Celebrations As Landmarks Reached For Sidmouth Running Club Members

Saturday saw Mighty Green Jo Earlam complete her 80^th marathon at the Plym Valley Trail event organised by First and Last Running.

Jo and marathon #80

Jo ran with fellow MG Jane Hemsworth, who has completed 29 marathons, and completed the course in 5:36:00. The ladies were pleased with their time as they had walked the last couple of miles to accompany a runner who had fallen; their club spirit shining through.

Jane and Jo

Julia Haddrell was all smiles as she crossed the finish line at Seaton Park Run for the 100^th time on Saturday despite the rain. Julia said she appreciated all the shouts of encouragement from the other SRC members taking part on Saturday. We will have to wait and see if she buys the landmark t-shirt!

Julia and Parkrun #100

The club’s organisers of JP’s Exe to Axe race also reached a landmark this week; the 200^th entrant to ‘An adventure 22 miles in the making!’ Paul Mitchell, David Lee and Rob Edwards have been hard at work planning the club’s biggest fundraiser which had to be cancelled last year. A couple of changes include using chip timing and having an open start time between 9am and 10.10am. Paul said,” Entries have been received from the length and breadth of the country with the furthest entrant being in the Canary Islands!”

There is still time to enter this scenic, challenging trail run along the coastal path from Exmouth to Seaton. Please visit www.sidmouthrunningclub.co.uk for further details.

All Smiles At The Sidmouth 10k

It is not often you can walk to a race from home but thanks to Lizzie from LME events, 41 SRC members enjoyed the close proximity of the Sidmouth 10k which took place from Sidford on Sunday.

MGs out in force

The popular race takes you down through the Byes, up Salcombe Hill Road, down Cliff Road and Beatlands, along the seafront and back again. Not quite as flat as you might think but an advantage to being a MG is we can train up and down the hill so we get the measure of it. Another advantage is the support you get from your fellow runners; a well done and a smile spurs you on and there were many of those as we passed each other.

Antony at the start

Antony Hall and John Sharples were best in their age groups with Antony coming in 7^th place overall out of 232 finishers.

Special mention must go to all the fantastic friendly marshals (many of them club members or relations of) who cheered the runners on, to Emma Donovan and 1^st Sidmouth Guides for manning the water station on the seafront and to Lizzie and her team for organising the event.

Sidmouth 10km results 7^th November 2021

Antony Hall 7^th 42:08, Niall Hawkins 43:47, Jack Wilson 45:55, Colin I’Anson 47:30, Ross Walton 48:43, Jamie Locke 50:27, Tim Swarbrick 51:11, Clive Gilbert 51:15, Pete Norman 51:17, Yasmin Salter 52:22, Kyle Baker 52:44, Chris Heywood 52:57, Rob Edwards 53:04, Allan Kay 53:26, Tim Clay 54:38, Christine Farnham 54:52, Becky McDonald 54:57, Karen Farnham 55:26, Susan Reeve 55:29, Suzi Rockey 57:10, Jane Hemsworth 57:53, Cheryl Boulton 58:20, Cameron Baker 58:46, Christie Ward 1:01:27, John Sharples 1:01:28, Kerry Salter 1:01:54, Judith Jeeves 1:03:55, Naomi Loosemore 1:03:45, Lee-Ann Thomson 1:03:55, Kathy Jordan 1:03:58, Helen Akay 1:03:59, Gail Goldsmith 1:05:12, Alexa Baker 1:05:18, David Welsh 1:05:44, Amelia Frankpitt 1:10:37, Beccy Johnson 1:12:57, Jennifer Benattar 1:15:01, Julia Haddrell 1:15:03, Helen Neighbour 1:18:46, Tracy Scannell 1:22:59, Terry Bewes 1:22:59.

Mighty Green David Knapman Earns Himself A London Marathon Championship Start

Sidmouth Running Club members Jo Earlam and David Knapman ran the Exeter Marathon on Sunday and at one point briefly ran together before David crossed the line and Jo had another lap to run. In fact David finished in second place in an unbelievable time of 2:35:27, just 8 seconds behind the winner! Not only has he smashed the club record by more than 5 minutes, the Mighty Green earned himself a championship start in the London Marathon.

David after his great run

David has recently moved to Sidbury after spending the last couple of years in France where he rediscovered his love of running during the lockdowns. He was super happy to find that Sidmouth is home to a very active and welcoming running club. The Mighty Green said, “I’ve been training for Exeter Marathon for the past 10 weeks partly in France and latterly here in Devon with lots of back and forth along East Hill Strips interspersed with the Monday and Wednesday night club runs. We were lucky with the weather, 10c and lighter winds than forecast on Sunday and I managed to keep a steady pace throughout the two-lap course around Exeter Quay – a bit twisty and turn-y in places, but otherwise flat and fast. I am extremely pleased with my result and look forward to wearing my MG shirt in the London Marathon next year.”

Jo & marathon #85

For Jo this was her fifth marathon in four weeks, number 85 and she was delighted with her time of 5:18.00 as it was her best in 3 years and the last 20 marathons.

Gold In Them There Mountains For SRC’s Kirsteen Welch

Mighty Green Kirsteen Welch had the honour of representing England on Sunday swapping the coastal paths of Sidmouth for the mountains of Italy and she smashed it! Chosen by England Athletics to join the England team to run in the World Mountain Association Nations Cup, Kirsteen was delighted to come in 10th female place helping England to a team gold!

Team Gold

An elated Kirsteen said, “I loved this race so much, the hills were torture but the downhills were so much fun and super quick.

Kirsteen in action

Every second of the trip has been enjoyable thanks to fellow team mates and the EA team support. I am going to build on this for the World Mountain Running Championships.”

Jane, Jo & Bob(?)

Closer to home Jo Earlam and Jane Hemsworth had a great day out at the Grand Canal Canter organised by Winding Paths entering into the Halloween spirit by carrying around ‘Bob’ the skeleton as he had ‘no body to run with’! The ladies completed the out and back twice route between Tiverton and Sampford Perverell along the Grand Western Canal just inside the 6 hour cut off time, making it Jo’s 84th marathon and Jane’s 31st!

Scary Halloween on the seafront

An impromptu Halloween fun run was had by a group of Mighty Greens who don’t like to miss an occasion to dress up and run on Saturday morning. It was more fun than run as they kept getting stopped for photos!

Mighty Green swimmers

Twenty three SRC members swapped trainers for flippers on Saturday evening to represent the club in the Rotary Club of Sidmouth’s Swimathon. Chairman Terry Bewes said, “What a brilliant job all the teams did. The Elite Team swam 140 lengths, swam 108 lengths and the juniors swam 112 lengths. A special mention goes to the juniors who were outstanding in showing what a team sport is all about. For 55 minutes they swam, cheered and encouraged each other and in Blues restaurant afterwards were so well behaved a privilege to have them in the club.”

Hot! Hot! Hot! Haytor Heller

On Saturday 17^th July Antony Hall was questioning why he had signed up to run the Haytor Heller on possibly the hottest day of the month so far! Organised by Teignbridge Trotters to celebrate their 35^th anniversary the hilly, rugged terrain certainly put the Mighty Green to the test. The 5.30pm start didn’t bring cooler temperatures but Antony completed the 10k course in 00:54:12, 30 seconds behind the first woman home in an impressive 25^th place out of a field of 240 entrants.

Antony at Haytor

Antony said, “It was by far the hottest run I have had since the London Marathon in 2018!”

Hosepipes Cool Kirsteen As She Blazes Ahead!

Kirsteen Welsh has done it again setting a new woman’s course record at the Frome Half Marathon on Sunday!

Despite the temperature hitting 29^oc and the hilly first half, Kirsteen was the first lady over the finish line, 6^th overall and completed the course in 1:21:13, smashing the existing woman’s course record.

Kirsteen at Frome

The Mighty Green said, ”The residents of Frome were legends, they came out to cheer the runners on and cooled them down by spraying us with hose pipes!”