Sidmouth Running Club members take on marathons

The hours of training, physio, strength and conditioning paid off for the Mighty Greens running in this year's London Marathon, especially for first-timers Richard King and Carol Hounsell. 

The Club has seen how their training has progressed over the last two months and how their mileage steadily increased.

Mighty Green David Knapman who holds the club marathon record, had a very strict training timetable to adhere to as he earned a place in the elite category. The talented chef finished in 729th place in 2:48:17, a fantastic result. 

The next club runner over the finishing line was Jim Forrer in 3:35:14, 8,799 place overall-last weekend he was running the streets of Sidmouth in the club's carnival entry, this week running the streets of London! MG Lynda Hawkins was the club's first female over the line in 3:54:15, she ran her first London marathon 10 years ago in 4:11:00 and was very happy with her finishing time. 

Richard and Carol were nervous but excited waiting beforehand but enjoyed every minute of the route and Richard was very happy to finish in 4:28:39 and Carol, running for Hospiscare, ran over the finish line in 5:12:13 and met Mr Motivator too!

Jessica Watkins heading for first overall in the Exe Estuary Marathon (Sidmouth Running Club)

Closer to home Winding Paths' Exe Estuary Marathon and Ultra took place, starting from Budleigh, the route took you to Exmouth, down the estuary to Topsham and back again. Mighty Green Jessica Watkins had an amazing run despite the very wet start finishing first overall in an impressive 3:54:27 with SRC's Grahame Womersley-Westlake completing his first marathon in 4:43:09 and Darren Pearce completing his first marathon in 4:58:32.

The weather threw Grahame at first as all his training had been in dry conditions but he stripped off along the way as the sun came out and although Darren regretted his sheer lack of training at mile 21 did the club proud. MG Mark Andow had a great run in the Exe Valley Ultra finishing 16th in a field of 51 in 5:44:23 despite it being a last minute entry and having ran the hilly Chagford Challenge, LDWA event on Dartmoor the previous weekend!

Mighty Green Niall Hawkins was very pleased to get a PB when he ran in the Cardiff half marathon on Sunday. Niall completed the half in 1:30:07!

It was a first marathon for MG Hamish Spence too as he ran the COSY marathon in aid of Exeter Dementia Action Alliance. Hamish enjoyed the scenic route, especially the view from the top of Pennsylvania Road but was horrified when he noticed Strava had stopped recording his activity.

But this did not stop the Mighty Green and he completed the circular route in 7:25:00, his first marathon completed! (The route was created by MG Jo Earlam and has organised the Exeter Memory Baton relay on Sunday 16th October with fellow MG's Simon Hollyer and David Welsh in charge of the baton.)