News in Sidmouth

Midday on a hot and humid Saturday in the beautiful grounds of Powderham Castle saw five members of Sidmouth Running Club at the start line of an epic challenge and two of those were preparing to run for 24 hours!

Suzi Rockey competed in the 5 mile (1 lap) category coming in 5th place in a field of 20 with a very respectable time of 45:34 minutes.

Sidmouth Running Club's vice chair, Sarah Watkins, has completed the South West virtual coastal path challenge in just 16 weeks.

Mighty Green Sarah said, "Even though I had a year to complete the 630 mile challenge, lockdown allowed me to run/walk more and explore different routes around East Devon in the beautiful countryside."

On Saturday 1st May, the first ever Sid Valley Ring half marathon organised by Climb South West took place.

Starting from Glen Road, Adrian 'Gripper' Horne and his son Ollie were pleased to see fellow Sidmouth Running Club members Antony Hall and Niall Francis. Niall was a late entry, filling in for his friend who was unable to run, which meant that he had the opportunity to run with Adam Slater from his old club. Also at the start line was a trio of Mighty Greens, Ann Cole, Julia Haddrell and Carol McManus facing their biggest challenge to date.

The sun shone on Exmouth seafront as the Mighty Green runners gathered for the start of LME's The Clinic Maer 10k and half marathon race - a well organised event with an easy route to follow and really friendly marshalls.

Running the scenic if a little challenging 10k course wearing the Mighty Green shirts for the first time, both Yasmin Salter and Niall Hawkins achieved personal bests. Yasmin, who enjoyed the perfect weather conditions, ran the route in 49:36 mins coming 4th in her age category and 8th female overall. Niall came in 8th overall and 1st in his age category with his PB of 41:18 mins, despite feeling like he was going much slower than he actually was, as he had figured out his splits wrong in his head and was pleasantly surprised at mile 5 when it dawned on him!

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.

SRC Junior Coach, Kerry Boyle, is looking forward to 'running' the next set of sessions for the Junior section of the club.

On Sunday 18th April the 11 years and above endurance group starts at St Johns School from 10am until 11am, and on Wednesday 21st April at 5.45pm until 6.45pm the 8-11 years and 11 years and above groups re-commence at St Johns School.

Sidmouth Running Club members Jane Hemsworth and Jo Earlam thoroughly enjoyed participating in their first marathon event in 15 months.

This was Jo's 77th marathon and she said how great it was to run a proper marathon again. Jane described the event as very relaxed and low key, with a maximum of 30 entrants.

This week saw the return of club runs and Chairman Terry Bewes was delighted to welcome so many familiar and new faces on Monday evening.

It was the first opportunity for the new to the area and 2021 beginners to join a club run and they ran exceptionally well.

The final week of lockdown challenges had members self-navigating a run to pass past and present care homes and complete a 'delight' in Chairman Terry Bewes's words.

Jenny Kay and Alexa Baker thought they would get the harder of the two challenges out of the way first, little did they know they would be running 8 miles up numerous hills on a Monday evening! Not that delightful! Kerry Salter ran the route in 10 min/miles, Tim Swarbrick who had the wind and rain to contend with ran 7.21 miles at 9.08 min/miles, Mark Norton was very lucky to see the otters and a bat en-route, Bert Dykema ran 16k, David Welsh, Caroline and Jon Ball also completed the challenge. Ross Walton ran 8.4 miles at 8.33 min/miles, which he found hard going as the previous day he completed 17 miles of trails!

Sidmouth Running Club members are indebted to two Mighty Greens who have kept them focused during lockdown #3, John Chesters and Terry Bewes.

John Chesters has had the Ottery-based members of Sidmouth running around the area searching for control points and testing their orienteering skills. He even added a route on Muttersmoor for the Sidmouth-based runners to test their skills this week. John said he was pleased to help set the challenges and that it has been rewarding to see people having a go and even enjoying themselves!