Sidmouth Running Club member David Knapman earns London Marathon Championship start

Sidmouth Running Club members Jo Earlam and David Knapman ran the Exeter Marathon on Sunday and at one point briefly ran together before David crossed the line and Jo had another lap to run.

In fact, David finished in second place in an unbelievable time of 2:35:27, just 8 seconds behind the winner! Not only has he smashed the club record by more than 5 minutes, the Mighty Green has earnt himself a Championship start in the London Marathon.

David has recently moved to Sidbury after spending the last couple of years in France where he rediscovered his love of running during the lockdowns.

He was super happy to find that Sidmouth is home to a very active and welcoming running club.

He said: "I've been training for Exeter Marathon for the past 10 weeks partly in France and latterly here in Devon with lots of back and forth along East Hill Strips interspersed with the Monday and Wednesday night club runs.

"We were lucky with the weather, 10c and lighter winds than forecast on Sunday and I managed to keep a steady pace throughout the two-lap course around Exeter Quay - a bit twisty and turn-y in places, but otherwise flat and fast. I am extremely pleased with my result and look forward to wearing my MG shirt in the London Marathon next year."

For Jo this was her fifth marathon in four weeks, number 85 and she was delighted with her time of 5:18.00 as it was her best in 3 years and the last 20 marathons.

All smiles at the Sidmouth 10k

It is not often you can walk to a race from home but thanks to Lizzie from LMEvents, 41 SRC members enjoyed the close proximity of the Sidmouth 10k which took place from Sidford on Sunday.

The popular race takes you down through the Byes, up Salcombe Hill Road, down Cliff Road and Beatlands, along the seafront and back again. Not quite as flat as you might think but an advantage to being a MG is we can train up and down the hill so we get the measure of it. Another advantage is the support you get from your fellow runners; a well done and a smile spurs you on and there were many of those as we passed each other.

Antony Hall and John Sharples were best in their age groups with Antony coming in 7th place overall out of 232 finishers.

Special mention must go to all the fantastic friendly marshals (many of them club members or relations of) who cheered the runners on, to Emma Donovan and 1st Sidmouth Guides for manning the water station on the seafront and to Lizzie and her team for organising the event.

Mighty Green Juniors represent their schools

The Sidmouth Running Club will be cheering on their Juniors this Wednesday. Half of the 11+ group have secured places to represent their schools in the East Devon Schools cross country championships at Bicton College. Kings School: Ewan Plain (year 8) and Elsie Wiltshire (year 7) and Sidmouth College: Freddie Browring (year 9), Dominic Hall, Isaac Corfield, Taya Meek and Livvy Taylor (all year 7).

Sidmouth 10km results 7 November 2021

Antony Hall 7th 42:08, Niall Hawkins 43:47, Jack Wilson 45:55, Colin I'Anson 47:30, Ross Walton 48:43, Jamie Locke 50:27, Tim Swarbrick 51:11, Clive Gilbert 51:15, Pete Norman 51:17, Yasmin Salter 52:22, Kyle Baker 52:44, Chris Heywood 52:57

Amelia Frankpitt 1:10:37, Beccy Johnson 1:12:57, Jennifer Benattar 1:15:01, Julia Haddrell 1:15:03, Helen Neighbour 1:18:46, Tracy Scannell 1:22:59, Terry Bewes 1:22:59.