Sidmouth Running Club report: Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud!

The rain came for week three of the Sidmouth Running Club Lockdown challenges, but didn't stop the Mighty Greens from getting out there and completing them.

The OGLEs are going well, with Emma Grainger avoiding the rain and enjoying the views, and Kate Jenkins manoeuvring around the mud where possible. Bex McDonald and her intrepid family took on the orienteering OGLE on East Hill/Core Copse and found an impressive 11 of the control points including some of the most difficult to reach. They even met the mastermind behind the routes, John Chesters and wife Ruth, planning the next one!

The wet weather has not discouraged the beginners and they are building up their stamina with a few added inclines into their routes.

Unfortunately there seem to have been a few glitches with Strava this week where part of a run or a whole run has gone unrecorded. Most annoyingly for Graham 'Rocker' Sheppard and Kerry Salter, this happened when they ran the seafront lamp-post challenge, a monotonous flat six miles. Showing true Mighty Green spirit, Rocker and Kerry are determined to run and record this challenge again.

The dynamic duo, Tim Swarbrick and Derek Blackburn, were the first to complete the off-road challenge which took in Muttersmoor, Passaford Farm, Colaton Raleigh and Newton Poppleford. They set the bar high, and despite saying it was the trickiest one so far to navigate, they got a perfect ten out of ten from Chairman Terry Bewes. Jo Earlam with her dog Freddie added extra miles by running the route from Tipton, and Sarah Burston enjoyed the run escaping the joys of home schooling.

The weekend rain made the route extremely wet underfoot and muddier still but did not deter Adrian 'Gripper' Horne and his son, Tracy Scannell and Beccy Johnson, Brigid McSmith and Ann Cole with Ivey her dog who embraced the conditions and followed the route well - unlike Helen Akay and Alexa Baker who had extreme difficulty in navigating themselves out of Muttersmoor and had to resort to phoning Terry. Once they found Passmoor Lane there was no stopping them and even had time to marvel at all the swans on the lake/field by the tennis courts in Newton Poppleford.

The end of January has seen several members completing the Strava 200k challenge, including Rob Edwards, Derek Blackburn for the first time, and Dan Prettejohn who ran a half marathon at the weekend to take him over the target. Mighty Greens Helen Palmer and Ross Walton completed the Strava 100k challenge. Congratulations to everyone who is running through this lockdown; bring on the week four challenges!