Category Archives: Uncategorised

Winter Series 5k At Haldon Forest Park. 

Posted on by
   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.

Park Running

Posted on by

Many of the Mighty Greens have been making the most of our local, and not so local, Park Runs.  With so many Devon Park Runs on our doorstep it would be rude not to participate in such a social and inclusive event.

 

Park Runs take place at 9am on Saturday Morning in the following Devon Locations and many more:

Seaton Esplanade 

Exmouth Seafront

Exeter Riverside

Haldon Forest

Parke National Trust

Killerton National Trust

You can find Park Runs across the world so please tell us if you participate in a more exotic one, just like Ann Cole did when she visited Cologne, Germany.

If Park Runs are your thing, you may be interested in reading a book by Devon author, Ian Mortimer,

Why Running Matters: Lessons in Life, Pain and Exhilaration From 5K to the Marathon

In his book Ian talks us through a whole year of running in Devon, from his home in Moretonhampstead.  He describes each run and reflects on why running is so valuable.

The Extremely Jolly Escot Run

Posted on by
 The Mighty Green Fancy Dress Machine was out in force again on the 21st and 22nd of December with 12 members taking on various trail routes including the Extremely Jolly run, half marathon and full marathon events, all of which were in the grounds of the Escot estate writes Hamish Spence.
   The 10k event took place on the Saturday and had six MG’s suitably kitted out in Christmas attire. The ground had been absolutely saturated with the recent rainfall, but the sky was a clear blue giving a jolly atmosphere and a promise of a fun run in the mud around the park. The start line resembled a scene of a magical Christmas wonderland with almost all of the runners wearing some form of fancy dress.
   The first couple of miles were not bad and gave everyone a chance to warm up and prepare. There were a few hills but nothing a self-respecting MG couldn’t handle. Then the fun began! A loop up into the woods with some knee deep puddles and thick oozy mud! Déjà-vu of the Bicton Blister! Then six miles in and there was an optional water slide, not really an option if your belong to SRC and anyway it was a good opportunity to remove some of the mud acquired from the woodlands. Lastly, there was a short mile or so down hill to the finish line.
   The extremely jolly Kyle Baker, turned into the extremely muddy Elf during this event! He set off at a fast pace, taking on the mud, woodlands and hill by himself. On arrival at the water slide he deliberated on the best approach on tackling the soggy descent. His decision to sit as he slid, turned out not so good and when arriving at the bottom, he rolled into the mud anyway! How graceful…not! Never mind, he picked himself up and carried on to the finish line to be the first MG and came in the 13th over all position in at an impressive 1h05m. Not far behind was Allan Kay taking 1h15m25s to finish followed by Emma Vine in 1h19m40s and Derek Blackburn in 1h22m42s. The best dressed Elf in the park, Laura Broughton trod carefully through the mud to arrive back in a clean 1h28m14s. Nikita Kay and Alexis Kay set off and ran the whole route together finishing in 1h41m10s. At the finish all the competitors received the Santa, with a full beard medal and a welcomed bottle of beer bringing a seasonal smile back to everyone’s faces.

Celebration!

Juniors

Posted on by

Sidmouth Running Club
Juniors 20/10/2019

Junior members of Sidmouth Running Club receive their Mighty Green Awards for attending the half term course. Rose Ashby, Aidan Corfield and Tom Clapham all received their bronze award for attending all 5 sessions in the 12 to 14-year group.
The club is really keen to promote the 12 to 14 year olds so please come along and bring a friend to the next sessions on the 10th,17th and 24th November and the 1st and 8th of December at Sidmouth College Gymnasium and sports field where you will take part in the ABC’s of running under the instruction of our England Athletic Coaches. Please see the club website for more details.

Previous SRC Swimathon Record Smashed.

Posted on by

   In the evening on the 5th of October, eight Sidmouth Running Club members took part in the 2019 Swimathon challenge. The intention was to smash the club’s previous years’ record number of lengths swum writes Hamish Spence.
   The 2019 Swimathon was organised by the Sidmouth Rotary Club to raise funds for three worthwhile causes, Admiral Nurse, Sidmouth Lifeboat and the Gateway Homeless Action Group. It took place at the town’s swimming pool where the participating teams had 55 minutes in which to swim as many lengths as possible.
   Team Mighty Green 2019 were ready for the challenge, with all eight team members prepped with the knowledge that we needed to complete a certain number of lengths in that time, or face the walk of shame on Wednesday night, along with the wroth of King Terry should we fail! …Sorry I’m getting carried away again.  
   We split up, with four team members at each end of the pool, all knowing that we didn’t want to let each other down and that it was to be heads down and go for it. At 20:00hrs the start whistle sounded and we were off. Fifty five minutes to beat the previous years tally of 149 laps. This was never going to be an easy target to match, never mind beat!
Jon Bull had the honour of doing the first length and absolutely flew down the pool in just 23 seconds! Susan Reeve took lap two and then Sam Ingram took over for the third and absolutely stormed along. Sarah Watkins impressed herself as she took just 22 seconds to complete her first lap. Next up was Jasmine Reeves and then myself (Hamish Spence). I counted each time my right hand plunged into the water and got to 15. I was out of breath so didn’t notice how fast Kate Johnson had taken off, but i was informed that she was like lightning. Kate handed over to Claire Ashby who attacked her first lap at high velocity and made this event look easy. We were relentless for the first half and pushed our way through an amazing 80 laps. Our diligent adjudicator Val Sharp, kept a very close watch on our team and occasionally let us know how many laps we had completed. This was an enormous boost to our team confidence, so a special thank you goes out to Val. The knowledge that we had completed so many came at exactly the right time as we were all beginning to feel the pain we were inflicting upon ourselves. Our response to this information however, was to give words of encouragement to each other. These positive words did the trick, I could see in the other team members, the determination to do this thing and to keep going. We kept up this crazy pace for the duration. Ten minutes to go and it was going to be down to the wire! Could we do it? With the last five minutes to go it was lap 147… 148 … and then we equalised with the 2018 MG team, lap 149 was done. Now the question was, how many laps could we extend the club record by? We continued, pushing ourselves as hard as we could and then the final whistle blew, it was done. The 2019 team had succeeded in its quest to trance previous attempts. We are very proud to have done 155 laps and really wish Team Leader Tony Velterop and next years team the best of luck.

The Newton Abbot Ladies 10k

Posted on by

Whilst driving to 22nd running of the Newton Abbot Ladies 10K, the weather warnings for heavy rain and strong winds came true with horizontal gusts of rain blowing across the road. However, as the 227 entrants gathered for the start the rain stopped, the sun came out and it stayed dry until after the prize giving two hours later writes Emma Grainger.
The event was organised by Teignbridge Trotters and the course was described as ‘undulating’ which is Devon-speak for hilly. But as we know, for every up there was a down. The course took the competitors through the pretty villages of Ogwell and Denbury, between fields, through woodlands and all on the roads. A print by local artist John Charles Skinner of a nearby view is given to each entrant at the end of the race, a unique memento with the print number being the finishing position. The event raises money for Bowel Cancer UK with £2 from each entry fee going to the charity. Over the years upwards of £32,000 has been raised.
As the only member of Sidmouth Running Club to enter this year I had the privilege of being both first and last of the Mighty Greens to finish. In fact my finishing time was 1h8m, which is nearly 3 minutes faster than last year. My thanks go to the recent 10K training given by SRC Head Coach, Tim Mitchell.

Bradley 10k

Posted on by

The Exmouth Bradley 10k
Prior to the storm on the Saturday night 634 competitors had entered themselves into The Exmouth Bradley 10k race. However, 137 cried off, leaving 497 to brave out the bluster and rain, 7 of which were weather-proof Mighty Greens. By the morning the weather had cleared a bit, with only a moderate breeze and light drizzle which passed by the start of the race. So the Magnificent 7 ran it in either a Mighty Green tee-shirt or vest.
This is a two lap race starting on the Exmouth Promenade which heads out along the sea front and onto part of the beach passing the RLNI all the way to the zig-zag steps. Then back to the Lifeboat station and up to Maer Rd and onto Douglas Avenue and back down to the seafront where the competitors turn and do one more lap.
The first MG across the finish line and in 191st place was Becky McDonald with a new PB of 54m:08s. Suzi Rocky is continuing to improve on her performance with a very steady run crossing the line in 58m:05s and taking 248th position. Having recently joined SRC, Jasmine Reeves ran her first race in the Mighty Green colours. She did herself and SRC proud. She came 266th and ran the route in a very respectable 58h:33m. Amelia Frankpitt used this race as her final warm up before the Exeter Half Marathon in two weeks’ time. She come in at 1h00m51s taking 298th place. Just after Amelia was Rachel Burrow, who ran a steady pace all the way around and got an impressive time of 1h01m38s in315th place.
Having participated in some off road trail races in September, this was the first road race Terry Bewes had entered. The Exmouth Bradley 10k was to test out how his recovery was going. All was going to plan for Terry. As he began the 2nd lap, he could see the lead runner entering the last hundred yards to the finish line. Undeterred he powered on along the sea front again, overtaking a few runners. Then, halfway around and going up the hill for the last time, he caught up with a lady and got talking to her. She too was recovering from an operation, so they decided to run the final mile together giving encouragement to each other. This really paid off, as they both passed many runners and stormed their way to the finish line. Terry had set his sights on an 11 minute-mile pace, so he was very pleased to find he had in-fact been achieving a better than 10min/mile. This defiantly shows that it pays to have a running buddy. Terry gained the 313th place in 01h01m35s. His next race will be the Minster Challenge which will test him further over a longer distance.
It was a busy few days for David Skinner ,who also took part in the Parkrun on Saturday. So, with the stormy conditions during this 10k event in Exmouth and the fact that he is still not fully recovered from a recent illness, it was never going to be easy for him. However, he still managed a time of 1h10m05s, just 6 minutes slower than last year. David was pleased with his performance having covered15k over the weekend and feels that he’s gradually getting back to his normal form.

The Woodland Relays

Posted on by

Woodland Relays 2019.

Sidmouth Running Club entered twelve teams into the Woodlands Relay which took place in the woodlands near Lea Croft Caravan Park, Colyton, on the evening of Wednesday the 19th of June. Organisers, Axe Valley Runners had to make a last minute decision, to have a shorter than planned route. Due to some fallen trees the planned circuit could not be used. This shortened the distance for each runner and instead turned it into an out-and-back race. The first 600m was almost flat with the next 600m(ish) section, being a downhill blast with a slippery u-turn at the bottom. This was the half-way point which meant that it was a very long climb back up to the top, and then a sprint to the finish. To avoid collisions, the runners had to run on the left hand side at all times. This worked very well with no reported incidents. The weather had been wet all week on and off, the ground was fairly good for most of the route, but slippery on the hill.
There was a great atmosphere on the start line and a huge cheer as the first runners headed off. It wasn’t long before they were back for the hand over with more high spirited cheering and clapping every time no matter who’s team was setting off.
Run Boy Three were the first Sidmouth team to finish with Steve Saunders setting off first and averaging a 10 minute mile followed by Rob Edwards and a very determined Tim Mitchell giving Team RBT a time of 29m10s. Chafing The Dream saw Chris Day Kerry gain a down hill 400m(ish) section personal best time of 1m39s and was followed by Charlotte Forrer and a flat out Sam Ingram. Team CTD officially finished with a 29m10s timing. First to get away for mixed gender team Grand Master Flash, was Simon Holyer who managed a fast 8:15min/mile pace followed by Richard King and Ronnie Masters to gain Team GMB a 13th place in a time of 29m43s. Catherine Hilton got The Runners Beans off to a flying start, with Claire `Ashby giving it all she could, especially up the long hill and then Kerry Boyle blitzed the last leg. Team TRB had fun but found it tough. However, they were the first all female MG team to be completely finished and achieved it in 29m53s coming 14th. The young at heart Young Sexagenarians were down to two men for this event, with Paul Mitchell and John Hanson who took on two of the laps. Tim Clay had to duck out with an injury. Team YS came 18th in 30m51s. Originally named by Paula Farrand, the Dream Team will have ‘er’ added to Dream for next years Woodlands Relay. First away for Team DT was Rocker Sheppard, who set the bar with an average 11min/mile pace for the team. Hamish Spence took off to chase down Team TTT’s Karen Farnham and very nearly succeeded on the downhill section, but Karen is an up-hill running demon and so it was over to Adrian Horne to take the baton. A time of 32m19s and a 22rd place (1 ahead of Team TTT) was achieved. Terry’s Talkative Trio comprised of Christine & Karen Farnham and Sarah Clapham and they all claim not to have uttered a single word during the race! Is that really possible? Of course it isn’t and the clock stopped when all three took a breath at 33m09s giving them 23rd place. All you need to know about the Sidmouth Green Goddesses is that they were absolutely fabulous…any questions…good 🙂 Introducing Team Ladies And Tramp and clearing things up for arguments sake, Sarah Watkins (Lady and first runner), Paul Williamson (Tramp and second runner) and Kerry Agar (Lady and fast runner). Team LAT came 27th in 36m21s. Going to quickly to be correctly named the Slow Motion Ninjas were, in order of disappearance and re-appearance, Julia Haddrell, Jenny Bentley and Suzi Rockey. They managed a combined time of 37m23s and came in 29th place. Named after three great women of a certain age, The Supremes, were Sarah Powell, Emma Grainger and Ann Cole. They all showed supreme grit and determination throughout the event to get to the finish. They came in 31st position, but by the smile on their faces, they certainly enjoyed themselves! Their time taken… not important, but they thank all the other Sidmouth runners for their fabulous support both on and off the trail.
An event thoroughly enjoyed by all with very high levels of SRC members supporting each other on the track and at the start/finish line.