Despite the heat, 30 Mighty Greens attended the club run on Wednesday night and 55 took part in the Woodland Relays. This inter club event at Greendale, was superbly organised by Axe Valley Runners and had a record 60 teams of 3 entered which included 12 adult and 7 junior SRC teams.
The juniors did the club proud, some even ran the 2 mile course twice to fill in for missing team members, showing true Mighty Green spirit. Team Sidmouth SAS aka Nathaniel Thomas, Theo Opie and Marcus Wieffer stormed around to win the U15 category and were delighted to receive a voucher each for Greendale. Team Try Hards aka Joshua Solman, Kate Marriott and Ollie Meek came 2nd in the mixed senior category and Team Sid Happy Feet aka Louise Dalton, Yasmin Salter and Becky Knapman came 2nd in the senior female category.
It was a joy to see the support from the adults and juniors alike as they were all out on the undulating course together encouraging and cheering each other over the line right to the end. With the stunning weather and views it was a perfect Mighty Green evening.
Mark Norton didn’t have long to recover as he and fellow SRC and Roger Worthington took part in AVR’s 10k Umborne Ug on Saturday evening. They had to find the lightest running gear due to the heat, so the mighty green short sleeved shirts were out and random vests were in order! Despite the heat both made a big effort on the lanes, river valley and climb to the top of the hill. The reward was a good dash down and both beat last years’ time by 4 minutes. A great local evening run with BBQ and drinks to replace energy and lost water!
To celebrate the Summer Solstice Louise Dalton really put herself to the test running her furthest distance yet and took part in Climb SW’s 100k Jurassic Extinction. Making the most of the shortest night, Louise set off from Weymouth at 9pm with fellow MG Mark Andow kindly supporting and running with her in the night hours till 5am. Louise carried on along the more familiar part of the Jurassic coast to Exmouth where she finished first female in 14:55:50, four hours ahead of the next female! This was her last big practice to get some miles in her legs before Hope 36, her 100 mile charity challenge in July. Louise has already raised over £1,000 for Shout, a mental health charity.
SRC’s Alice Gill also challenged herself running her furthest distance to date, 50k, as part of Climb SW’s Jurassic Extinction event. Alice ran from Lyme Regis to Exmouth in 6:39:40 just 10 minutes more than her Exe to Axe (Exmouth to Seaton) earlier this year. This could have been due to her determination to overtake and stay in front of an AVR runner in a battle for 4th female position from Sidmouth onwards and despite a strong head wind!