Gloucester 1/2M

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First Lady, Kirsteen Welch
Kirsteen Welch took part in The Gloucester Half Marathon on Sunday the 20th of January. This was only the second half marathon that Kirsteen has taken part in, so she was very happy with her performance, especially with her time of 1h:24m:18s giving her a personal best by over three minutes. The first half of the race Kirsteen was ahead and keeping pace with a small group of men, then the lady who came 2nd over all, over took at around mile six! Digging in really deep, Kirsteen managed to keep up with her over the next five miles. Leaving it to the last two miles Kirsteen kicked it up a gear and overtook her. Not only that, she overtook the small group of men and kept the sprint going. She didn’t look back, just kept up the fast pace, all the way to the finish line. With a great trophy awarded for crossing the line as the first lady, she feels inspired to get her half marathon time to the sub 80 minutes and feels that her training is really paying off. Keep it up Kirsteen.

Plym Trail Marathon

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Back To The Plym Trail For Jane Hemsworth
Jane Hemsworth revisited the Plym Trail Marathon at Clearbrook on Sunday the 20th of January. The winter race is one of the 4 seasons events all of which start at Clearbrook, near Yelverton. The route continues south towards Plymouth along the old railway line, now the Cycle Route 27. It is downhill all the way out, with the turnaround point being Coypool. It is uphill all the way back and the competitors do two laps.
With perfect weather conditions for her first marathon of 2019 and the fact that she was the only Mighty Green, she decided to set her pace quite high. With no one to chat too, she completed it in 4h:21m:38s which qualifies her to enter London Marathon as Good for age category for next year.

Park Runners

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Park Run Group
 
Twelve SRC members met at Seaton on Saturday to run the club’s first group park run. A cool morning with great conditions for running. The usual warm friendly atmosphere from the Seaton volunteers and participants with 224 taking part in total. The Sidmouth contingent were lead by Chris Day-Kerry on a PB with Stuart Coles, Sally de Gruchy and Beccy Johnson on their first park runs and all doing really well. Special mention to Beccy who has just started with the beginners group and ran it in 35:19. 

Sunday Runners

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Sunday Training Group
Led by Helen Palmer, the Sunday social training group met at the Stantyway Farm. The group of thirteen headed straight for the Jurassic Coastal path to enjoy the views and get to grips with the undulating, but very scenic route, all the way to the mouth of the River Otter. Here, the group followed the river up to Otterton, then through the village and on up to the Honesty Cafe where tea and cakes were devoured.

Oh My Obelisk

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Oh My Obelisk
Jessica Raynor and Sarah Watkins ran at the Oh My Obelisk race on Sunday the 13th of January. This multi-terrain event is organised by The Dawlish Coasters and promises mud and hills with fields, woodland tracks, some country lanes and good views. It started and finished at the Dawlish Leisure Centre with the competitors setting off at 10:30. The ground was fairly dry for the most part, with some blue skies and light winds, giving very good running conditions.
Jessica took on the half marathon distance, completing it in 1h:43m and Sarah did the 9 mile race in 1h:35. Both ladies enjoyed the route saying it was very hilly and hard, good but challenging fun.

 

Beginners/Improvers

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The Start Of The Beginners And Improvers Courses
 On Wednesday night (9th January), Sidmouth Running Club welcomed in, a whopping 55 new members with 42 joining the beginners group and 13 joining the improvers group. An inspiring  speech was given by Chairman Terry Bewes in-which he spoke words of wisdom (something of which he has much), along with words of encouragement (something of which he has even more). There was a brief guide as to what to expect from the club and then group photos were taken.
  The Beginners group was led by Colin Flood and Claire Ashby with assistance from (myself) Hamish Spence. The group set off along the seafront, fast walking the distance of the first two lamp posts and then jogging the distance of the next two. This was repeated all the way to the Manor Road car park. In the car park the group was introduced to an official warm up session and then off again, run walking through the town via the cinema and the Toll House back to Port Royal. Run leader Colin introduced the concept of looping back and this group really took to it. Once all were back the group did three different static stretches.
   Leading the Improvers group was Head Coach Tim Mitchell with Paul Mitchell. Tim started with a brief about running, how to get back into it and what to be careful about. He explained that the aim of this course, was to help those returning to this sport to get back into a regular run and for all to progress with their running abilities. After the brief the group had a steady run along the sea front, into Manor Road, then up the Bickwell Valley, down Knowle Drive and back to the club.

SW X-Country

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Three MG’s Stormed The SWXC Championships
 
Kirsteen Welch, Kate Marriott and Toby Garrick competed in the South West X Country Championships near Yeovil on Sunday the 6th of January.
Kirsteen Welch had a fantastic race running at an average pace of 6.05 minute miles. She took this championship by the scruff and went for it, gaining a podium finish on two accounts. She was the third (bronze) senior woman and first Devon lady (gold for the county). Watch this space as she will be heading for the Nationals very soon.
Wearing his MG shirt and running with the Devon team was Toby Garrick. The conditions were good underfoot for the 5.6 mile route, however there were some deceptively steep hills. Toby did very well coming 21st out of 165 (which included senior men) and in 6th position in the U20. Toby has been training very hard, so he was happy with his performance (averaging a 5.38 min/mile). Also he was thrilled to be on the podium with the Devon team, which came 2nd overall. He is now looking forward to taking part in the nationals again.
 Kate Marriott who took part with the Devon team came in 49th over all and will also be taking part in the nationals.

4 Trigs Training

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Sunday Four Trigs Training
A group of thirteen and one dog met at the Rugby Club on Sunday for a social Four Trigs training session. The group did a warm up run down The Byes to Beatlands Road. This is where the hard work started, with the long climb up the Coastal path, but the views are worth the effort. The group found their way to Weston Trig and then Buckton Hill trig point, stopping briefly to catch their breath. All that was left was the short hill down to the Rugby Club along the country lanes. 

David collects “U”

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David Collects His “U”
David Skinner has now added a “U” to his Park run Alphabet at Upton House, Poole. With only 7 letters to go he is getting very close to achieving his target. However, the letters X and Z do not exist in the UK park run list, so perhaps a trip abroad is on the horizon? Well done David, keep it up.