Otter Rail & River Run: Report

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Otter Rail and River Run: Report

A record number of 24 SIDMOUTH Running Club members turned out in force to support the 10th 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.

In the 1.5 mile fun run, first Club runner home was young Alecia Ranson running for the first time in Club colours followed some way behind by her mother Janice. Further back were two members of the 2016 beginners group Sarah Powell and XinHui Yeo running their first race and doing the Club proud.

10k results. Naomi Garrick 48:30, Alan Colwill 51:07, Simon Hollyer 53:42, Ellen Keast 54:18, Jon Ball 57:05, Terry Bewes 58:17, Sue Collman 58:20, Becky Robson 58:21, Helen Palmer 58:23, Bruce Odlin 59:14, Richard Hedger 1:00:41,
Amelia Frankpitt 1:04:24, Diane Collett 1:07:20, Jennifer Bentley 1:08:19, Ruth Chesters 1:12:35, Sue Cunningham 1:12:38, Caroline Ball 1:12:46, Lesley Miszewska 1:12:46, Rebecca Colwill 1:16:17.

The Club had two first age group winners, F45 Naomi Garrick and F70 Sue Cunningham. There were a 196 finishers in the 10K.
Thanks goes to David Wright who ran the course before the race started to check all was in order, but he declined the offer to go around one more time.

The Woodland Relays

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The Woodland Relays

We entered two ladies teams in the Woodland Relay Series of races last Wednesday evening at Escot Park.

The event organised by Honiton Running Club attracted 47 teams in total. Teams of three were divided into all male, all female, mixed and juniors.
Each member runs the same 1.6 mile circuit with a hill climb towards the end but that gave a nice downhill sprint to the changeover and finish.

I have learnt that at the start our two captains were so engrossed in discussing tactics (or that was what I was told) that the rest of the field had set off before they realised it. However all members enjoyed the evening and the Mighty Green was worn and the Club was shown supporting another event.

Final results have not yet been published but it is highly unlikely that we will be in the top three unless there are a mass of disqualifications, but one thing for sure as you can see from the photo we had the two most glamorous teams. Well done Ladies.

Individual Times:

SIDMOUTH Smiles
Becky Robson 14:36, Jo Earlam 13:50, Sue Collman 13:55. Total 42:21

SIDMOUTH Green Goddesses
Helen Palmer14:46, Jennifer Bentley 15:41, Suzi Rocky 14:15 Total 44:42

Bowood House Triathlon

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Bowood House Sprint Triathlon.

It was a lovely romantic gesture from Ian Robson to his wife Becky, both members of SIDMOUTH Running Club, saying he would be taking her out to the beautiful Bowood House in Calne, Wiltshire for the day.

What he had forgotten to tell her until the last minute was that he had entered both of them into the Event Logic Sprint distance Triathlon taking place there for the fourth year.

The Sprint comprises a 750 metre lake swim, followed by a mile uphill run to the transition area where competitors race to climb out of their wetsuits onto their bikes. The 21k fast bike ride around the estate begins with a few technical corners and hill climbs to enjoy before the descent on each lap. Returning to the transition area once again the competitors change into running shoes for the 5K hilly but scenic run around the stunning gardens and waterfalls.

Ian and Becky have been competing here since the event started in 2013 and have watched it grow over the years. Both were competing in the 45-50 age group. There are quite a few rules within the sport with a penalty of disqualification if you forget them so it keeps you focused.

Becky who had not been doing a lot of triathlon training lately had a storming event and a big surprise when it was announced that she had come first in her age group with split times of swim, 00:15:40, bike, 00:48:22, Run, 00:28:13 with T1 & T2 a combined time 0f 1:38:50.

Ian held his own coming 8th in the age group with splits times of swim, 00:15:36, bike, 00:40:40, run, 00:27:05 with T1 & T2 a combined time of 1:29:27.

Becky is hoping that their next day out together will not be so energetic.

Erme Valley Relays

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Sidmouth Running Club take Bronze at prestigious Erme Valley Relays.

Sidmouth RC sent the ‘A Team’ down to Ivybridge on Friday night to take part in the Erme Valley Relays. Established in 2003, this event has become a ‘must do’ race for the region’s premier running clubs. This year a record 127 teams entered from across Devon and East Cornwall.

Based at Ivybridge Rugby Club, the 2.5 mile route takes you along Devon lanes and including two grim climbs – “short and nasty” is how we would describe the course.

Young whippet Jason Drew kicked things off for Sidmouth and it was no surprise to see him arrive back at base in the top three positions. Next off was old man of the team, Justin Ashby. Justin prefers the longer distances but he managed to keep the team in 4th place with a strong run. Mat Szala flew out of the blocks and his superb run moved the team back into 3rd place.

In the car on the way down we agreed Jason would also take the anchor leg (well, actually, Mat and Justin begged him to do so) and to his great credit he ran only marginally slower than his first leg to keep us in 3rd place ahead of Plymouth Harriers, no less.

This was Sidmouth’s best ever position in the event. The team’s combined time of 53:58 seconds was phenomenal for what is effectively a hilly 10 mile road race, and just over a minute behind 1st place Exmouth Harriers.

Full marks to Jason who put in the 3rd fastest leg of the night – out of 508. Jason is quickly becoming one of the region’s top runners. Also to Mat Szala who did the event as a warm-up for his half-ironman two days later!

Our thanks to Erme Valley Harriers for hosting another great event.

Blackdown Beauty 2016

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The Blackdown Beauty

 

Wearing the ‘Mighty Green’ seven 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 the first mile of this run was through a sea of mud.

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, Monica Read, Abbi Lee and Terry Bewes were joined by new ‘Beauties’ Jo Earlam, Jane Hemsworth, and David Wright.

This is a lovely run through the beautiful Blackdown Hills taking in a mixture of lanes, trails, fields, climbing over a variety of crooked styles of which there were plenty and road, not forgetting the four pub stops on the way round.

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.

At the finish you are encouraged up the last field to the sound of Chariots of Fire blasted out by DJ Howard Bidmead chairman of Honiton Running Club who organised this excellent event, and to make sure you do not go home hungry they even have a bar-b-que 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, raising over a £1000 for Macmillan.

Meanwhile making a very impressive return to the racing circuit was Suzi Rocky. After her last race in which she set a PB she suffered an awful hamstring tear which put her out for quite a while. However her recovery now seems complete as taking part in the Women’s Running Magazine 5K run in Exeter she came home in first place. Welcome back.