Sidmouth Running club members certainly took advantage of the longest day and for Louise Dalton the shortest night too!
Louise took on the brutal 105 mile ultra marathon held along the UNESCO World Heritage coastline, superbly organised by Climb South West. The Mighty Green set off on Saturday at 8.30am from Poole with the finish line in Exmouth firmly set in her mind. The heat and terrain took its toll as the hours and miles racked up but Louise kept going, buoyed by the encouraging messages she received from club runners and the fabulous support from one special MG who rocked up unannounced several times with a boot full of salt tablets, gels, ice, nuts, salted crisps along with encouraging words.
As night fell, Louise was joined by her friend Zoe, who was allowed to accompany her between 9pm and 7am and they tackled the long and uneven undercliff in the early hours by torch light. As the sun rose, 82 miles in, Louise was questioning her life choices but carried on regardless and was delighted to see MG Naomi Garrick at Beer who offered lots of encouragement as did chairman Terry Bewes who cheered her into Sidmouth at 8am.
With her spirits raised but starting to feel the effects of the previous 20 hours, Louise dug deep and continued towards the finish line, the sun relentlessly beating down. With her family watching Louise crossed the finish line in an incredible 28:11:51, second female and eighth overall. Reflecting on the emotional rollercoaster of the challenge and the 5,100m of elevation Louise is very grateful to have had so much support from the running community/SRC as she needed it more than they realised.
Five Mighty Greens travelled to Tromso, Norway to take part in the Midnight Sun running event. Although the sun was hidden behind clouds the atmosphere and stunning scenery made the event very special indeed. Jim Hudson, Julia Haddrell and Ann Cole ran the half marathon while Carol McManus and Liz Wright ran the 10k.
Christine and Karen Farnham were much closer to home, running the Umbourne Ug. This multi terrain and hilly 10k is organised by Axe Valley Runners with plenty of cakes on offer too.
Channel UK Events had a busy weekend of events in Minehead of which several Sidmouth Running club runners took part. On Saturday MG’s Richard Summerhayes and Iain Carr took part in The Exmoor Perambulation, a 30 mile multi terrain challenge in which Richard finished 4th overall and first in his age category in 5:41:50 and Iain finished 9th overall, second in his age category in 6:42:08. On Sunday celebrating Father’s Day with their dad’s SRC juniors Wilf Mann, Emily Smith and Ameilia Womersley were joined by Susie Mann and Clare Bray to take part in Man Vs Moor at Minehead. Running the 10k as a team the Mighty Greens had to negotiate hills, bogs, tunnels and a swim across Pinkworthy Pond. They completed this team bonding event in 2:36:17 and a lot of fun was had.
SRC would like to thank Honiton Running Club for organising this year’s interclub Woodland Relays at Escot. There were 10 Mighty Green teams including 3 junior ones and the support was phenomenal.