Let The Races Commence – Escot
Not one but two events were ‘running’ last Saturday and Sidmouth Running Club members were in attendance for both.
A smattering of Mighty Greens were amongst the 805 runners who took part in the Tough Runner Exeter Epic 10K race at Escot on Saturday April 17th. MG, Derek Blackburn said, “On a beautifully sunny morning, the undulating course around the Escot estate attracted runners from across the South West. Social distancing was maintained by staggering the start times, so runners ran in waves, starting at 10.00am, with runners crossing the start line in pairs. Once out on the course, there was plenty of room to allow a good distance to be maintained from other athletes. It was a fantastic atmosphere, and most athletes seemed delighted to have the opportunity to be running in an event again.”
For Niall Hawkins, not only was it his first run as a Mighty Green, it was his first trail run and he came in 40th overall, 5th in his age category (40-49) in 44.22 minutes and congratulations go to Kate Marriott who came in first place in the junior female category with a time of 48.23 minutes.
Mighty Greens at Escot
Results
Niall Hawkins – 40th overall, 5th in M40-49 category – 44:22
Kate Marriott – 105, 1st in Junior Female – 48:23
Don Cawthera – 321, 3rd in M60+ category – 56:24
Deb Marriott – 418, 13th in M50-59 category – 59:06
Derek Blackburn – 431, 6th in M60+ category – 59:49
There was a great sense of achievement for Team ‘Sidbury School Run’ who thoroughly enjoyed their 10k debut at Escot. The England Athletic Run Together group was formed by Charlotte Forrer, a run leader at Sidmouth Running Club, to specifically meet the needs of parents of children at Sidbury Primary School. They meet straight after the morning school run, and a group of parents have been training since September 2020. Some of these parents had very little running experience and were just looking to increase their fitness. By mixing up the running with strength and conditioning exercises such as squats and lunges the groups’ fitness increased. They moved from short road runs to longer trail runs and over lockdown Charlotte organised socially distanced sessions and printed fitness plans for paired runs.
With confidence growing they signed up to run the 10km Exeter Epic Trail Run and dedicated themselves to train for it, even through the long lockdown winter. On Saturday, six members of the group went with Charlotte to Escot House to complete the 10km run. Charlotte said,”It was a gorgeous sunny day and the race day atmosphere was very exciting. We all learnt a lot about how to run a trail race: running through puddles to overtake, making the most of a downhill, finding people to pace yourself against and choosing when to sprint for the finish line.”
Mighty Green congratulations to Johanna Mitchell, Nicole Bates, Nicola Meek and Lucy Ingram who completed the course in just over an hour.
Results
Charlotte Forrer 52:47
Johanna Mitchell 1:01:05
Nicole Bates 1:02:10
Nicola Meek 1:07:31
Katie Harris 1:07:59
Lucy Ingram 1:08:14
Ruth Dale 1:11:39