The Long, the Short and the Relay
Photos below of Julia Mallon at finish of Lakeland 50, Ian Kinnersley SW coast to coast, and Graham Newton at the Totnes 10K.
It was certainly a week for long distance races and Julia Mallon ran the Lakeland 50 (miles) and reports that it was certainly an amazing but tough experience. The race started at Dalemain at 11.45am on Saturday in full sun, which continued throughout the day and apparently reached 28c. The checkpoints were absolutely amazing and runners were given pasta, soup, stew, tea etc and were very well looked after. There was a moment at about 3.30am on Sunday morning, before reaching Tilberthwaite checkpoint that was particularly tough as tiredness kicked in and Julia couldn’t work out where she was, but as the sun rose again and a cheese toasty at the next checkpoint was eaten, it picked her up and got her to the end. Julia completed the 50 miles in 18 hours and 3 seconds finishing 762nd out of 1134 at 5.45am the next morning. Annoyingly Julia’s watch said that she’d only done 49.6 miles so after crossing the finish line it then took her about half an hour to shuffle around to round it up to 50 miles. It was the toughest thing that Julia has ever done but she will definitely be trying to get in next year.
The second long distance race was done by Ian Kinnersley It was a 102 km route between Minehead on the north coast and Dawlish on the south coast. The route took in Exmoor’s highest point Dunkery Beacon and the continued along the Exe valley. It passed through Dulverton, Tiverton and Exeter en route. Ian completed the route with a friend from Staffordshire who was seriously injured in a motor cycle accident a number of years ago which resulted in him having one leg shorter than the other. The weather was due to be wet and didn’t disappoint. As they came off Dunkery Beacon heading towards the first feed station there was a torrential rain shower which completely soaked all the competitors including them. So, with extremely wet clothes and shoes they continued. At about 50km Ian’s friend developed a hip injury which then severely hampered them from there to the finish. Also due to wet socks and shoes Ian developed a very large blister on his left foot by about 70km which also slowed them. They finally finished during the early hours of Sunday morning and their time was 17:56:43 moving time, 20:18:46 total time with stops. Ian finished 104th out of 417.
Congratulations to David Cooke who broke the M65 South West Veterans AC 400 metres record at the Northern Masters AC championship at Stretford, Manchester last week taking only 63.95 seconds.
On Monday evening the Axe Valley Runners took part on the annual race the tram from Colyton to Seaton tram station. A great time was had by all, with five relay teams competing to try and beat the tram back to Seaton. This year the tram won, however congratulations to the first AVR team back, which included Matt Orsman, Jack Broom, James Glennie, Matt Clyst, Lee Moran and Rob Collier.
Ellie Dominey took part in the Totnes 10k, a race she has done 6 times and have previously won twice. This was her first race back after having her second child 4 months ago. Ellie had pregnancy complications and endured a slow rehab process to get back to running. The aim was not to race it but just to finish and enjoy the day. Ellie warmed up by running the 1 mile fun run with her 2 year old, Sylvester, (his debut race!) and then took the 10k steady as she hadn’t run beyond 5k since April 2020. She was pleased to feel fit and strong but reports there is just no leg speed there at the moment and finished in 50:50, some 8 minutes down on her best but, crucially, not injured, still finishing 1st F35. Graham Newton was the 1st over 70 in the 10K taking 51:09 and Ron Seward the 3rd over 70 finisher.
There were 316 runners in this week’s Seaton parkrun. First finisher was Robert Wood of Basingstoke & Mid Hants AC in 16:22 with Mike Burrett of Leeds City AC 2nd, 16:25 and Wayne Loveridge of Chard RRC 3rd, 16:33. Eleanor Wood achieved a magnificent age grade of 90+%! A few AVRs ventured to the Killerton parkrun now run in reverse to aid social distancing with an uphill finish. Jon Day was 26th out of 292 in 22:10; Ellie Dominey 87th, 25:45; Matt Dominey 96th, 26:24 and Gill Day 193rd in a new PB of 32:28.
The 1st picture below is of Ellie Dominey and Sylvester with their medals attached. Ellie ran the Totnes 10K and warmed up with a 1 mile fun run with Sylvester.
Second is the AVR gang before race the tram.
