Sidmouth runners have been out participating in a range of shorter, but nonetheless challenging events recently. 6 members of the Sidmouth Running Club took part in the Sidbury fun run on 10^th September. Part of the Sidbury Fair week the course offered a 5.8k run for adults and 2.4k for children followed by a hog roast and prizes. Located in the parkland of Sidbury manor the first half of the course was steep and uphill and more ‘run’ than ‘fun’ according to Nigel Maeer, who completed the run in around 30 minutes. Paula Farrand ran a cracking race, and won the prize for the first lady. Paula’s daughter Amelie demonstrated her skills on the junior course and other club members including Tim Swarbrick, Bert Dykema and Bill Valentine all showed the Mighty Green in action on local tracks.

Away from the valley, two SRC runners also competed in 5k races. Ellie Keast was 3^rd lady home in her local Park Run and in Exeter Lara Millmow joined over 1,100 runners for the 18th Michelmores 5k Charity Run on 7 September. The aim of this annual event is to support Michelmores’ Charity of the Year which this year is Balloons, a local charity that supports bereaved children and their families in Exeter and the surrounding area.

Lara at the Michelmores 5k

The runners were ‘treated’ to a warm-up by a Royal Marines Physical Training Instructor at the Race Village on Cathedral Green before setting off in waves based on expected finish times, to ensure that every runner could complete the run at the perfect individual pace. Spirits were up even the rain was coming down, which luckily stopped just before the first wave set off, helping to cool the runners. The run ended on a high note with cheers, sunshine and prizes at the finish line.

This was the second 5k for Lara Millmow of Sidmouth Running Club, who only started running in January. “My aim for the 5k was to help raise funds for this worthy cause and also to complete the run without stopping, which I achieved. I’m proud of my result and couldn’t have done it without the encouragement and support of the club.”

City to Sea Marathon

Following a scorching bank holiday, two Sidmouth runners braved driving rain, headwinds and slippery paths for the challenging City to Sea Marathon the following weekend. The 26.6 mile run from Exeter Riverside to Babbacombe Downs in Torquay covers riverside paths, country lanes, woodlands, stunning cliff tops beaches and harbours, saving its worst climbs for the last 6miles.

The first half, from Exeter to Dawlish Warren is entirely flat, easy going along the estuary cycle path, but after Shaldon, the route becomes a roller-coaster – the hills a series of switch-backs, no sooner up than plunging down again. Sidmouth runners Jo Earlam and Jim Forrer represent the full range of experience – for Jo this was her 54th marathon, and it was Jim’s first.

Jo, who completed the race last year said ‘In one mile I counted six huge climbs and drops. Because I knew what awaited en route to Babbacombe I was mentally prepared, ticking each one off with a steely determination. Each time I saw someone up ahead I tried to push on to catch up with them, that way I passed several people, and no one passed me. I slowed down, to around 17 minute miling, but that was a lot better than last year, when these six miles took me over 2 hours’.

Jim ran a different race admitting that he hadn’t initially realised quite how pointy the elevation graph was towards the end. Having taken advice he set his target time at 5 hours, and put in the training over the summer, fitting around family holidays.

Of his first marathon he said ‘Of course I set out far too fast, happening to be in a group near the front. I figured a positive split on this course was inevitable though and embraced it. After doing a 54min 10km at threshold heart rate I soon found myself going slower and slower until the number of people passing me made it feel like I was going backwards; this was a distinct low point’.

However, runners were well looked after in the event and Jim soon rallied, enjoying the flapjacks and coffee at the 20km checkpoint and the coke, potato wedges and chocolate at 32km.

‘The long coastal wall stretches felt a little treacherous but provided an epic atmosphere watching the crashing waves and the cloud-covered hills to come’ said Jim. ‘The deluge was face-stinging for the final 10k but I had run it in training and knew what was coming.  Despite being tired and wobbly a bit of runner’s high kicked in and I started taking back some of the placings I’d lost earlier. By this point though the five hour mark was out of reach although I didn’t mind at all’.

Both runners enjoyed the rewards at the finish (including Fish and chips for Jim!) and paid tribute to the beautiful route and dedicated marshalls.

Very pleasing results for both runners saw Jim complete in 5 hours 7 minutes and 26th place out of 247, with Jo completing in under 5 hours 30 minutes and 42nd position, an improvement of nearly 40 places on last year.

Jurassic 10k and Lustleigh 10k

Six members of Sidmouth Running Club braved the scorching Bank Holiday weekend sun to compete in a couple of tough off road events. On Saturday Polly Walton and Tim Swarbrick had great runs in the 10th Jurassic Coast 10k, both finishing inside the hour despite the heat and a hilly course.

Starting at Budleigh the course follows the coastal path to Ladram, then along the River Otter and ending up back at the start with a dip in the Big Blue for Polly after she finished. Polly and Tim did not know each other as Tim has only recently joined the club and Polly has been recovering from injury. To confuse things even more, competitors were asked to wear the charity’s red vest so it was a mighty coincidence that they finished within one second of each other. Polly 56:59 and Tim 57:00.
There were 290 finishers.

Further inland at the Lustleigh Show 10k race on Monday the Mighty Green team made another appearance. The challenging multi terrain course took runners along hilly lanes, muddy tracks, beautiful woodland and across the river Bovey (where one competitor was spotted submerged to escape the heat) before spitting them out into the village show field and the cheers of the supporters. The Lustleigh Show is the quintessential English village show with competitions ranging from ‘the best three carrots’, to hay bale throwing, to ‘the dog with the waggiest tail’ all accompanied by a jazz band and copious quantities of local food and drink.

The Sidmouth contingent were in preseason training and put in good times to achieve 4th Lady (Ellie Keast), 5th Ladies team (Ellie Keast, Cathy Keast and Monica Read) and good maintenance times from Dave Wright and Chris Robinson who was completing the race for the 13th year in a row an. Big Jim Pyne and son Sam were last seen at the front of the field cheered on by Sidmouth supporters who whilst not fit to run managed to cycle up to the moorland village to cheer the runners in.

SIDMOUTH RUNNING CLUB

It has been a very diverse week for the Mighty Green runners from SIDMOUTH running Club with an outstanding half marathon time with a personal best to charity runs, obstacle runs and getting covered in paint.

The outstanding runner of the week would have to be Theo Burgess who has only recently come back running with the club following a bout of injury problems. Theo travelled up to London to enter the RunThrough Richmond Park half marathon. Gathering at the start, amongst the other runners he met Lorraine McNulty a former club member who now lives away.

This was the first time that the RunThrough organisation had organised a race in the incredible Richmond Park in 2017 and it was a sell-out. Theo said “It was very interesting running through a park with herds of deer instead of fields of sheep and cows as I do around Sidmouth”. It is a four lap race on the paths around the park and comes with chip timing on each lap so you can track how well you paced yourself. Theo’s lap times were remarkable 22:05, 22:06, 22:58, and 21:51 giving him 7^th place overall out of 385 finishers and 3^rd in his age group. And the icing on the cake was knocking 5 seconds off his personal best time to finish in 1:28:59. Theo you did the club proud.

It is now seven months since American mother and daughter Lara and Yasmin Millmow took up running and joined the club. Now they set off to Exeter to complete their first 5k and for such a good cause: to raise money for cancer research. It may have been overcast, but the hundreds of pink shirts shone brightly during the Race for Life at Westpoint. The course was a mixture of grass and tarmac and everyone went at their own pace, whether running, jogging or walking.

They mostly ran with a few periods of walking to experience the atmosphere ultimately finishing in 34:29. In American speak “not too shabby for a Sunday morning, considering” Pink was definitely the colour of the day, as by the end of the race Lara’s face was the same colour as her shirt. Having now set a baseline time, they are looking forward to signing up for their next 5k in the autumn, this time in their Mighty Green. Final word from Lara” It felt good completing the course, and doing our bit to help beat cancer”. Well done ladies good job!

On the not so serious side Bethany Wells and her friend Katy Lanson headed off to Exeter Racecourse for the ‘Colour Obstacle Rush’ this is marketed as ‘the most fun running event ever’. It is a unique event combining the fun of the colour powered runs with the thrill of an obstacle course and the atmosphere of a music festival. Although this is a 5k ‘running event’ you don’t have to run if you don’t feel like it. In fact usually there are as many people walking or dancing through the course as running. There are 20 obstacles, 8 colour stations, 20 music zones and a chill-out area after the finish with loads of ice cream to eat as you recover. Covered from head to toe in paint Beth said “this was the most fun running event ever”.

And now back to the serious stuff, Rob Edwards and Adrian Clode headed to Exeter for a flat 10k. This is one of the City Runs and takes place along the river. Starting from the quay, it is a 2 lap, traffic free, pancake flat run on the footpaths and cycle tracks around the river Exe and Exeter Canal. Adrian finished in 47:13 and Rob in 49:06 which gave him a 2^nd place in the 65+ category. There were 378 finishers.

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