Sea of Green at Seaton parkrun
Seaton parkrun went green on Saturday as a tribute to AVR, Phil “Evergreen” Bayliss who sadly died last year and who had been very involved in getting the event off the ground in the town. AVRs, past and present, came to run, walk, and volunteer along with members of Phil’s family. Tony Smith spoke prior to the event about Phil, saying how he has tried to ‘Be more Phil’ over the last year and presented Phil’s wife, Vikki with a volunteer hat for his contribution to the event.
It was also fitting that amongst Saturday’s volunteers were some young people doing their DofE award, something Phil had been involved with during his career. One of them, Kira Moran has written a lovely full run report from Saturday – here.
In the event itself, run on a revised route due to recent cliff falls, Matt Clist was third finisher in 17:19 and also third on age-grade in 82%. Eleanor Wood was first on age-grade with 89% for her 23:53. Congratulations to Jo Orsman on reaching her 100th milestone and Jeremy Norcombe on his 200th parkrun to coincide with a ‘big’ birthday. Well done to Lee Brooker and Lucy Hanley on PBs, 26:22 and 30:51, respectively.
Five go wild in Wokingham
Four AVRs, Ryan Snell, Matt Hewer, Terry Emmett and David Cull had an early start on Sunday travelling up to Wokingham in Surry for the half marathon where they were joined by Cliff Marriott who was up there for the weekend.
The route had a slight adjustment due to flooding but was still a fast, flat course ran on rural roads and around the town centre.
First AVR home was Ryan Snell in 1:14.40, 74th and 14th M40 from 2772 finishers. Terry Emmett was hot on his heels finishing with a shiny new PB of 1:15.19, 17th M40 and 84th overall. Also celebrating an excellent PB was Matt Hewer in 1:20.23, returning from a long period out with injury. David Cull finished in 1:23.30, also an impressive PB. Cliff Marriott finished in 1:51.24.
Exeter Trail 10k
Run around the grounds of Escot Park this was always going to be a muddy affair after the recent wet weather. It also included some challenging climbs so perfect Grizzly preparation. Julia Conway came in 53rd in 1:03.06, second F50. Ninety runners completed the race on Saturday in good conditions. In the 5k Canicross event Denise Burgess was seventh, running with her pointer, in 36:44.
Slay the Dragon 10k
Three AVRs popped over the border for this beautiful but challenging 10k which took place around Hinton St George in Somerset on Sunday. Amazingly the promised deluge of rain and wind held off until after the race with runners just having some mizzle to accompany them. Martyn Walker came in 61st in 1:05.47; Kathryn Thompson, 85th in 1:17.45 and Aileen Heal in 87th in 1:22.56.
Bath Two Tunnels HM
Georgie Ryan ran the Bath Two Tunnels Half Marathon organised by Relish Running on Sunday – a race with the longest underground section of any race in the UK! The route, known as “Return Ticket” is a two lap out and back on the Two Tunnels Greenway Path, flat and fast. Georgie finished in 2.14:11 smashing more than six minutes off her previous PB.
