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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The Blackdown Beauty

Ten members of Sidmouth Running Club headed off to the Blackdown Hills to run the Blackdown Beauty. This is the sister run of the Blackdown Beast which is run over a different course in January when runners battle wet lanes, boggy fields and indeed a bog. Runners could be forgiven for thinking they had entered the wrong race as there was plenty of all of this despite the recent dry weather. Massive size pigs, horses, sheep, cows and a bull were all encountered along the way just to keep it interesting

The run itself is billed as a social run as there are no numbers and no times, only the challenge of completing this 18/19 mile self-navigation course. With the current excellent growing conditions the nettles were chest height, the undergrowth so thick and the corn so high that at times we lost sight of our shortest runner Abbi.

The start is at Priors Park Farm, Culmhead and the seasoned ‘Beast Runners’ Helen Palmer, Abbi Lee, Terry Bewes, Jo Earlam, Jane Hemsworth, and David Wright were joined by new ‘Beauties’ Danny Painter, Sue Collman and Charlotte and Jim Forrer.

This is a lovely run through the beautiful Blackdown Hills taking in a mixture of lanes, trails, fields, bogs, woods, climbing over a variety of crooked styles of which there were plenty and road, not forgetting the three pub stops on the way round this year as the Merry Harriers had burnt down earlier in the year and was replaced by a water stop.

There is another reason that runners return year on year and that is for the legendary cream tea laid on by the ladies of the Smeatharpe WI at Peartree Cottage, Stapley. There were huge scones, mountains of clotted cream and lots of jams plus endless pots of tea and a beautiful garden in which to enjoy it, the only snag is that there is still six miles to run afterwards.

9 Scones and cream

For Helen Palmer this was the last of the six long runs she had set herself to complete this year. The Four Trigs 17 miles, The Grizzly 20 miles, Exe to Axe 22 miles, Blackdown Beast 17 miles, Women Can Marathon 26 miles and now the Beauty 18 miles. Congratulations Helen, what next?

Danny Painter experienced a social run for the first time. Normally Danny can be seen disappearing over the horizon on a ultra-marathon at pace but owing to a hamstring injury he wanted to test his recovery with a long easy paced run so this was just the ticket for him and his map reading skills were a bonus for us as we did not get lost this time.

10 Danny and the scones

This was Jim’s first run with the club having been persuaded to join by wife Charlotte and their first social run. Competitive athletes find it hard to run socially and so it was with these two as by the time the rest of us got to the bottom of the first field they were gone, although it may have been down to some naughty person telling them that there were only enough cream teas for the first hundred runners!! They also found out that on this type of run it does not pay to be at the front battling through the shoulder high stinging nettles as they found out by the state of their legs at the finish, much better to be

2 Charlie and Jim

further back and let others flatten them for you.

Then there was our youngest team member Abbi. My preparation for the race was to hydrate on water the day before, pasta for dinner, bed at 10pm and porridge for breakfast. Abbi, burgers on the BBQ, washed down with numerous pints of cider, followed by stargazing in the Byes on the way home and bed at 2am. In the car in the morning complete with hangover she did not look well. 18 miles later she is as bright as a button and I am looking like she did at the start. It is always a pleasure to run with Abbi as the photos show her smile gets bigger and bigger the further we run and she does all this with very little distance training.

At the finish you are normally encouraged up the last field to the sound of Chariots of Fire blasted out by DJ Howard Bidmead chair of Honiton Running Club who organised this excellent event but this year he had taken a holiday. To make sure you do not go home hungry they even have a BBQ set up in a barn with plenty of food and drink on offer, hay bales on which to relax and enjoy it and all in the name of charity, this year raising over £1000 for Macmillan.

Exeter Inflatable 5k

Last Sunday Suzi Rockey put on her Sidmouth Running Club Mighty Green shirt and headed off to Westpoint to take on the ultimate 5k challenge. This consists of a 5k course around Westpoint which is packed with some of the largest and most extreme Inflatab 10 gigantic inflatable obstacles. The participants are set off in groups with the intention of getting around the course and overcoming their various fears on the way.

The Otter Rail and River Run

Eighteen SIDMOUTH Running Club members turned out to support the 11^th year of the Otter Rail and River Run. Race organiser Jo Earlam and the Tipton Playing Field Association pulled out all the stops to put on an extremely enjoyable event.

The race starts in the playing field before crossing the road and then following the path beside the river heading towards Newton Poppleford. It then crosses the river to Harpford and into Harpford woods to the old railway bridge. At this point you climb the steps and follow the old railway track back to Tipton then onto Sargent Mill over the bridge and head off towards Fluxton, along a lane heading back towards Tipton, across a field and bridge to enter the top of the playing field and sprint to the finish. It is an undulating off-road run with plenty of challenges to overcome.

David and Sue

The club members excelled themselves this year with nine prize winners.F45 1^st Naomi Garrick, M70 1^st David Millen, F55 1^st Christine Farnham, F65 2^nd Gail Goldsmith, M60 2^nd Jon Ball, 3^rd Tim Swarbrick, M65 3^rd John Sharples, M50 3^rd Graham Hill, Senior men 3^rd Theo Burgess.

10k results. Graham Hill 9^th overall 41:22, Theo Burgess 11^th overall 42:11, Naomi Garrick 53:15, Christine Farnham 55:57, Karen Farnham 56:38, Jon Ball 56:43, Tim Swarbrick 56:57, David Millen 58:11, John Sharples 59:03, Dave Wright 1:02:00, Debbie Marriott 1:02:26, Don Cawthera 1:02:27, Gail Goldsmith 1:04:14, Milly Frankpitt 1:05:49, Richard Hedger 1:06:25, Tony Velterop 1:06:43, Jenny Bentley 1:08:25, Sue Cunningham 1:18:34.

There were 184 finishers

The Woodland Relays

It was hard to believe that two consecutive Wednesday evening running on Woodbury Common could be so extremely different weather wise. The first from Woodbury Castle was a Sidmouth club run on the hottest day of the year and the second on East Budleigh Common was the Woodland Relays in what can only be described as monsoon conditions.

The Woodland Relays are a series of races between East Devon clubs with each taking it in turn to organise a venue of their choice. This was the 23^rd race extremely well organised by Exmouth Harriers in the Wheathill Plantation over a proper cross country course in horrendous conditions.

Between them the N1 Tri Club, Sidmouth, Axe Valley, Honiton, Exmouth, the Met Office and Clyst Hydon entered 21 senior teams and 10 junior. Teams of three are divided into all male, all female, mixed and juniors with each member running the same 4k circuit. With the rain lashing down the whole time, running fast became more difficult for those running the second and third legs as the course rapidly became a quagmire.

Sidmouth Running club had five teams entered, two experienced and three first timers all with the exception of Deb Marriott joining the club in January.

The Sidmouth Green Army comprising Justin Ashby 16:24, Antony Hall 17:30 and Ben Chesters 16:42 did an excellent job finishing second overall just being pipped by the young bucks from N1 Tri.

The Sidmouth Ladies no. 1 team Kerry Boyle 20:29, Charlotte Forrer 21:18 and Els Laurays were the third ladies team to finish.

The ladies V45 team Karen Farnham 24:14, Deb Marriott 24:07 and Christine Farnham 24:51, the mixed team Christie Ward 30:06, Paul Wright 24:35 and John Sharples 24:47 and the ladies no. 2 team Jenni Yeoman 29:53, Laura Philips 27:20 and Julia Haddrell 32:42 all had their first experience of what life is like for a hippopotamus – wet and muddy.

However they all enjoyed the evening, supported each other, said it was one they would never forget and the Mighty Green was worn and the Club shown supporting another event. Well done to you all.