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!

The Climb South West East Devon 8/5 Trigs 2021

After completing some long runs earlier in the year, a group of SRC members decided to take on Climb South West’s 5 Trig Challenge. A 21 mile, self navigated, off road run, taking in 5 trig points sitting in a loop around East Devon.
MG Cath Miller said, “After much conversation about whether we had enough food (yes!) Should we wear coats (no!) Had we enough paracetamol and ibuprofen for our various age related aches and pains, we set off for High Peak the first of the five trig points.”
They ran through beautiful East Devon taking in Aylesbeare Common, Woodbury, Black Hill and West Down Beacon trigs, finishing with a spectacular decent into Budleigh, along the seafront to the end where their much longed for medal was waiting for them!

Richard and Allan

In a field of 54 runners, one of the six Mighty Greens who took part in the 5 trigs challenge, Allan Kay said, “It was a great day to be out running as a group from Sidmouth RC in an organised event.” They ran as a group right up to the last trig supporting and motivating each other. Richard King had even gone out and stashed water bottles around the route for them!

Adrian

Allan, who ran the challenge last year with Adrian, found the anti-clockwise route was much better than last year’s clockwise route, the ups and downs gentler and finishing on a downhill along the SW coast path from Budleigh was special for him and Adrian ‘Gripper’ Horne as they used to play there as youngsters.

Helen

The Mighty Greens did the club proud, finishing together, half way in the field of finishers, and in Cath’s words; not bad for a bunch of oldies!

Derek and Niall

Beautiful scenery, happy conversations, local wildlife including a friendly adder were all part of a great day and the beginnings of normality again -all topped off with an icy cider on the beach, thanks Annie!

A well deserved drink

Results

Allan Kay 26^th 4.47 hrs

Cath Millar and Richard King joint 28^th position 4.50 hrs

Monica Reed 30^th 4.51 hrs

Helen Palmer joint 31^st position 4.52 hrs

Adrian ‘Gripper’ Horne 34^th 4.53 hrs

In other news the Juniors enjoyed their first session back with Tim Daffron on Sunday and Chairman Terry Bewes awarded the ‘Little Miss Chatterbox’ spot prize to Tash Morgan and Clare Pugh who managed to chat all the way around the 3.8 mile run on Woodbury Common last Monday.

Let The Races Commence – Escot

Not one but two events were ‘running’ last Saturday and Sidmouth Running Club members were in attendance for both.

A smattering of Mighty Greens were amongst the 805 runners who took part in the Tough Runner Exeter Epic 10K race at Escot on Saturday April 17th. MG, Derek Blackburn said, “On a beautifully sunny morning, the undulating course around the Escot estate attracted runners from across the South West. Social distancing was maintained by staggering the start times, so runners ran in waves, starting at 10.00am, with runners crossing the start line in pairs. Once out on the course, there was plenty of room to allow a good distance to be maintained from other athletes. It was a fantastic atmosphere, and most athletes seemed delighted to have the opportunity to be running in an event again.”

For Niall Hawkins, not only was it his first run as a Mighty Green, it was his first trail run and he came in 40^th overall, 5^th in his age category (40-49) in 44.22 minutes and congratulations go to Kate Marriott who came in first place in the junior female category with a time of 48.23 minutes.

Mighty Greens at Escot

Results

Niall Hawkins – 40th overall, 5th in M40-49 category – 44:22

Kate Marriott – 105, 1st in Junior Female – 48:23

Don Cawthera – 321, 3rd in M60+ category – 56:24

Deb Marriott – 418, 13th in M50-59 category – 59:06

Derek Blackburn – 431, 6th in M60+ category – 59:49

There was a great sense of achievement for Team ‘Sidbury School Run’ who thoroughly enjoyed their 10k debut at Escot. The England Athletic Run Together group was formed by Charlotte Forrer, a run leader at Sidmouth Running Club, to specifically meet the needs of parents of children at Sidbury Primary School.  They meet straight after the morning school run, and a group of parents have been training since September 2020.  Some of these parents had very little running experience and were just looking to increase their fitness.  By mixing up the running with strength and conditioning exercises such as squats and lunges the groups’ fitness increased.  They moved from short road runs to longer trail runs and over lockdown Charlotte organised socially distanced sessions and printed fitness plans for paired runs.

With confidence growing they signed up to run the 10km Exeter Epic Trail Run and dedicated themselves to train for it, even through the long lockdown winter.  On Saturday, six members of the group went with Charlotte to Escot House to complete the 10km run.  Charlotte said,”It was a gorgeous sunny day and the race day atmosphere was very exciting.  We all learnt a lot about how to run a trail race: running through puddles to overtake, making the most of a downhill, finding people to pace yourself against and choosing when to sprint for the finish line.”

Mighty Green congratulations to Johanna Mitchell, Nicole Bates, Nicola Meek and Lucy Ingram who completed the course in just over an hour.

Results

Charlotte Forrer 52:47

Johanna Mitchell 1:01:05

Nicole Bates 1:02:10

Nicola Meek 1:07:31

Katie Harris 1:07:59

Lucy Ingram 1:08:14

Ruth Dale 1:11:39