Mighty Greens on Holiday
Dark Woods
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- Trail Running
The long and winding road played on the car radio as we left Sidmouth on a dreary and wet Saturday afternoon heading some 40 miles toward Watchet to run the Dark Woods night race. And it was, long and winding. Beccy had the written directions and Nikita used the satnav on her phone which worked well until the other side of Taunton where the signal was very intermittent and then was lost altogether. The Great Wood is the Quantock Forest; a mix of broad leafed woods and conifer plantations that cover several hills and valleys. This was a race that none of us had done before and talking to some who had at the recent Nightjar race it was a tough one with two big hills. The event is organised by Flying Fox Running and such is the popularity of their races that 342 competitors turned up on a cold wet night to run the various distances. On entering the wood, it is about a mile up a stony road to the car park and race HQ and heading up you noticed arrow markers and we soon realised that we would be running down here later. Arriving in plenty of time we parked near the start so were able to sit in the car, watch the rain and wait with some anticipation as to what we had let ourselves in for. We could hear the race briefing and watch the first batch of 6km, and 8.5-mile runners set off before venturing out in the rain to take on the 6 miles.
The race is set in a figure of 8 and from the start Beccy and Kyle set off together whilst I ran with Nikita for a short while before she was gone. The first loop of about 2 miles, after the drop from the start, is a gradual climb back past the start and then the mile run down the drive where the marshal tells you as you turn left “Beware of the slope”. The slope was the first hill, a mile uphill climb with an elevation gain of 500 feet to the water station but it was runnable with fairy steps in places. After refuelling there was a quieter section before the second hill which was shorter but had a much steeper incline and that was not runnable, the mud making it barely walkable. We were now on top of the ridge in the clouds, which made for some very interesting running with the headtorches through the mud and stones but at least it was fairly flat before a short nasty steep downhill run over loose stones to enter the final mile downhill sprint to the finish. Nikita has only recently joined the club after completing the couch to 5km programme and this was her first 6 mile run in the dark over a course she did not know so great respect to her. She would have beaten me but with 2 miles to go I had caught up with her and as she lost a shoe in the mud, I stopped to pull it out but left her to put it back on whilst I ran on. At the finish we received our amazing medals and tucked into the the food and drink laid out for us. It was well worth the drive, an excellent race superbly organised by Nathan and Pippa of Flying Fox Running and their team. Next up will be their Ninesprings by Night.
Kyle Baker 23rd in 59:27, Beccy McDonald 8th female and 33rd in 1:05:54, Terry Bewes 1:14:53 2nd in age group, Nikita Kay 1:16:48.
Jo’s Three Day Atlantic Coast Challenge.
My training for this year’s Atlantic Coast Challenge, a three marathons in three days event from Constantine Bay to Lands End, mostly involved resting and eating cake, so I was aware from the start that a lot of walking would be involved writes Jo Earlam.
Indeed each day I set off at a slow pace, watching the other participants run, leap and jog away from me and within a short time, I was often the back marker, which didn’t bother me at all as it meant I had the sometimes narrow paths to myself. Some while later the faster runners (arriving on the next minibus trips) would pass me, the lead runner in the blink of an eye, then a stream of nibble footed followers, with a cheery exchange of “well done”, and me stepping carefully to the landward side of steep cliff paths to let people pass.
I didn’t bother to set my GPS as I knew the battery would pack up before my expected finish time. I just hoped my legs and mental attitude would last out. I let the terrain and tiredness dictate my pace, if both were tough I’d walk, if they were favourable I’d jog.
The first day was dominated by strong winds, gusting so fierce at times that it was hard to stand up straight let alone make progress and by 22 miles and at more than six hours it had been become an exhausting battle! A narrow cliff edge and steep climb from Holywell Bay to Penhale Camp was particularly gruelling, leading to complete sense of humour loss! Hoever, I eventually got down to Perranporth beach and my conservative start paid dividends, I had enough energy to do a steady jog, passing several people and completing the two miles of sand in 24 minutes.
My strategy for days two and three was similar, setting off at walking pace, watch everyone disappear, and keep plodding on behind them. Each day I also stopped at the halfway checkpoint, sat and emptied sand from shoes, had sandwiches and fabulous homemade flapjacks along with a welcomed cup of coffee. All provided as part of the amazing event hospitality. The scenery on route is incredible and offers many opportunities to pause for photo breaks and sometimes seal spotting.
On day two, although I was tired, I power walked past several people on the last two mile road hike to the finish at St Ives Bay Holiday Park, our accommodation venue for the weekend, and on day three Lands End was like a lure, from the last checkpoint at Cape Cornwall, I fixed my sights on it and with a steely determination put every effort I could into those final six miles, managing to properly run the last half mile and elated as I crossed the line.
All of my finish times were slower than last year, which – not being as fit – I knew from the outset would be the case. However, checking the statistics was rewarding, as I could see that my slow pace did not hold me back and more importantly did not stop me taking part. In fact rather like the tortoise and the hare, my plodding paid off, as each day my time and placing between the last the checkpoint and the finish got better, and the final day was my best.
My times and placings were: Day one – 7:24, from place 174 to 146 between checkpoints, and placed overall 161; Day two – 7:08, from place 167 to 118 between checkpoints, and placed overall 148; Day three – 9:27, from place 153 (5 minutes before 162, who was the last person) to 88 between checkpoints, and placed overall 130. Overall finish time 23:59, overall finish place 129. I didn’t win, I wasn’t fast, but I’m really happy with how I did and now the 74th marathon has been completed.
The Minster Challenge
The Minster Challenge, a multi-terrain race of approx. 12km, (7.5 miles). A pretty route amongst farmland, woods, fields, country lanes, uneven footpaths, streams and the aptly named ‘Evil Lane’. Oh and plenty of mud writes Terry Bewes
After the short drop down to the main road from the start, the next 6km turned out to be all uphill, rising to around 750 feet. At times due to the mud, we found ourselves going backwards down the hill. Following this section was a few kilometres of mainly meandering downhill descents before reaching another kilometre of steep climb. This was just to test us all before turning to run mainly downhill to the finish. The course is run in a figure of eight with the 5km runners completing one circuit.
There were five Sidmouth runners, two in the 5km and three in the 12km taking part and all were recovering from one injury or another, so this was to be a stern test for them. Kate Marriott proved that her foot problem is well and truly behind her with a stunning run, winning first female, first under 15 and finishing 6th overall in 28:24. Suzi Rockey ( knee injury ) continues with the 5km races and her knee held up well in the conditions. However, Suzi felt like she had not performed to the best of her ability. Suzi, well done, you took part and it doesn’t matter were you came. In the 12km Debbie Marriott ( hamstring ) and Don Cawthera ( collarbone ) ran around together both finishing in 1:21:20. Myself, Terry Bewes ( operation ) continue on my way back to fitness. The challenge this time was to test my head and legs and to run the whole of this challenging course on my own, without walking or stopping. Runners know that the first thing to go is your head which is usually trying to convince you that it has had enough! Thanks to the physio and massage theopy, Barbra Vidion, Yoga and Lauren Clapp Personal Training over the last six weeks, I did it, crossing the finish line in 1:28:38. Next up for me is the Dark Woods 6 mile race in the Quantocks this coming weekend, it has a hilly theme again…! Bring it on
Previous SRC Swimathon Record Smashed.
In the evening on the 5th of October, eight Sidmouth Running Club members took part in the 2019 Swimathon challenge. The intention was to smash the club’s previous years’ record number of lengths swum writes Hamish Spence.
The 2019 Swimathon was organised by the Sidmouth Rotary Club to raise funds for three worthwhile causes, Admiral Nurse, Sidmouth Lifeboat and the Gateway Homeless Action Group. It took place at the town’s swimming pool where the participating teams had 55 minutes in which to swim as many lengths as possible.
Team Mighty Green 2019 were ready for the challenge, with all eight team members prepped with the knowledge that we needed to complete a certain number of lengths in that time, or face the walk of shame on Wednesday night, along with the wroth of King Terry should we fail! …Sorry I’m getting carried away again.
We split up, with four team members at each end of the pool, all knowing that we didn’t want to let each other down and that it was to be heads down and go for it. At 20:00hrs the start whistle sounded and we were off. Fifty five minutes to beat the previous years tally of 149 laps. This was never going to be an easy target to match, never mind beat!
Jon Bull had the honour of doing the first length and absolutely flew down the pool in just 23 seconds! Susan Reeve took lap two and then Sam Ingram took over for the third and absolutely stormed along. Sarah Watkins impressed herself as she took just 22 seconds to complete her first lap. Next up was Jasmine Reeves and then myself (Hamish Spence). I counted each time my right hand plunged into the water and got to 15. I was out of breath so didn’t notice how fast Kate Johnson had taken off, but i was informed that she was like lightning. Kate handed over to Claire Ashby who attacked her first lap at high velocity and made this event look easy. We were relentless for the first half and pushed our way through an amazing 80 laps. Our diligent adjudicator Val Sharp, kept a very close watch on our team and occasionally let us know how many laps we had completed. This was an enormous boost to our team confidence, so a special thank you goes out to Val. The knowledge that we had completed so many came at exactly the right time as we were all beginning to feel the pain we were inflicting upon ourselves. Our response to this information however, was to give words of encouragement to each other. These positive words did the trick, I could see in the other team members, the determination to do this thing and to keep going. We kept up this crazy pace for the duration. Ten minutes to go and it was going to be down to the wire! Could we do it? With the last five minutes to go it was lap 147… 148 … and then we equalised with the 2018 MG team, lap 149 was done. Now the question was, how many laps could we extend the club record by? We continued, pushing ourselves as hard as we could and then the final whistle blew, it was done. The 2019 team had succeeded in its quest to trance previous attempts. We are very proud to have done 155 laps and really wish Team Leader Tony Velterop and next years team the best of luck.
The Newton Abbot Ladies 10k
Whilst driving to 22nd running of the Newton Abbot Ladies 10K, the weather warnings for heavy rain and strong winds came true with horizontal gusts of rain blowing across the road. However, as the 227 entrants gathered for the start the rain stopped, the sun came out and it stayed dry until after the prize giving two hours later writes Emma Grainger.
The event was organised by Teignbridge Trotters and the course was described as ‘undulating’ which is Devon-speak for hilly. But as we know, for every up there was a down. The course took the competitors through the pretty villages of Ogwell and Denbury, between fields, through woodlands and all on the roads. A print by local artist John Charles Skinner of a nearby view is given to each entrant at the end of the race, a unique memento with the print number being the finishing position. The event raises money for Bowel Cancer UK with £2 from each entry fee going to the charity. Over the years upwards of £32,000 has been raised.
As the only member of Sidmouth Running Club to enter this year I had the privilege of being both first and last of the Mighty Greens to finish. In fact my finishing time was 1h8m, which is nearly 3 minutes faster than last year. My thanks go to the recent 10K training given by SRC Head Coach, Tim Mitchell.
Bradley 10k
The Exmouth Bradley 10k
Prior to the storm on the Saturday night 634 competitors had entered themselves into The Exmouth Bradley 10k race. However, 137 cried off, leaving 497 to brave out the bluster and rain, 7 of which were weather-proof Mighty Greens. By the morning the weather had cleared a bit, with only a moderate breeze and light drizzle which passed by the start of the race. So the Magnificent 7 ran it in either a Mighty Green tee-shirt or vest.
This is a two lap race starting on the Exmouth Promenade which heads out along the sea front and onto part of the beach passing the RLNI all the way to the zig-zag steps. Then back to the Lifeboat station and up to Maer Rd and onto Douglas Avenue and back down to the seafront where the competitors turn and do one more lap.
The first MG across the finish line and in 191st place was Becky McDonald with a new PB of 54m:08s. Suzi Rocky is continuing to improve on her performance with a very steady run crossing the line in 58m:05s and taking 248th position. Having recently joined SRC, Jasmine Reeves ran her first race in the Mighty Green colours. She did herself and SRC proud. She came 266th and ran the route in a very respectable 58h:33m. Amelia Frankpitt used this race as her final warm up before the Exeter Half Marathon in two weeks’ time. She come in at 1h00m51s taking 298th place. Just after Amelia was Rachel Burrow, who ran a steady pace all the way around and got an impressive time of 1h01m38s in315th place.
Having participated in some off road trail races in September, this was the first road race Terry Bewes had entered. The Exmouth Bradley 10k was to test out how his recovery was going. All was going to plan for Terry. As he began the 2nd lap, he could see the lead runner entering the last hundred yards to the finish line. Undeterred he powered on along the sea front again, overtaking a few runners. Then, halfway around and going up the hill for the last time, he caught up with a lady and got talking to her. She too was recovering from an operation, so they decided to run the final mile together giving encouragement to each other. This really paid off, as they both passed many runners and stormed their way to the finish line. Terry had set his sights on an 11 minute-mile pace, so he was very pleased to find he had in-fact been achieving a better than 10min/mile. This defiantly shows that it pays to have a running buddy. Terry gained the 313th place in 01h01m35s. His next race will be the Minster Challenge which will test him further over a longer distance.
It was a busy few days for David Skinner ,who also took part in the Parkrun on Saturday. So, with the stormy conditions during this 10k event in Exmouth and the fact that he is still not fully recovered from a recent illness, it was never going to be easy for him. However, he still managed a time of 1h10m05s, just 6 minutes slower than last year. David was pleased with his performance having covered15k over the weekend and feels that he’s gradually getting back to his normal form.
Final off road run of the year.
After a great season of Off Road running, we found runners relaxing in the Kings Arms after the last Monday Off Road run. The whole club is very thankful to John and Ben for leading some spectacular runs! In this post we have added some photos of the first Road runs of the year.
Cheryl Flew The Swindon Half Marathon.
Back in 2017, The Swindon Half Marathon was given a brand new route. A predominately flat and fast course making it ideal for beginners and elites writes Cheryl Boulton.
I had lived in Swindon for 15 years and never entered the Swindon half marathon (due to the old route being so hilly). Now that I’ve lived in Devon for a while and conquered some proper hills, Peak Hill being one of them, I felt it was time to give Swindon a go. I then saw some recent reports on social media, which were suggesting that race directors were unable to make this event work financially and that his would be the last Swindon Half Marathon ever! That was it, the deciding factor, I entered immediately!
The event starts in the town centre of Swindon, with the new route passing various landmarks of the town, including the notorious Magic Roundabout, The County Ground, the Oasis, the Railways, the McArther Glenn Outlet Village as well as the Old Town before a downhill dash back into the Town Centre to finish line under the big screen of Wharf Green.
I started training on 4th August, with a 7 mile distance run once a week, increasing by a further mile every week with my last long run of 12 miles, being on the 8th of September.
Before the start, It was great to see so many runners from my previous running club, the Swindon Allstars. Even better was that one of them, Kim Tindskard Christensen, agreed to run with me throughout, but only after agreeing a target of 2:05-2:15. This would prove to be invaluable in helping me cross the line.
Within 2-3 minutes of setting off at 9.30am, heavy rain began to fall and continued for the duration of the run. Both of us were doing well achieving 6 miles in an hour until the 7.5 mile point where I stepped into a rain filled pot hole outside the Mc Arther Glenn shopping outlet. I twisted my left ankle, went flying and scraped my right arm on the ground as I slid. The pain was horrific but despite a Race Marshall calling for a medic, I managed to get up, wrap my handkerchief around my bleeding arm and continue with the remaining 5.5 miles. My friend was a great support carrying my water bottle, motivating me and encouraging me along (especially at mile 11 at Pipers way. Amazingly I finished in 2h:06m:17s. Resilience, perseverance, a friends encouragement and the wearing of a Mighty Green shirt got me round the remaining 5.5 miles. The question now is-will my ankle heal in time to run the Great West Run on 13th October?
Featured Image: Cheryl Boulton (left) with her friend and Swindon All Stars member Kim Tindskard Christensen after completing the Swindon half Marathon.
The mighty green Junior running club Is back.
The mighty green Junior running club started back this Sunday with 14, 8-14 year olds taking part, 7 were boys and 7 were girls. This time, there were children from Tipton, Ottery St Mary as well as Sidmouth. writes Kerry Boyle.
With the weather not so predictable this time of year, we all started in the Sidmouth College Gymnasium with a warm up, dynamic stretching and some running games looking at form, particularly their running arms.
We have been very lucky to recruit some more volunteers from the club to help take the groups so Claire Ashby (Assistant Couch) and Tim Dafforn (Leader in running fitness), took the older group out (12-14 year olds) who did a steady run followed by some endurance training. There were 8 youngsters who stayed in the gym with Kerry Boyle (Athletics Coach) and Jenny Jepperson (Leader in running fitness) they looked at learning how to jump as far as they could measuring their distance with a standing jump and seeing how many times the could do the speed bounce in 20 secs, they went on to learning how to do the pull throw which is the technique required to throw a javelin by using bean bags and howlers. Finishing off the session with a relay, warm down and stretches. Everyone had a great time.
The course runs for 5 weeks finishing on the 20th of October, but will return after half term on the 10th November. With more volunteers we have been able to increase the number of the groups so there are spaces still available for this course, please either visit the running club website: Sidmouth Running Club – Eat, Sleep, Run, Repeat or email the coaches on juniors@