Scorchio at Ottery
Summer finally arrived in Devon this weekend for the Ottery 10k, organised brilliantly by Honiton Running Club. The road race, run on country lanes surrounding Ottery, starting and finishing at Ottery St Mary Cricket Club attracted a big turn-out of Axe Valley Runners with the race featuring in the Club Championship this year. This year’s race was started by Olympian and former European Champion, Jo Pavey, who then took part herself in the event before awarding the prizes later.
Taking third spot was AVR’s Matt Clist in an impressive 35:38, also top M40. Matt Hewer was next AVR in 38:55, fourth M40.
Rupert Pady was first M50 in 43:21 and there was a PB for Adrian Strawbridge in 43.16.
On the female side, Eleanor Wood was first F55 in 48:11.
Almost 300 completed the race, which also features in the InStep Devon series. Full results will be posted here.
Yeovilton summer series
Eleven AVRs took part in the second of this series of six 5k events held from April to September on the second Wednesday of the month. Fast, flat and definitely a PB course, the races start and finish at RNAS Yeovilton attracting a high quality field.
First AVR home was Joel Seward in 16:56, tenth place in a competitive field. Third M40 was Ryan Snell in 17:18 while Angela Kerr was first F65 in 26:41.
The next event is Wednesday 12 June.
Exeter Marathon
The blistering hot conditions were not conducive to marathon running but David Cull and Lee Moran both took part and, in fact, ended up running 26.7 miles due to a mix-up at the start. The route took runners around the Exeter riverside, canals and country park. Finishing fifth overall and first M40 David Cull completed it in 3:06.44, just two months after running Barcelona marathon. After a solid first 16 miles the heat took its toll and slowed him a little but he was happy to overtake a couple of runners in the last mile. Lee Moran finished 13th in a very solid 3:20.30, third M45, achieving his target of not needing a ‘loo stop’!
Seaton parkrun
It was a gorgeous sunny day in Seaton for the 240 parkrunners, volunteers and spectators at parkrun. First finishers were both AVR with Harry McMahon, first male, in 18:08 and Debbie Whiston, first female, in 20:34. These two were also first and second on age-grade with Debbie first on 78% then Harry on 74%.
Shaun Vinnicombe celebrated his 100 milestone and Shirley Goy her 50th parkrun. There was a shiny PB for Helen Boehm in 35:26.
Away from home, Matt Frost completed Minehead parkrun and Andy West took part in Aylesbury parkrun.
