second. He was pleased he took part and did get himself through it and finished his third and final London Marathon in 5:00:31 with a smile on his face.

Becky Robson was very unfortunate to pick up a calf injury in the early stages of the recent Exe to Axe race. She only intending to run to Sidmouth as part of her training for London and despite pulling out at Budleigh Salterton as a precautionary measure and with intensive post run treatment, it did not heal in time for her to run. However she has renewed her focus on the upcoming Women Can Marathon.

The highs and lows of a week in running.

The Wellington Boot Challenge 2017

The Wellington Boot is organised by the Long Distance Walking Association and can be either walked or run. The event is to complete a circular route of 100 kilometres with 7,200 feet of climb on foot within 26 hours starting and finishing in Wellington. Sidmouth Running club member Carine Silver thrives on these events and arrived in plenty of time to sign in, collect her tally card and have a cup of tea ready to start at 9am.

As you would expect with these sorts of elevations it is a picturesque route with a view of the sea (unless the weather is very overcast) and with half decent visibility even a view of Wales. The route reaches heights of over 1000 feet. It follows the Tone Valley, ascends the Quantocks, drops down to Holford, re-crosses the Quantocks, goes through the Brendon Hills and part of the Exmoor National Park to reach Clatworthy Reservoir then travels south through West Somerset and part of Devon, following the Clum Valley, ascends the Blackdown Hills to reach the Wellington Monument and then returns to the finish in Wellington.

Along the route there are 7 manned check points each having opening and closing times and each proving food and drink and 7 unmanned clipper points.

At the finish a cooked breakfast is available from 4am with hot drinks and toast if you finish earlier. You can of course have a sleep first and then have your cooked breakfast. And your reward at the end is the complete satisfaction that you have completed this Ultra, a certificate and event badge.

However in Carine’s case it got even better because at 3am she completed the run in 17hours 59minutes knocking an incredible 4 hours, yes 4 hours off her previous time and established a club record for this distance. She did say that it was much harder than she expected with vest weather during the day and winter woolly weather at night and at the end her legs were just liquid pain.

Huge congratulations to her.

Sidmouth Running Club

Justin Ashby’s 10k training course is starting to show results after only a few weeks with a number of personal best times being recorded.

Paula Farrand only started running a year ago and by her own admission took the Forest Gump approach to it. Now after two sessions, and lots of advice on technique from Justin, at the latest Park Run not only did she record a PB time of 22:47 but was also the second lady home.

Julia Haddrell also at a Park Run recorded a PB of 36:08. Lydia Mansi not content with recording a PB over 7k of 47:24 also took her training over to France with her family. Running a two miler with her children she then let then rest while she did some hill reps much to the amusement of the locals.

Entries have started to come in for this year’s Mighty Green Challenges. Danny Painter fresh from his relaxing run as back marker at the recent Exe to Axe race took on a harder challenge by bobbing around the peaks enjoying the sun, clouds and gale force winds. He arrived at the top of Moel Siabod, Snowdonia in what can only be described as horrendous conditions especially in his Mighty Green shirt.

Meanwhile taking a much more relaxed approach Monica Read submitted a photo of the Mighty Green enjoying the sun in Puglia, Italy, much more sensible.

The Honiton Hippo

The Honiton Hippo takes its name from the remains of a hippopotamus that was found when building the Honiton by-pass in the 1960s and the Hippo certainly lived up to its name. Mud, Mud glorious Mud, and a load of cold water thrown in as well for good measure was the order of the day. The Hippo is a true 7.5 mile multi-terrain race with sections of small lanes, woodland paths, meadows, off-road tracks, on-road, the Land Rover Experience circuit, two river crossings and more mud and water.

With the recently completed long races, The Grizzly 20 mile, Delicious Dart 16 miles and the Exe to Axe 22 miles, Sidmouth Running Club members were in need of rest and recovery and this year the club only managed to enter 3 seniors and one junior in the race. It was a glorious sunny morning that greeted us at the start and with the temperature rising, by the time we got to the first river crossing perhaps we spent too long enjoying that refreshing paddle before setting off again.

In the 1.75 mile multi-terrain junior race the Hippo Calf, Alecia Ranson finished 3rd overall in the girls under 13 category.

Sidmouth times: Janice Ranson 1:27:52, Sue Collman 1:27:55, Terry Bewes 1:27:55.

Thank you Honiton Running Club for a brilliantly entertaining race and all that food and drink at the end.

There were 233 finishers.

JP’s Exe to the Axe Race

It was a chilly but beautiful morning that would get sunnier and warmer throughout the day that greeted the 275 competitors that gathered at the Foxholes car park in Exmouth on Sunday for the start of the most seriously gruelling JP’s Exe to Axe race.

‘A brute of a race with some extraordinary views’ was how Runners World described it in its April edition. And our ANOB did not let them down with some outstanding views along the 22 mile route. Full results can be found here. Additional photos by Kyle Baker Photography and Kit Woodcock. More photos of Sidmouth Runners that Kyle took can be found here.

Anthony above Exmouth

Ladram Bay

First to finish was Michael Robinson of Exmouth Harriers in 2:53:15, this was the third time that he has won this race. Second, Richard Roberts of Eryri Harriers in 3:00:37, Richard took a wrong turning near the end putting him just over the 3 hours.

Third, Graham Willis Tiverton Harriers in 3:07:58. First lady was Anna Bartlett of Mercia Fell Runners in 3:21:33 who also took the female over 40 trophy.

First relay team was Matthew and Robert Salt of Dacorum and Tring in 3:32:59: Male over 50 trophy, Richard Everson of SWRR in 3:20:15: Male over 40, Chris Perry of Axe Valley Runners in 3:28:19: Senior female, Laura Swanton in 3:35:53: Male under 23, Jerome Borghgraef in 3:46:00: Male over 60, Christopher Kelsey of Wells City Harriers in 3:47:40: Female over 50, Jayne Angilley of Cornwall AC in 3:57:19: Female over 60, Eleanor Wood of Axe Valley Runners in 4:05:30.

First club runner home was once again Antony Hall in 41st place in 3:45:13: Gary Anning 3:54:46: Nigel Maeer 4:08:36: Julian Bartlett 4:14:50: Simon Hollyer 4:47:51: Lynda Hawkins 5:03:17. Lynda had planned to run with daughter Kaylee but a bad ankle injury a couple of days before put paid to that. Jo Earlam 5:06:29: Becky Robson dropped out at Budleigh Salterton with a niggle in her calf and with the London Marathon coming up very sensibly decided not to risk an injury.

Sidmouth was also well represented by the Sidmouth Sirens, Helen Palmer, 5:26:07: Monica Read, 5:26:07: Sue Collman 5:26:08 and Janice Ranson 5:23:32. This was the first time Monica and Sue had run this race and they did extremely well. Beth Wells who joined the beginner’s course in January and who had run from Exmouth to Ladram Bay a few weeks earlier reasoned that it was not much further to Sidmouth maybe forgetting the two large hills in between but finished in a respectable time of 2:22:00.

In the team event Sidmouth Mighty Green Oldies, Jon Ball and Tim Clay came 6th in 4:16:30 and Sidmouth Ancient and Dazed Arthur and Christine Vince brought the proceedings to an end in 7:42:16

Another runner training for a 100k run in the Alps ran to Seaton, ate a flapjack, turned around and ran back to Exmouth to catch a train back to Exeter that he had previously booked.

Gavin

The story of the day belongs to the West Hill contingent. Jo Pavey the Club’s ambassador is in the final stages of her training for the London Marathon so was unable to run, however husband Gavin was talked into running with a group of friends who had already entered. Seizing the opportunity at the start Terry Bewes quickly took off his club running vest and gave it to him to wear. This was paying off as at Budleigh, Gavin went by in 6th place and at Sidmouth he had dropped back a little, the reason would become clear later. The next time I saw him was at the finish when I heard someone say “There’s Gavin”, I looked up but could not see him on the promenade then I saw him on the pavement being supported by a medic, his rescuer and a shooting stick. It turned out that the injury to his achilles started as he came down Peak Hill and by the time he got to the top of Weston cliff it was so swollen and sore that he could not walk on it. Luckily running club member David Hedges was out on the cliff in his jeep and had the shooting stick with him so with the help of David and the stick he managed to drag himself to a lane where he was hauled into the jeep and driven to Seaton. It was decided that as he had only completed half of the race he would be awarded only half a medal.

One of his team mates also didn’t fare much better getting lost and running a further 3 miles ending up at the Donkey Sanctuary and he too came in for a lot of stick as he is supposed to be good at map reading being a Royal Marine. They eventually made their way to the Bowd Inn to rehydrate on real ale.

The club would like to thank Johanna Morgan the Zumba diva from JM Dance Fit for the Zumba warm up. Thanks also to Axe Valley Runners for the water station at Branscombe.

Danny and Corinna

Several runners asked the Club to pass on their gratitude to Corrina Stevens and Danny Painter the back markers for all their help and encouragement which got them through the final stages of the run. It was however a fitting reward at the finish when many competitors were full of praise and congratulated Paul Mitchell the Race Director on the organisation and how well the whole day had gone and said they would be back next year in greater numbers. Paul however was quick to point out that without the support of the Club members, their spouses and children it would not have been the success it was.

Not only did our AONB shine but SIDMOUTH Running Club did as well.
Congratulations to you all.

Chairman’s Mighty Green Challenge

and

Exe to Axe

The final entries are now coming in for Sidmouth Running Club’s chairman’s Mighty Green Challenge.

In the racing category Andy Shearer took himself off to Spain and along with his friend Kevin Druce entered the Barcelona Marathon. The great Catalan capital was host to the Zurich Barcelona Marathon which was reborn in 2005. The race starts in the Avinguda, Maria Cristina and the course it follows is one of the most attractive in Europe. The favourable climatology that characterizes Barcelona combined with a fully urban circuit that passes through the main landmarks of great interest for the runners. It was a very warm day with Andy finishing 4:20:00 and Kevin in 4:23:00

Meanwhile taking herself even further afield Milly the Marvel Frankpitt was in Wungong Dam, Australia. Milly just couldn’t wait to show off her Mighty Green shirt to the locals and after just 2 hours sleep due to jet lag wakefulness in the night she ran the 14.1k Darling Ranges in Perth then went straight back to bed.

EXE TO AXE

With the upcoming Exe to Axe race on April 2^nd we have been informed that the ladies record holder Annie Conway (Ambleside AC) has won the World Long Distance MR Championship in Podbrdo, Slovenia. In 2015 she came in second just 9 seconds behind Axe Valley runner Matt Clist. It was a very exciting finish as coming along the esplanade at Seaton she was catching him up. With the extended route this year to the Eastern end of the esplanade it would have been an even more exciting finish. There is still time to enter this race with entry forms on the club website or you can enter on the day.

The Forest of Dean Half Marathon

There seems to be a theme running through SIDMOUTH Running Club at the moment where husbands invite their wives out for the day only to find when they arrive at their destination a pair of running shoes are produced from the boot of the car. And so it was for Cathy Keast who looking forward to a nice day out with husband John in the Forest of Dean found herself running a half marathon around it.

Utilising well maintained forest trails with gentle inclines the race starts from Speech House and is run through the forest on way-marked trails laid out by the Forestry Commission in a clockwise direction back to the start.

This was to be John’s last run of the season and luckily his new replacement pacemaker was up to the job and he finished in 1:49:51 and Cathy in 2:15:38 which was an excellent time seeing that she had completed the Grizzly the week before.

John now begins his cycling training in readiness for June when he will undertake to cycle 360 miles of the Tour de France route in order to raise money for the William Wates Memorial Trust. If you would like to sponsor John he would be most grateful and can be contacted through the contact tab on the Club website.