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Fun Runs To Marathons For The MG’s

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Three Mighty Green Juniors took part in the Beer Blazer event on Sunday organised by Beer Primary School PTFA.

John, Amelia and Dom represented the Mighty Greens

Amelia Womersley-Westlake and Dominic Hall ran in the fun run and both found the ground hard going on the ankles. Amelia, age 7, said it was her hardest ever run to date will hills, fields and uneven ground but enjoyed it.  Dom finished in 6th place; but as fellow MG John Dunsford lined up to take part in the 5k race, Dom made a last minute decision to run in that event too. Getting his number sorted delayed his start so Junior helper Grahame Womersley-Westlake ran with him, which was a bit of a shock having already run from Sidmouth to Beer!

John Dunsford running up that hill

Both Juniors finished strongly over the line with John finishing 3rd male in 31:51 and Dom who overtook at least 10 others on the way finished in 41:05.  Grahame said it was great to see the future of the club show such awesome determination.

On Sunday 14th May, Cheryl Boulton set out for the Western Super Half marathon; her fourth time of running the event.

Cheryl’s last long run of 11 miles was on 8th April as due to a tight calf/painful ankle hadn’t run much since so was slightly anxious whether she would even finish! The Mighty Green decided to have pasta every day for the week beforehand hoping the extra carbs would help and they certainly did!  Club secretary Cheryl set off with the 2 hour pacer running at 9 minute miles for the first 7 miles before answering a call of nature which meant she lost sight of the pacer. The next 6 miles were more challenging running on her own especially as the sun came out which didn’t help.  Cheryl’s husband Bruce cheered her on from the seafront before the final sprint down the pier to the finish line where Cheryl was delighted to get a PB 2:04:43, knocking a whole 5 minutes off last years’ time!

Neville Hylton was spotted at the Copenhagen Marathon by Jason Blount who always joins the club runs when he is visiting Sidmouth-what are the chances of that among the 10,233 runners that took part! Neville enjoyed the completely flat route which took him through the different parts of the city, the green Osterbro, the multicultural Norrebro and the hip Vesterbro.  Finishing in 4:19:33 the Mighty Green said it was a great way to explore the city’s best highlights and impressive architecture.

Running into Neville

The Beautifully Brutal Blackdown Beast

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Sidmouth Running Club was out in force on Saturday taking part in The Blackdown Beast.  The 16 mile social run with 10 mile option provides a great opportunity to use it as training for the upcoming Four Trigs, Grizzly, JP’s Exe to Axe and the Sweetcombe Scramble Marathon.

The Mighty Greens Gather Around The Flag

Organised by Honiton Running Club and with special permission from local farm/land owners the Mighty Greens had to self-navigate their way around the picturesque landscape.

One of the queues to get through the gates

Looking for white drawing pins on posts and gateways proved interesting, at one point two groups of Mighty Greens lost their way but all was not lost as they saw a deer.  Between the printed instructions in one group and the high tech version in the other they soon were back on the right track.

Mud and other farm substances also featured heavily along the route, Kathy Jordan lost her trainer early on but managed to stay upright to pull it out and gamely put it back on.

Kathy Jordan with both shoes on in the mud

The first leg was 7.6 miles on seldom used footpaths which took you to the first refreshment stop at Smeatharpe.  Here we were treated to hot pasties and mulled cider with an option to wrap the pasty in foil to save for later. A great idea as it was too cold to hang around for long.

Enjoying the hot pasty and mulled cider stop

The next 2.8 mile leg along lanes and country paths dropped down to Upottery.  This was the point where the 10 milers waited for the mini bus to take them back to the start.

The 10 milers waiting for the mini bus at The Sidmouth Arms

The 16 milers continued to Rawridge then a climb to Luppitt for the final refreshment stop before running the final 2.7 mile leg back to Dunkeswell Airfield.

As the minibus dropped off the SRC 10 milers, Mighty Greens Neville Hylton and Stuart Moul were just finishing with David Wright not far behind.

All the Mighty Greens enjoyed the well organised event and the opportunity to run without the pressure of being timed especially as the many gates and stiles naturally slowed you down.

A Weekend Of Mighty Green Achievements

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SRC’s Antony Hall and Ollie Goodchild Horne took part in Climb South West’s 5 Trig challenge on Saturday.  The route starts from Budleigh Salterton and follows the SW coast path to West Down Beacon, heading inland across Woodbury Common, Harpford, Muttersmoor to High Peak and back along the coast path to Budleigh, 2818 feet of elevation! Although Antony described the run as 22 miles of hills and pain the Mighty Green finished in second place in 3:43:00 with Ollie finishing in 5th place in 4:04:00.

Five Mighty Greens took part in South West Road Runners Drogo 10 on Sunday. Jess Watkins was the first to cross the finish line, 52nd out of a field of 429 in 1:24:31, Darren Pearce finished in 1:39:59 and Catherine Hilton in 1:53:44.

Darren, Jess, Sarah and Carol before The Drogo 10.

Carol Hounsell and Sarah Watkins ran together enjoying the beautiful scenery but said the route was rather undulating!  They finished in 2:18:16.

A bit closer to home, Judith Jeeves, Jo Earlam and Mark Andow took part in Winding Paths’ Starcross Shuffle. The runners have 7 hours to complete as many 6.6 mile loops along the Exe estuary as they want.

Judith Jeeves enjoying her sunny 10k.

Judith was happy to complete one loop, enjoying the scenery as she ran along having taken part in Cranbrook parkrun the day before; Jo ran 4 loops making it her 96th marathon, her 5th in as many weeks in 6:17:10

Jo Earlam is getting closer to her 100th marathon.

and Mark, who won the draw for SRC’s London marathon place 2023, ran an incredible 6 laps, an ultra marathon of 40 miles in 6:29:57 which earnt him third place.

Mark Andow still smiling after 7 hours of running!

Congratulations to everyone.

Fantastic Sidmouth Running Club Support For LMEs’ Sidmouth 10k

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Lizzie Maynard and her team from LME organised a fabulous 10k race on Sunday, even the heaviest of the rain held off until the back runner crossed the finish line!

Sidmouth Running Club are very fortunate to have this event on their doorstep and its popularity was reflected by 65 members signing up to take part and the race itself being sold out.

A fantastic club turn out.

The Mighty Greens are also lucky because most of the marshals are either friends or family of club runners or club runners themselves and are all very encouraging plus being a loop and the nature of the club there is a lot of encouragement among the MG’s from the ones heading back to the ones heading out which always spurs you on.

The race starts and finishes at Sidford Village Hall taking in the Byes and seafront, a pleasant flat route except there is an added extra-Hillside Road and Cliff Road to climb!

The Mighty Greens kept running up the hill.

Luckily for the club, chairman and run leader Terry Bewes offered a four week training program with the aim to be able to run up these hills without walking and even he was surprised when 45 club runners signed up for it.  The hours of hill reps in the dark paid off though as no one resorted to walking up the hills on the day, a great achievement, and a boost for morale to be able to overtake a fellow runner on a hill!

MG Toby Garrick crossing the finish line in second place

Out of a field of 265 runners, a cleanly shaven Toby Garrick was the first MG to power over the finish line in second place in 37:13 and Catherine Hilton was the first female MG to finish in 49:49.  The club did very well in the 70+ age category with Rob Edwards and Terry Bewes coming 1st and 2nd respectively in the men’s and Marion Johnson 1st in the ladies.

A focussed Chris Heywood and Neville Hylton.

For some members like Amanda Darling, who finished in exactly 1 hour, it was their first race, for others like Beccy Johnson, PB’s were smashed, for others recovering from Covid it was an achievement to get around and for a few possible regret for staying out to watch the Midnight tar barrel in Ottery but every Mighty Green enjoyed running in their hometown. In the emailed race information Lizzie asks entrants to bring a smile with them and there were plenty of those especially among the Mighty Greens!

Terry Bewes and Tracy Scannell smiling all the way to the finish line.

Results:  Toby Garrick 37:13; Mark Andow 45:39; Colin Ryan 46:35; Grahame Womersley-Westlake 48:43; Colin L’Anson 49:09; Catherine Hilton 49:49; Richard King 50:43; Adrian Harris 51:31; Ed Broughham 51:42; Tim Swarbrick 53:20; Paul Reeve 53:26; Neville Hylton 54:26; Naomi Garrick 55:27; Hugh Jenkins 55:38; Christine Farnham 55:49; Yasmin Salter 55:49; Clive Gilbert 55:52; Becky Knapman 55:53; Chris Heywood 56:12; Rob Edwards 56:49; Bex McDonald 56:50; Stuart Moul 57:33; Bert Dykema 57:53; Karen Farnham 58:14; Cheryl Boulton 58:40; Amanda Darling 1:00:00; Sarah Clapham 1:00:42; Cameron Baker 1:00:55, Christie Ward 1:04:09; Greg Ward 1:04:10; Kerry Salter 1:04:35; Alexa Baker 1:04:40; Jim Hudson 1:05:03; Kathy Jordan 1:05:05; Beccy Johnson 1:05:08; Helen Neighbour 1:06:04; Marion Johnson 1:08:11; Lesley Fitzhenry 1:08:36; Anna Bastyan 1:08:39; Kay Hylton 1:08:58; Christine McCormick 1:08:59; Liz Wright 1:10:21; Leeann Thomson 1:10:52; Kate Jenkins 1:14:05; Liz Goodman 1:14:06; Jennifer Benattar 1:15:38; Alison Long 1:15:46; Clare Luke 1:16:22; Donna Womersley-Westlake 1:16:23; Judith Jeeves 1:16:40; Terry Bewes 1:16:52; Tracy Scannell 1:17:01

Sidmouth Running Club Awards Presentation

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Sidmouth Running Club held their adult awards evening at The Bowd Inn whilst the juniors were presented with their awards at the end of their last session before the summer holidays.

The club has introduced a series of challenge awards in place of individual trophies to encourage members to represent their club and support local events.  Nationally, since covid and the cost of living rising, there has been a decline in the uptake of race entries with many events having to be cancelled.

The first series for the adult members was to run in the full Grizzly or Cub, the 4 Trigs or 2/3 Trigs, JP’s Exe to Axe or Sidmouth to Seaton and the Blackdown Beast with two awards, the East Devon Triple Crown for completing three events and the Quadruple Challenge award for completing all four.

There was a great turnout for the club run followed by drinks and eats whilst Chairman Terry Bewes presented Catherine Hilton, Colin Ryan, Julia Haddrell, Lynda Hawkins, Kerry Salter and Ann Cole Triple Crown trophies and Quadruple Challenge Award trophies to himself, Alexa Baker, Cath Miller, Naomi Garrick, David Wright, Carol Hounsell, Richard King, Sarah Ginsberg, Bex McDonald and Rachel Barnard.

Club chairman Terry Bewes presenting the Quadruple Challenge trophy to David Wright

On Wednesday evening parents where invited along to watch the Junior award presentation in the sports field of St Johns School.  There were five events for the juniors to enter, Exe to Axe fun run, Ottery fun run, Beer fun run, Otter Rail fun run and the Woodland relays and Mighty Green John Dunsford ran them all.

SRC Junior John Dunsford ran all 5 challenges

Louis Bridges-Galvez, Isaac Corfield, Barney Baxter, Ben Barnard, Amalie Baxter, Hamish Bishop, Dominic Hall and Ella Bond competed in four events , Seth Lancaster, Ellie Jamani, Flynn Lancaster and Jasmine Thomson competed in three, Marcus Wieffer, Ella Chipping, Jessica Thompson, Izzie Thomas, Irminie Ray and Aiden Corfield competed in two events with Chloe Henderson, Orson Bell, Rowan Maslen, Ezmai Maslen,  James Jamani, Jude Carson, Daniel Simmons, Mathew Simmonds, Grace Mitchell, Ayra Bell, Arden Chipping, William Hall and Freddi Browning competing in one.

Awards were presented in front of parents, leaders and helpers.

As chairman Terry Bewes presented their awards he thanked the children for their commitment training each week and how proud the club was to see them representing it at these events.  Terry also thanked the parents and the Junior leaders and helpers who give up their time to support the next generation of the club.  Terry took the opportunity to present Tim Daffron with a bottle to thank him for all his help leading the junior Sunday runs.

Tim Daffron was thanked for all his help leading the junior Sunday runs

There will be a taster session on Sunday 11h September at St Johns School for anyone interested in joining the Mighty Green Juniors 8-11 years and 11+.  Please see the website for further information. www.sidmouthrunningclub.co.uk

Beating the Covid Blues – 1

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Kyle Baker and Nikita Kay following LC Fitness live and on-line

The Sidmouth Running Club successfully held its’ AGM on the 19th of March. It was held as an outdoors meeting and in the unusual but original venue of the Manor Road car park. Why did ChairmanTerry Bewes think that the long stay carpark would be necessary? We do not generally take very long do we? Anyway, a record breaking 3 minutes was all it took to get the AGM done and everyone in attendance managed a 2 meter social gap. Terry thanked everyone who attended the make-shift meeting announcing a record year for membership numbers. More Mighty Greens are entering races and the Junior section was now up and running with Kerry Boyle and Claire Ashby heading it up. He thanked the Committee for all their time and efforts over the year, along with the brilliant coaches and leaders. He also acknowledged the club membership as a whole who all make our club such a joy to lead. He finished off by stating,“We will be back after the current storm has passed, and back with a bang”.
   With the current circumstances under the shadow of Corvid19 it was decided over the last week, that formal club nights would have to cease. Then, over the course of this weekend, with ever changing situations, another tough decision was also made. It is with regret that it would be irresponsible to start the informal runs on a Monday and Wednesday evenings from Port Royal, so until further notice the club will not be organising any formal or informal meet-ups, this is within the guidelines of the ever changing situation.
   For myself and many others across the whole world, running has been the route to get back fitness levels, both physically and mentally. Running with a club has enabled me and helped with self confidence and self belief. I’ve made good friends, enjoyed long chats while not noticing how many miles are being covered, so the club nights will be sorely missed. However, seeing what’s occurring around the planet right now is very scary. I have to say this virus shocked me! So I’ve decided to hold off from running for now! But only for now. All things being equal, I will be back building up my distances again and in the not too far off future. In the mean time, I know there is plenty of exercise that can be done from inside your own home or in your back garden. There is so much out there, particularly now with the internet, YouTube is brimming with fitness training footage, ideas and encouragement. A great example of this was Kyle Baker and Nikita Kay who joined in online with LC Fitness to help keep their fitness levels up. This was a free, 20 minute session last Saturday morning, which coincidently started at the same time as Parkrun would have got going in normal circumstances. 

 

Leap-Year Park Running

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   With this year being a leap year, the 29th of February was coincidently a Saturday. Nobody has run a Parkrun on a Saturday the 29th of February before, as the last time was back in 1992, long before Parkrun began. The next time it will be possible to do this will be on Sat 29th Feb 2048, so put that date in your diary… just under 28 years to go writes Hamish Spence.
   Shaun Tipton headed up north to take part in the picturesque Parkrun in Worsley, Manchester. There was a great atmosphere with some rain, a bit of sunshine, woodlands and one stream, all on a flattish route. Shaun particularly enjoyed the cheerful high-fiving Marshall’s. At Henstridge Airfield Arthur and Christine Vince managed a 45m41s and 48m38s timing respectively and traveling even further afield, to the other side of the globe in Queenstown Park Run, New Zealand was Karen Farnham and David Millen. A pleasant route alongside Lake Wakatipu and through woodlands and gardens. It including three hills and felt very slow, However both managed to get around in under 30 minutes. Nearer to home David H Welsh, David Skinner, Christie Ward, John Sharples Sarah Powell and  Beccy Johnson all leapt into action at a blustery stoney Seaton. Julia Haddrell was joined by eight other MG’s at Exmouth, they had almost every weather type thrown at them, wind, rain, hail, a beautiful rainbow and then finally the sun came out! Sarah clapham was the first back in a respectable 25m54s, Derek Blackburn 26m17s, Paula Farrand 26m50s, Al Colwill 27m02s, Bert Dykema 28m52s, Julia Haddrell 32m06s, Jane Stein 32m44s, Lesley Miszewska 32m59s, Joanne May 49m37s.

Sunday Winter Running Comes To A Close.

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   This weekend saw the last official Winter Sunday running group meet up at King’s Garden Centre writes Terry Bewes.
   A very sunny morning followed a very wet week and so we started as we were to go on… with mud, water and more mud. Rob Dunford lead the group out of the garden centre towards the first climb of the run. As soon as we hit the trail Christine Farnham remarked about how much easier it would be to swim up the lane. Various styles of swimming were displayed, none were recognised and so all were named bog snorkelling. On we went into our beautiful Devon countryside running as a cheerful group. On reaching Southerton, the group split with Helen Palmer leading a small group on a total of nine miles back for coffee and cake at King’s Garden Centre.
   The rest of us continued with Rob, who lead the group on a merry chase up onto Alysbere Common, Joney’s Cross and then over to Woodbury Common, droping down into Colaton Raleigh. It was then over the river and up Passaford Lane, which was a muddy nightmare, to the underside of Mutters Moor which was a bigger, deeper muddy nightmare, with massive muddy puddles and thick mud you would not believe unless you witnessed it! In total, Rob’s group ran a half Marathon (13.2 miles) and missed the cake! However, that big seat at the garden centre was a welcome relief. Thank you to all who have lead or taken part and supported the Sunday runs over the winter, they have been tremendous fun.
Above: The whole Sunday Group before getting muddied.
Above: Six tired Sunday runners sitting on a massive seat at Kings Garden Centre… or have they all shrunk?

Saturday Mudlarkin’ and Wild Swimming

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  “Come on a training run down to Budleigh Salterton” said Sam, “get some nice flat miles in” said Sam, “easy going prior to The Grizzly” said Sam… So, early on Saturday morning with Adrian Horne and Sam Ingram we go into the Flood Lands of the R Otter writes Bex McDonald.
   Meeting at Tipton St John at 07:30, the three of us set off down-stream along the River Otter. As we made our way out of the carpark and crossed over the river, we could see flooded fields. The river had burst its banks into the field to ankle depth. So began the theme of the morning, chilly, soggy toes! That’s fine we thought, after all, it’s all part of cross country running. By the time we reached the beavers dam just before Otterton, we were up to our knees having an ice bath on our calves! It felt quite soothing and again, that’s fine we thought… Little did we know! About a mile further down stream after Otterton, there is a foot bridge. Here the water was flowing fast and flooding into the field straight across the path that we wanted to take. We ventured in carefully and soon we were all waist deep! So, wet pants all round and numbed legs for the trek back to Tipton St John. Enough was enough and a unanimous decision was made here, to choose another route which would involve less river… a lot less river and only the odd puddle. One thing was for sure, we got our Grizzly training in!
Above: Adrian Horne (left) Bex McDonald (centre) and Sam Ingram (right) Grizzly training somewhere along the soggy banks of the River Otter on Saturday morning. Photo by Bex McDonald.

Winter Series 5k At Haldon Forest Park. 

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   David Skinner braved the chilly temperatures up in the Haldon Forest on Sunday morning to take part in the first part of a Winter Series.
   Having taken part in several events previously on Haldon Hill and really enjoying them, David could not resist entering the Haldon Forest Winter Series 2020. Organised by Purple Geko Events, this race was the first of a 3 race series with the 10k and 10 mile yet to come.
As competitors arrived the organisers were concerned about ice along the route. However, the course was checked and the temperature rose by 2 degrees, so with the sun shining those fears evaporated. The start featured a steep technical descent which does include some running in the woods and going down steps, this caused a bottleneck. After the steps the undulations began, it felt however that mostly there were long climbs and the final section to the finish really was a long difficult climb. David came 50th out of 78 runners in 42m45s.