Author Archives: sidmouthsrc

Club Awards

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Sidmouth Running Club Covid Friendly Trophy Night

The committee of Sidmouth Running Club are a determined bunch. Their AGM was due in March with the first lock down looming, so they held it in the open air at Manor Road car park. Secretary Jo Earlam did a great job taking the minutes in strange circumstances.

However, trophy night proved harder to arrange due to Covid restrictions on group club activities and despite a few attempts they were foiled at every occasion until chairman Terry Bewes and head coach Kyle Baker came up with a plan.

For the first time in the club’s history Terry will be presenting the trophies individually with Kyle taking a photo which will inserted into a video presentation narrated by Terry and compiled by Kyle Baker Videography.The video will be available for all members to view.

Amelia Frankpitt

Two awards have been presented so far, Amelia Frankpitt won the wooden spoon for turning up to run the Ottery 10km one week early, only later to discover that she had also entered the Beer Blazer the following week as well.

John Chesters

John Chesters won the Chairs Award for all the time he puts into organizing and leading the weekly off road runs throughout the year, sometimes three a week. Such is his knowledge of the tracks and trails around our AONB that we never run the same route twice.

Photos by Kyle Baker Photography of Amelia Frankpitt with the wooden spoon and John Chesters with the Chairman’s Award.

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Off-road running is back

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Off Road Running Back On the Calendar

The first of the Sidmouth Running Club winter weekend off road runs led by John, Ruth and Ben Chesters took place on East Hill last Sunday.
Ben led the faster runners over 6 miles while John led the rest over a 5 mile course. It was a beautiful sunny morning with views of the Blackdown Hills and Exmoor behind.
John is into his weather forecasting and decides each week whether we run on a Saturday or Sunday or if it is really dire we all stay in bed.

Sunday Runners

The club is currently mustering support amongst its members to enter the Virtual Grand Western Canal 10km run for which there is a trophy for the club with the most participants. The Mighty Greens are currently lying in second position but looking for a sprint finish!

Lockdown#2 Challenges

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SRC Lockdown#2 Challenges Completed

Pick and Mix was the title of week 3’s challenge 2. The runners had to choose 3 runs from a selection of 9 off and on road routes to complete before midnight on Sunday 30th November.

Nineteen members completed the 3 week challenge and qualified for an award which saw some impressive time management and dedication to fit the runs in. Kerry Boyle incorporated the school run, Leanne Thomson had to juggle around her shifts meaning she ran two of the challenges in one day, husbands and dogs were thoroughly exercised and torches had to be used. As Tash Morgan eloquently said, “Thanks Terry for getting me off my bum and getting me out there to enjoying our beautiful valley. I’ve really enjoyed doing the lockdown challenges.”

Ross Walton and Gail Goldsmith Take Gold

Ross Walton

There were some outstanding hill climbs in challenge 1 by both gents and ladies, but the most outstanding was Ross Walton, the men’s gold winner, who succeeded in not only reaching the summit of Everest but surpassed it, 30,247 feet climbed over the last 3 weeks, 22 hours 12 minutes of running, 143.54 mile run at an average pace of 9:21 minute miles. An absolutely fantastic achievement.

Hamish Spence

Hamish Spence took silver despite an injury in week 2 with a total of 14,942 feet climbed. He said, “It was a great challenge to take on and I have thoroughly enjoyed the banter and camaraderie amongst other SRC MG’s, thank you Terry for organising.”

In bronze position having climbed 14,631 feet Shaun Tipton added, “Thank you Mr Bewes for the idea, implementation and encouragement, every minute thoroughly enjoyed-well almost!”

Rocker Shepperd

Rocker Shepperd who filled any spare hour in the final week to get out and run some hills climbed 13,211 feet, with Adrian ‘Gripper’ Horne, Allan Kay and Derek Blackburn, reaching towards 10,000 feet. All of them appreciated the motivation and awesome efforts of everyone who took part.

Gail Goldsmith took the gold position for the ladies having climbed 15,242 feet over the last 3 weeks.

Kerry Salter’s incredible final 9.32 mile run with 2,310 feet of climb saw her firmly in silver position with a total of 9,781 feet climbed. Kerry said, “I am glad not to have to run up Griggs Lane again any time soon!”

Taking bronze position with 7,529 feet climbed, Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker were relieved to have completed the challenge and exceed 1,000 feet on their last run.

Jo Earlam (5,419ft) and Bex McDonald (3,459ft) had also enjoyed completing the hill challenge too.

Chairman Terry Bewes summed up saying, “To everyone that took part in the Lockdown #2 challenges I thank you for your support; you all seemed to enjoy it with a bit of competitiveness going on here and there. It is the involvement of members that make it all worthwhile, thank you for your support.”

Bring on the next challenge!

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Granddad & Grandson 1/2M

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Grandad and Grandson Duo Complete Exe Estuary Virtual Half Marathon

As well as setting the lock down challenges, Sidmouth Running Club chairman Terry Bewes has been completing them himself using them as training towards the Exe Estuary Virtual Half Marathon which he ran last week. When Terry entered the race back in March he had to enter his expected finish time, which as he had been training for it back then put 2:30:00. In reality it wasn’t until the start of the lock down #2 challenges that saw him start training with a six mile run. Using the challenges he planned the flat(ish), circular route which he would run two loops of, this included Harcombe, the Byes, seafront and Bickwell Valley.

With grandson and fellow Mighty Green Kyle Baker joining Terry on the day for the craic they completed the half marathon in 2:37:00, a result they were very happy with; Kyle because he had not been training and had ran an extra 2.5 miles to get to the start and back and Terry because he received another medal for his growing collection.


Terry has an eye for the running bling and has set the next Mighty Green challenge which is as a club to get as many members to enter the Virtual Grand Western Canal 10k Walk and Run for CLIC Sargent and win the team prize. There is a smashing bit of bling for all who complete the run in December so it should be a win/win challenge.

Tommy 10k

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Adrian’s Tremendous Tommy 10k Challenge for Royal British Legion

Back in October Sidmouth Running Club member Adrian Horne saw a Facebook post advertising a fundraising challenge by the Royal British Legion called The Tommy 10k. The challenge was from the 14 October running through to the 14 November, although it has since been extended until the 30/11 because of its popularity.

The challenge was to either run a 10k, run 4 x 10k or 10 x 10k over the month. Sticking to the original dates this Mighty Green chose to try and complete the 10 x 10k adding in an extra challenge by running them on consecutive days. He planned to start the runs on 2nd November so he would complete them on Armistice Day. Adrian said, “Having never run on more than 2 consecutive days I knew this was going to be a real challenge for myself.”

A donation page linked directly to RBLI was set up with a target of £100 which was quickly surpassed. Over the month, with some massive support from his partner, Annie, family, friends and SRC members, he managed to complete the challenge and midway through, not feeling too bad, he decided to see if he could run 200k in the month.

Adrian, a club run leader, clocked up an amazing 226.6k or 140.84 miles, raising to date £1,015.00 for the Royal British Legion, which like many charities have suffered this year. Adrian, feeling very humbled by people’s generosity in such difficult times would like to thank everyone from the bottom of his heart who shared his FB page or donated to this worthy cause.

Fab 5 Conquer Devon

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The Fab Five Conquer Devon.

Five Mighty Green Sidmouth Running Club juniors have completed the ‘Conquer a Devon Route’ challenge set by School Games Active Devon writes Hamish Spence.

This Devon Virtual Games Event took place between 18th May 2020 to 13th July 2020 and was hosted by Active Devon and the School Games Organisers. The event encouraged the young participants to accumulate mileage by either running, jogging or walking while also following the latest government guidance on being active during the coronavirus outbreak.

For the Primary school ages, 20 miles completed, won bronze, 30 miles covered won silver and for 40 miles endured took Gold. Four juniors, who all attend Sidmouth Primary school achieved this, 3 of which gained the coveted Gold. James Jamani aged 11y did an amazing distance of 70.13 miles. Ellie Jamani aged 8y covered massive 67.1 miles and Seth Lancaster aged 10y managed an impressive 56.68 miles. Flynn Lancaster aged 8y took a silver for his magnificent 33.91 miles.

In the Secondary school age group it was quite rightly tougher and 40 miles was needed for bronze, 60 miles for silver and 80 miles for Gold. Not deterred or daunted by the distances required, Amalie Farrand took the opportunity to escape the family house for her daily exercise. Not only did she grasp at this chance, she opted for an attempt on gold. Amalie completed the challenge by doing a daily run from home navigating through our beautiful countryside. Her mileage was also supported by a longer walk at the weekend with her dogs. She covered 80 miles in just four weeks and succeeded in her quest for gold.

Simon and David on the WCM

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Simon Hollyer and David Wright
   Back in 2017, when Jo Earlam organised the inaugural Women Can Marathon, David Wright volunteered to help out by course-checking parts of the route. Since then, he has wanted to have a go at the whole route himself. Over the last few years he and Simon Hollyer have done sections of the route and both thought it was about time that they did all of it. So, inspired by Jo’s recent birthday marathon effort, they both decided to make the most of the late May heatwave and take on the challenge in the Sidmouth sun writes Hamish Spence.
   The 26.2 miles course starts on the sports field of Tipton St John. However, they both live two miles away from the official start line and neither of the wanted to drive, so they set off from West Hill at a very early hour with a socially distanced gap and made their way down to join the River Otter at Tipton and pick up the route from the beginning. This would mean it would be a stretched marathon of 30 miles! There were very few people out at this time of the morning, so they had the trail mainly to themselves, only encountering the occasional dog walker and the skylarks hovering high above along the Coastal Path to Sidmouth. As the pair descended down Peak Hill the heat from the morning sun was just starting to bite and water was being consumed in quantity!
   There were a few more people out and about as they continued along the seafront of Sidmouth and along the Byes to Sidford, so where they could they ran on the grass areas of The Byes. By the time the lads had reached Sidford and due to the heat of the morning sun, they had got through 3 Litres of water between them, fortunately a pre-arranged pit-stop enabled them to top up with another 1.5 Litres each. The decision not to stop for an ice-cream in Sidmouth didn’t feel like such an error once they had cold water in their backpacks again! From the mostly flat parkland to Sidford it was then to be up, up and up onto East Hill to follow The Strips through the woodland and forest and then down to the other side of Ottery St Mary, to pick up the River Otter again back to Tipton St John.
   The Women Can Marathon route is so carefully considered, taking in so many wonderful elements of East Devon and many of its beautiful trails.  The views from East Hill were magnificent, but by the time we reached Ottery St Mary it was the thought of a John Mills style “Ice Cold in Alex” drink at the end that kept us going.  Completing the marathon took about 5 hours 55mins and the “Ice Cold” was in fact a pint of milk at Knights Farm Shop in Fluxton!  Thirty miles and 7 hours later, having spent the day at least 2 metres apart, consuming 3litres of water each with 1 pint of milk and 0 ice-creams they arrived back at West Hill in a happy, but knackered state.
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Bagging a Trig & Half Marathons

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Trig Pointing, Half Marathons & Getting Back To Running

Seth Lancaster had a very successful weeks’ trig point bagging, the SRC Get-Back-To-Running has woken many from their slumber and Matin Trueman introduces Zaq Bevan to off-road running in and around the hill of Sidmouth writes Hamish Spence.
So far Seth Lancaster has raised an amazing £310 for his favourite charity The Dogs Trust, by doing a sponsored trig point hunt for the four peaks of Sidmouth. He loves dogs and had heard that all charities were struggling at the moment and are unable to do large fundraising events because of Coronavirus. Also lots of people were giving up their dogs because they were finding it hard to cope with them, meaning more work for The Dog’s trust. Seth navigated 28.8 miles in total over 4 separate walks. His younger brother Flynn, did part of all expeditions and covered 17.5 miles and also got to all 4 Trigs as well.

Having come to the attention of various SRC members last week, Zaq Bevan continues to notch up his daily half marathons in a bid to raise funds for our NHS. This weekend he was persuaded by Mighty Green and fine cross country runner Martin Trueman, to try out an off-road route. For Day 42 out of the 60 scheduled runs, Martin took Zaq on a very hilly figure of eight route which took them up Salcombe Hill and over to Branscombe. A route with with 1352ft of elevation gain, many scenic views and a couple of badgers that ran alongside for a few yards. When passing the Donkey Sanctuary, a donkey eeeooring at them with an encouraging endorsement to Zaq’s efforts. It all made for a memorable 2h13m23s jaunt. If any Sidmouth Running Club MG reading this wishes to join Zaq for all or part of another half marathon then please get in touch with him.

With the prospect of a hot and sweaty week before we even got started with any running, week two of Get-Back-To-Running has gone from strength to strength. There were 31 members that completed the Mutters Moor loop or their own version of it and the run to High Peak trig or Ladram bay was completed by 14 members with 12 completed both runs.

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Marathon Birthday for Jo

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A Marathon Birthday For Jo
   After completing my first marathon in 2005 to celebrate being 40, if someone had told me then that on my 55th birthday I’d be running one out of personal choice, on a route I devised from my home village, I would have thought they were mad writes Jo Earlam.
   I realise some people think I’m a bit mad to have gone on to run a further formal 75 marathons or ultra, sometimes doing 26.2 miles just for the fun of it, as I did on Thursday 28th May, the anniversary of the first Women Can Marathon in 2017. It was the beauty of the East Devon countryside that inspired me to come up with the idea for that event and it was the same wonderful scenery that in Coronavirus lockdown drew me to dawdle happily through it on foot, a mixture of running, jogging, walking, with lots of photo and pit stops for food and to chat. Time was not important, but for the record it was eight hours and 20 minutes in total, of which seven hours was moving-ish. As a carer for my husband John, who’s 75 and has dementia, it’s difficult to come up with activities that we can both enjoy as we’d previously have done on my birthday, so having asked carers to cover the middle of the day, I got to do one of things I’ve missed most during the social distancing restrictions, hours of headspace with nothing else to think about but putting one foot in front of the other.
   Marathons are more in the mind, than in the legs, and it was this simple mental energy that at mile 16 when I was flagging up a tough hill, I relished, as the most stress I had in that moment was literally taking the next step. It’s so liberating to be able to let all the other worries slip away and focus on the here and now and soon plod by plod, I was past that tough section. The whole day was wonderful, the weather superb, I had the lovely company of fellow Sidmouth Running Club member Jane Hemsworth on the beautiful stretch from Tipton St John, via the river Otter and the South West Coast Path to Sidmouth. Women Can race director Pauline Beare and Peg Wiseman kindly gave back up support on route with drinks and snacks, I had a delicious tuna roll on Sidmouth esplanade, and the four of us enjoyed birthday cake, Prosecco and a lovely socially distanced catch up in the late afternoon sunshine back at Tipton.
   I was left with memories of a fabulous birthday, the weirdly satisfying muscle ache that endurance runners will understand, and a final happy postscript – I didn’t realise I’d dropped my bank card on route, a man walking his dog found it the following morning and called to let me know, good to know there are nice people out there, thank you Lester from Harcombe. The best bit though about the day was re-connecting with the feeling that when things got tough, I could keep going and feel good about it.
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