Plym Trail Marathon

Back To The Plym Trail For Jane Hemsworth
Jane Hemsworth revisited the Plym Trail Marathon at Clearbrook on Sunday the 20th of January. The winter race is one of the 4 seasons events all of which start at Clearbrook, near Yelverton. The route continues south towards Plymouth along the old railway line, now the Cycle Route 27. It is downhill all the way out, with the turnaround point being Coypool. It is uphill all the way back and the competitors do two laps.
With perfect weather conditions for her first marathon of 2019 and the fact that she was the only Mighty Green, she decided to set her pace quite high. With no one to chat too, she completed it in 4h:21m:38s which qualifies her to enter London Marathon as Good for age category for next year.

Oh My Obelisk

Oh My Obelisk
Jessica Raynor and Sarah Watkins ran at the Oh My Obelisk race on Sunday the 13th of January. This multi-terrain event is organised by The Dawlish Coasters and promises mud and hills with fields, woodland tracks, some country lanes and good views. It started and finished at the Dawlish Leisure Centre with the competitors setting off at 10:30. The ground was fairly dry for the most part, with some blue skies and light winds, giving very good running conditions.
Jessica took on the half marathon distance, completing it in 1h:43m and Sarah did the 9 mile race in 1h:35. Both ladies enjoyed the route saying it was very hilly and hard, good but challenging fun.

 

SW X-Country

Three MG’s Stormed The SWXC Championships
 
Kirsteen Welch, Kate Marriott and Toby Garrick competed in the South West X Country Championships near Yeovil on Sunday the 6th of January.
Kirsteen Welch had a fantastic race running at an average pace of 6.05 minute miles. She took this championship by the scruff and went for it, gaining a podium finish on two accounts. She was the third (bronze) senior woman and first Devon lady (gold for the county). Watch this space as she will be heading for the Nationals very soon.
Wearing his MG shirt and running with the Devon team was Toby Garrick. The conditions were good underfoot for the 5.6 mile route, however there were some deceptively steep hills. Toby did very well coming 21st out of 165 (which included senior men) and in 6th position in the U20. Toby has been training very hard, so he was happy with his performance (averaging a 5.38 min/mile). Also he was thrilled to be on the podium with the Devon team, which came 2nd overall. He is now looking forward to taking part in the nationals again.
 Kate Marriott who took part with the Devon team came in 49th over all and will also be taking part in the nationals.

Gloucester 10

UKA Gloucester 10mile road race

Also on Sunday the 30th of December, Kirsteen Welch (seen here at the SW X-Country Championships) took part in the UKA Gloucester 10mile road race. There were lots of talented athletes there, so it was a tough competition to take part in.

Kirsteen ran very well and was having a good race in-spite of being sent the wrong way with the front runners by a race marshal! This was frustrating for Kirsteen, however with typical KW determination, she still managed to cross the line to claim the 3rd Lady, 1st for her age group and 23rd out of 408 runners. Her time was 1h:07m:42s, still a great result even with the misdirection adding an extra 0.65 miles.
The next and first challenge of 2019, is to represent Devon this coming Sunday in the Southwest XC Championships with the aim of being selected for the National XC Championships in Loughborough in February.

Canal Run

David Wright tows The Line along the Canal

David Wright represented the Mighty Greens on Thursday the 27th of December, by taking part in the Taunton Running Club’s fun and friendly annual event, The Bridgewater To Taunton Canal Run. He parked the car up at Taunton railway station to catch the 08:36 to Bridgewater train and run back along the canal path to Taunton. This was sociable event with around 80 other brightly coloured runners getting on the train at Taunton. So with high spirits on and off the train David made the 14.5 mile run back only stopping for the hot soup halfway back. It was a great way to burn off the excesses of the season and finish the running year that was 2018.

Xmas Pud Marathon

Jo’s Christmas Pudding Marathon Run In Portsmouth
Jo Earlam took part in the 8th Portsmouth Coastal Waterside Marathon on Sunday the 23rd of December making this her 10th this year and the 66th marathon in total. 
A chilly and windy day greeted the competitors on the start line at the South Parade Pier, Portsmouth. The route takes the runners east along the seafront to Langston Harbour and then north along the edge of the estuary and onto the Farlington Marshes. It continues onto Hayling Island following the Hayling Billy Leisure Trail all the way to the Station Theatre. Then the runners turn around and retrace their footsteps back to Portsmouth. This is a flat multi terrain competition with some fantastic views across Langstone Harbour.
There were a few runners dressed in Rudolf or Santa costumes and a lot of Elves. Jo decided to run as the only Christmas Pudding. The outfit turned out to be problematic! The first malfunction  with the costume required a pit stop after only 2.5 miles! Jo fixed the problem but lost a lot of time in the process! Then just before the turn-around point on a wind swept Hayling Island she lost the rear half! Ouch, pain-full thing to have happen and would perhaps have been a very draughty run back! Her time for this race was still a very respectable 5h37m35s.

Plym Trail Marathon

The 2018 Plym Merry Xmas Trail marathon

The organisers, First And Last Running Ltd normally hold this as a four seasons (winter, spring, summer and autumn) event throughout the year. This year they added The 2018 Merry Xmas Plym Trail Marathon. O Sunday the 16th of December two Mighty Green ladies, Jo Earlam and Jane Hemsworth took part.

The race started at Clearbrook, near Yelverton and continued south towards Plymouth along the old railway line, now the Cycle Route 27. It is downhill all the way out, with the turnaround point being Coypool. This meant it was an uphill trek all the way back! The half marathon competitors ran the one circuit. Our two MG ladies took on the full marathon, so they had to do two circuits. It’s a beautiful scenic route on a path shared by walkers, runners, cyclists, cows and sheep! There is no traffic to contend with, making this marathon pleasurable to take part in. The refreshment stations were well stocked with chocolate, crisps, peanuts and satsumas as well as sports drinks and gels! Both ladies ran together giving moral support and were very happy with their finishing times of 4h:47m. Respect goes to both runners with Jane finishing her 22nd marathon and Jo, now having completed 65 marathons in total. Does this qualify her for marathon OAP status? I think it should, but i hope that it doesn’t mean that Jo is going to retire from the marathon scene.

Both ladies enjoyed the well organised event and would really recommend this one. Jo rates it as her favourite so far.

Cockington Caper

Deb and Don Capering around Cockington

Don Cawthera and Deb Marriott both ran at the Cockington Christmas Caper this weekend. Every year since 2004, Christian charity The Barnabas Sports Trust has organised this event. It was 7.5 miles of mud and hills. Fancy dress was an option and a great route around the footpaths and cycle paths of the Cockington Estate in Torquay. Running the route together they managed placings of 161 and 162 out of 240. Dons time was 1h:32m:31s and Deb’s was 1h:32:39. They still had enough energy after the run for a bit of Christmas shopping at the craft stalls much to Don’s delight! 

Dorset Ultra

Endurancelife Coastal Trail
Jessica Raynor took part in the super tough Endurance Coastal trail on Saturday 1st of December. This race is very tough, in fact the description given was Brutal! It is very scenic and followes the Jurassic coastal path from Lulworth Cove.  Rollercoaster hills, descents and more hills all the way!
Jess was expecting this race to be 50k, however it ended up 55k! She was exhausted by the end after so many hills to climb (almost 2000m) and descend, with wet and windy weather conditions to contend with, meaning lots of mud to wade through. But, after all of that, she still claimed the 6th lady and 36th over the finish line, out of about 350 runners. She said it was well organised but by far, one of the toughest races she’d ever taken part in! Well done Jessica.

 

Devon Champion

Kirsteen Welch Is Devon’s XC Senior Champion
Seen here after the Drogo 10, last weekend Kirsteen Welch was the 1st senior woman in the Devon county XC (Cross Country) championships. Held at Exeter Arena, it was a 5K race that Kirsteen ran in a time of 18m:16s. She said that she was not used to the short, fast furious stuff and this race hurt…a lot! 
Winning this race means that she will be representing Devon in the Southwest XC championships on the 6th January 2019 in Yeovil. Good luck Kirsteen.