Not one but two events were 'running' last Saturday and Sidmouth Running Club members were in attendance for both.

A smattering of Mighty Greens were amongst the 805 runners who took part in the Tough Runner Exeter Epic 10K race at Escot on Saturday April 17th.

MG Derek Blackburn said: "On a beautifully sunny morning, the undulating course around the Escot estate attracted runners from across the South West.

"Social distancing was maintained by staggering the start times, so runners ran in waves, starting at 10.00am, with runners crossing the start line in pairs.

"Once out on the course, there was plenty of room to allow a good distance to be maintained from other athletes. It was a fantastic atmosphere, and most athletes seemed delighted to have the opportunity to be running in an event again."

For Niall Hawkins, not only was it his first run as a Mighty Green, it was his first trail run and he came in 40th overall, 5th in his age category (40-49) in 44.22 minutes and congratulations go to Kate Marriott who came in first place in the junior female category with a time of 48.23 minutes.

Results

Niall Hawkins - 40th overall, 5th in M40-49 category – 44:22

Don Cawthera - 321, 3rd in M60+ category – 56:24

Derek Blackburn - 431, 6th in M60+ category – 59:49

There was a great sense of achievement for Team 'Sidbury School Run' who thoroughly enjoyed their 10k debut at Escot.

The England Athletic Run Together group was formed by Charlotte Forrer, a run leader at Sidmouth Running Club, to specifically meet the needs of parents of children at Sidbury Primary School. They meet straight after the morning school run, and a group of parents have been training since September 2020. Some of these parents had very little running experience and were just looking to increase their fitness. By mixing up the running with strength and conditioning exercises such as squats and lunges the groups' fitness increased. They moved from short road runs to longer trail runs and over lockdown Charlotte organised socially distanced sessions and printed fitness plans for paired runs.

With confidence growing they signed up to run the 10km Exeter Epic Trail Run and dedicated themselves to train for it, even through the long lockdown winter. On Saturday, six members of the group went with Charlotte to Escot House to complete the 10km run. Charlotte said,"It was a gorgeous sunny day and the race day atmosphere was very exciting. We all learnt a lot about how to run a trail race: running through puddles to overtake, making the most of a downhill, finding people to pace yourself against and choosing when to sprint for the finish line."

Mighty Green congratulations to Johanna Mitchell, Nicole Bates, Nicola Meek and Lucy Ingram who completed the course in just over an hour.

Results

Charlotte Forrer 52:47

Nicole Bates 1:02:10

Katie Harris 1:07:59

Ruth Dale 1:11:39

The Climb South West East Devon 8/5 Trigs 2021

After completing some long runs earlier in the year, a group of SRC members decided to take on Climb South West's 5 Trig Challenge. A 21 mile, self navigated, off road run, taking in 5 trig points sitting in a loop around East Devon.

MG Cath Miller said, "After much conversation about whether we had enough food (yes!) Should we wear coats (no!) Had we enough paracetamol and ibuprofen for our various age related aches and pains, we set off for High Peak the first of the five trig points."

They ran through beautiful East Devon taking in Aylesbeare Common, Woodbury, Black Hill and West Down Beacon trigs, finishing with a spectacular decent into Budleigh, along the seafront to the end where their much longed for medal was waiting for them!

In a field of 54 runners, one of the six Mighty Greens who took part in the 5 trigs challenge, Allan Kay said, "It was a great day to be out running as a group from Sidmouth RC in an organised event."

They ran as a group right up to the last trig supporting and motivating each other. Richard King had even gone out and stashed water bottles around the route for them! Allan, who ran the challenge last year with Adrian, found the anti-clockwise route was much better than last year's clockwise route, the ups and downs gentler and finishing on a downhill along the SW coast path from Budleigh was special for him and Adrian 'Gripper' Horne as they used to play there as youngsters.

The Mighty Greens did the club proud, finishing together, half way in the field of finishers, and in Cath's words; not bad for a bunch of oldies! Beautiful scenery, happy conversations, local wildlife including a friendly adder were all part of a great day and the beginnings of normality again -all topped off with an icy cider on the beach, thanks Annie!

Results

Allan Kay 26th 4.47 hrs

Monica Reed 30th 4.51 hrs

Adrian 'Gripper' Horne 34th 4.53 hrs

In other news, the Juniors enjoyed their first session back with Tim Daffron on Sunday and Chairman Terry Bewes awarded the 'Little Miss Chatterbox' spot prize to Tash Morgan and Clare Pugh who managed to chat all the way around the 3.8 mile run on Woodbury Common last Monday.