Saturdays’ Haldon Night Run was postponed from before Christmas due to a yellow wind weather warning where the forest had to be closed to the public for safety reasons. How lucky were organisers Sportiva Events that this weekends’ yellow wind weather warning came into effect on Sunday; the only amendment was the start times as the nights are drawing out! Sidmouth Running Club were represented by two juniors taking part in the 2k event and they did their club proud!
Donna, Amelia and Christopher flying the flag
Christopher Witkowski had an exceptional run finishing in 12 minutes earning him a podium finish-2nd in the 10-11 year old boys’ category. Amelia Womersley-Westlake ran with her mum/junior coach Donna Womersley-Westlake and finished the hilly route in a respectable 17 minutes. The club is very grateful to their parents for supporting and encouraging the Mighty Greens.
2nd place for Christopher
Not to miss out on the running action, Amelias’ dad, Grahame Womersley-Westlake took on his toughest challenge to date, the Pagan Trails. This was a brand new event organised by Outer Edge which started in Chagford and took in stone circles and pagan sites of north Dartmoor which is steeped in ancient history and legends. For Junior coach Grahame it meant 28 miles through wind, mud, ice, rain, sleet, rivers, bogs and lots of hills; the first 1.3km was over 300m of elevation! But weeks of training combined with sessions at SidmouthFit paid off as he hit his sub 6 hour target finishing in 5:54:00, 39th in a field of 97. The Mighty Green said although it was brutal the stunning scenery made up for it and he will return to Dartmoor for more races in the future!
Grahame taking a moment to enjoy the stunning views
This weeks’ Sunday runners had a coach trip to look forward to thanks to run leader Richard King and chairman Terry Bewes for organising it. With a choice of 3 distances the coach picked the runners up at Newton Poppleford (21 miles), Budleigh Salterton (16 miles) and Exmouth (10 miles) before dropping them off at the incinerator in Exeter.
The Sunday Runners
Enjoying the settled part of the weather system the MG’s ran alongside the river, through the marshes to Topsham, following the train line through Lympstone and into Exmouth.
Coach organiser Terry Bewes at Topsham
Running the flat, dry route compared to all the previous hilly, muddy Sunday runs was a revelation and instead of returning to their cars at Exmouth Mighty Greens Sarah Clapham and Carol Hounsell decided to carry on to Budleigh Salterton. The group followed the old railway line to Knowle before heading into Budleigh where Louise Dalton, Amanda Stokes and Richard King carried on to Newton Poppleford and Charlie Fawell gave Sarah and Carol a lift back to Exmouth.
The 21 milers, Amanda, Louise and Richard