Sidmouth Running Club has been represented far and wide again recently.  Lynda Hawkins and daughter Kaylee finally ran the Prague marathon after the fourth attempt, the previous ones being cancelled because of covid.  This was Lynda’s 10th marathon and she was delighted to have finished in 4:11:27; better than the time she set ten years ago! Kaylee finished in 3:40:31.

Lynda Hawkins in Prague

Mighty Green Jane Hemsworth entered the North Dorset Marathon. Starting from Sturminster Newton the hilly route meandered through many pretty villages and despite the drizzle Jane finished in 4:41:00, making it her 34^th marathon including 3 ultras.

Adrian Gripper Horne and Ollie Goodchild-Horne took part in the final Rat Race Dirty Weekend in Stamford near Peterborough. It was the perfect way for Ollie to celebrate his birthday as the event involves challenges, inflatable obstacles and partying!  The 20 mile challenge took place on the Saturday and the MG’s completed it in 7.5 hours.  Ollie said there was time spent queuing for the inflatables, some of which were very challenging and are not going to be repeated!

Leeann Thomson, Rachel Barnard and Jo Earlam took on the Devon Coastal Challenge-3 marathons over 3 days! Day 1 involved 4,500 feet of climbing in warm conditions but the stunning scenery and great atmosphere more than compensated for that.  Day 2 saw Jo complete her 90^th marathon with Rachel but the 4,500 feet of climbing and hot sunshine took its’ toll on Leeann who at mile 25 required medical attention. This has not put Leeann off at all, although the ladies decided to save day 3 with 6,500 feet of climb, they have already booked for another marathon challenge in October!  Jo congratulated Rachel and Leeann on their first marathon medals for what is an incredibly tough event.

Jo Earlam, Rachel Barnard and Leeann Thomson admiring the spectacular views

Sidmouth Running Club Joins Battle of Woodbury Common, Oh My Obelisk and The Sir Walter Round!

For four Mighty Greens Saturday night meant leaving the warmth of their homes, grabbing a head torch and heading to Woodbury Common to take part in the Battle of Woodbury Common. Organised by Sportiva Events, Rachel Barnard ran the 10K course in 1:11:57 while Mark Andow, Charlotte Forrer and Mark Norton ran the half marathon which was 2 laps of the 10k course very successfully. Mark A finished in 14^th place in 1:59:20, Charlotte was 4^th lady back and first in her age category in 2:09:46 and hot on her heels Mark N finished in 2:12:59.

Battle of Woodbury

Sunday was the last of the Four Trigs training sessions which started in sunny Sidford but as Weston Trig came into view so did the grey clouds and the following rain made the homeward section very slippery indeed. Luckily those that fell did so gracefully and it all added to the training especially as many of the group are competing in the Blackdown Beast in a couple of weeks’ time.

Oh My Obelisk

Karen and Christine Farnham missed this session to run in Oh My Obelisk organised by the Dawlish Coasters along. The twins ran the 9 mile course in 1:36:33 while fellow Mighty Greens Antony Hall, Catherine Hilton, Derek Blackburn and Clive Gilbert ran the half. They all enjoyed the multi terrain run with mud, hills, fields, woodland tracks and quiet country lanes with stunning views, even Antony who took a fall half way through but bounced back and finished in 27^th place out of a field of 184 in 1:43:14. Results Catherine 2:13:18, Clive 2:20:13, Derek 2:34:31.

Ollie at The Walter Raleigh

In Budleigh Salterton four Mighty Greens took part in The Walter Raleigh Round organised by Climb South West. The new half marathon race visits the birthplace of Sir Walter and the countryside he spent time in as a child as well as a visit to High Peak and the Jurassic coast! Ollie Goodchild-Horne finished in 16^th place out of a field of 140 in 2:02:51, Martin Truman in 2:07:12, Jamie Locke running with his brother Tom finished in 2:14:33 and new club member Becky Proctor finished in 2:47:48.

Back to Running

The ‘Back To Running’ group enjoyed interval training on Wednesday evening under head coach, Kyle Baker’s watchful eye. Despite only being week 2, the group have bonded well and are very encouraging of each other. It was great to see members from the beginners and back to running groups join in the Monday night club run too.

11+ Juniors

The Juniors are back too with the 8+ in the sports hall and the 11+ taking to the streets with hi-vis, torches and at least 2 leaders. The 11+ group also meet on Sunday mornings for daylight off road runs. If you know someone who would be interested in running and joining the friendly groups please contact the Junior Coach, Kerry Boyle via the Sidmouth Running Club’s web site, http://www.sidmouthrunningclub.co.uk.

Sidmouth Running Club Kept On Running Over Christmas

There is always an opportunity to run over the Christmas period; Christmas Day park run at Seaton, the club’s Boxing Day run and the New Year’s Day park run at Exmouth and many Mighty Greens got involved.

Julia and daughter Alex

Whilst the turkey was cooking, club members David Skinner and Julia Haddrell plus her daughter Alex, took the opportunity to wear fancy dress and take part in the Seaton park run while Derek Blackburn with his daughter Grace lined up in Bushy Park with 1,600 park runners! Further afield in Vancouver, MG Tim Swarbrick managed to get a Christmas day run in as the weather had finally warmed up enough!

Tim in Vancouver

The Boxing Day runners gathered in the rain but set off under a full rainbow determined to burn off a few calories and make room for more festive food! Any fancy dress was soon taken off as it was unseasonably warm and Soldiers Hill had still to be climbed but as they approached the frog stone the sun came out in a clear blue sky.

Terry

As part of the club’s tradition, the group lined up in formation at the top of the grass slope on Salcombe Hill, spread their arms and sang the Dambusters theme tune as they ran/slipped down.

Boxing Day MGs at the Frogstone

Club runner Cheryl Boulton decided Boxing Day would be a good time to complete her Grand Western Canal virtual 10k before the end of the year cut off and had an enjoyable run with fellow MG Susan Reeves.

In Exmouth 443 clear headed runners lined up for the New Year’s Day park run and despite the rain two Sidmouth Running club members got new PB’s. Kirsteen Welch was 3^rd overall with a new PB of 17:44 and Alexa Baker knocked 3 minutes off her PB finishing in 30.16. David King, Clive Gilbert and David Skinner were also spotted wearing the Mighty Green shirts.

There is still time to sign up for the Beginners and Back to Running courses which start on Wednesday. Running is a great way to keep fit, explore where you live and meet people. Sidmouth Running Club welcomes all abilities and ages and are very encouraging-come and see for yourself. Please contact 07734581782 or email sidmouthrunningclub@gmail.com

What a difference a ‘K’ makes

A coach to Beer, a 10k run back to St Johns School for a barbeque and swim might sound like the perfect way to wind up the Summer season for Sidmouth Running Club.

It was certainly a day to remember especially for the 17 runners who were using this run as their virtual 10k Grand Western Canal entry raising money for Clic Sargent.

Under the leadership of chairman Terry Bewes the Mighty Greens posed for a photo, set their watches and followed Terry who eventually realised we were on the wrong path-about turn! An omen of things to come!

GWC start

It wasn’t long before the group split enabling everyone to run at their own pace and enjoy the views. For the faster eight, this meant a coffee stop at Branscombe and slight concern that they hadn’t seen the other group approaching! They took the hilly route in their stride and arrived back in plenty of time to meet more club members for the barbeque.

Cath Miller, who had run a half marathon the day before which had been miss-measured at 14.8 miles long, started to doubt the length of the run when mile 6 saw everyone at Weston mouth. Relief that the required distance for the virtual 10k had been reached was overtaken by the realisation of how many miles were left to get back in time for the food.

There were a couple of ‘phone a friend’ calls and three runners were collected between the donkey Sanctuary and Salcombe Hill which left Ann Cole, Alexa Baker and Terry to run down Salcombe Hill and jeff up to St Johns School where they were greeted with a cheer having run an overall distance of 10 miles-the furthest Ann has run. The race medal and buff were certainly well earnt!

Terry is now a wooden spoon contender for miss-judging 10k for 10 miles but it made the virtual challenge one to remember and it was a great way to round off the Summer running season. Thanks were given to the school for use of their facilities, chef Matt and team for the food and Mighty Green Jenni Yeoman for not only running with a cold but being a life guard too.

Emma

Emma Grainger, meanwhile, (sensibly?) took part in the Teignbridge Trotters 10k race and completed the course in just under one hour 15 minutes, John Sharples ran his 100^th parkrun at Seaton and Naomi Loosemore got a PB running 26 minutes in her first 5k race having started the year running 5k in 36 minutes. Great Mighty Green achievements.

John

The club is looking forward to start its’ Winter programme which includes torch lit off road runs, interval runs, technical runs, on road runs and strength and conditioning classes. To find out more please visit the web site www.sidmouthrunningclub.co.uk

Training Runs, Medals and More for Sidmouth Running Club Members

Jamie Locke headed down to Totnes with his brother to take part in the Totnes 10k recently. Wearing the Mighty Green t-shirt for the first time, Jamie took the muddy off road route including a seemingly never ending hill in his stride and finished in 55:28 minutes, 161st out of a field of 548 runners, with his brother not far behind.

Jamie at Totnes

At Wednesday evening’s club run Emma Grainger was proudly wearing her latest headband which she received along with a medal for completing the Virtual Grand Western Canal 10k. The club is hoping to retain the trophy it won last year and it is not too late to sign up for this fundraising run.

Emma with medal

On Saturday Mighty Greens Mark Norton and Judith Jeeves took part in the Seaton park run. For Mark it was park run number 141, his first one in 18 months and on pebbles; he completed it in 24:53 minutes. Judith really enjoyed being back, her last park run being March 2020 and completed the 5k course in 27:22 minutes.

Judith & Mark at Seaton PR

Jo Earlam and Jane Hemsworth surprised themselves when on a recent 13.1 mile training run. With a time of 2:19.00, which included a spot of window shopping in Exmouth, they discovered they had run faster than their half marathon time 20 years ago!

With Sidmouth Running Club’s largest event, JP’s Exe to Axe, fast approaching (Sunday 10^th October) several members have been spotted running the coast path in preparation or in some cases, like Tim Swarbrick who ran back from Seaton, deciding to enter! For further information on this challenging but scenic 21+ mile race please head to the club’s website www.sidmouthrunningclub.co.uk.

Mighty Green Derek Clocks Up 1407k

Two weeks ahead of the target he set himself, Derek Blackburn completed the Virtual 2021 Lands End to John O’Groats challenge with an 11.32km run along the North Devon coast path.

Derek

The Mighty Green started on January 1^st and has been logging all his runs and walks to notch up the 1407k required to complete this amazing achievement.

SRC Committee Members Virtual Challenges and Jo’s Cosy Run

Sidmouth Running Club’s vice chair, Sarah Watkins, has completed the South West virtual coastal path challenge in just 16 weeks.
Mighty Green Sarah said, “Even though I had a year to complete the 630 mile challenge, lockdown allowed me to run/walk more and explore different routes around East Devon in the beautiful countryside.”

Sarah with her medal

Sarah’s longest walk was 33.5 miles and the most challenging was Seaton to Lyme Regis and back though most walks/runs averaged 8-10 miles. Sarah even incorporated the Grand Weston Canal virtual 10k run into the challenge and is the first MG to receive her 2021 medal.

SRC Web administrator, Rob Edwards, took on his Raced Coaching virtual challenge on January 1st following the success of him running Lands End to John O’Groats (LEJOG), a distance of 874 miles in six months which passed without incident last year.
Rob thought with a year to complete he would sign up to run there and back, a total distance of 1,748 miles. He worked out that he would need to run 33 to 34 miles a week or an average of 6.7 miles a day 5 times a week but found not being very quick he needed to run 6 times a week. Unfortunately in February 2021 a strong gusty wind and a slippery surface around Jacobs Ladder saw Rob trip over and bang his knee which resulted in 3 weeks of no running and 100 miles lost. But this Mighty Green is back and currently about 6 miles south of Perth (virtually) on the A9, having done 637 miles and almost back on schedule with only 237 miles to go before the end of June before he turns round and comes back again!
Rob likes to run from home over to Otterton Mill and back approx. 10 miles; is it the scenic route or the promise of a cappuccino and flapjack by the river Otter?
Rob’s wife Sue has questioned his ulterior motivation about LEJOG. Yesterday morning after coming back through the door from an Otterton Mill run this morning Sue asked Rob, “How was the run?” for him to reply, “Good, there were only 2 people ahead of me in the coffee queue!” The lengths some people will go to for a cup of coffee!

Cosy Run

SRC committee member Jo Earlam was joined by a group of club members to run 2 sections of her ‘Exeter Cosy routes’ on a very wet Sunday as part of Dementia Action Week. Jo has mapped Exeter in a series of routes which add up to a 26.2 mile circle of the city to encourage those living with dementia to get out and about. Jo created the routes with Exeter Dementia Action Alliance as a tribute to her adventurous dad who loved mapping routes and walking with Jo and lived with diagnosed dementia for four years. Jo, with her husband John who lives with dementia was also featured on this week’s Songs Of Praise, sharing her inspiration behind the route and how she’s personally affected by dementia to presenter YolanDa Brown.

Jo with Yolande

Jo would like to thank all the Mighty Greens who came on the run and weren’t deterred by the flooded fields as it was a great support for the project and Dementia Action Week. The rain certainly made it a memorable run, as Sarah Watkins said, “It was great fun to join Jo today, especially when 12 of us were knee deep wading through a water logged field!.”

It really is this way