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Axe Valley Runners celebrate a successful year

More than 65 members of Axe Valley Runners attended the annual awards celebration at the Old Picture House in Seaton on Saturday evening.

A great night included the presentations of the awards with each winner receiving a lovely, specially commissioned mug from local potter, Gilly Humphreys.  Chairman, Haydn Boehm and captain, Rob Collier presented the prizes.

The first winner was Suzi Blackett, who followed her “most improved runner’ last year, to take the top gong, female runner of the year.  She has had an outstanding year culminating in winning the InStep Devon Championship F35 category for a range of events across the county over different distances and terrains.

Matt Clist won the male equivalent for his first places at the Exe to the Axe, the Beer Blazer and Umborne Ug, along with first AVR at the Grizzly and fourth place at the Ham to Lyme ultra.

This year’s most improved runners proved difficult to call after great progress for many runners in the club. Zoe Harp and Georgie Ryan both demonstrated a sustained and significant improvement and were impossible to separate. On the male side, Tony Smith has improved in every race this year while Jase Potter, has had improvement on both short and long courses and even ran three relay legs at the Race the Tram event.

Club person of the year had one stand out candidate supported by members votes and the committee.  Louise Rawlins has supported so many runners throughout the year including helping at two Couch to 5K programmes and then nurturing runners afterwards in their transition to the club.  She is developing the junior section with a view to it restarting next year and has recently successfully completed her Leadership in Running Fitness qualification.  A regular helper at both Seaton and Stopline Way junior parkrun events where she is loved by the volunteers and runners alike, she is known for her encouragement and motivation.

The Founder’s Trophy recognises determination and effort to achieve a significant goal and this year was awarded to Kathryn Thompson who a year ago was suffering from a serious illness and told she may never run again.  But she didn’t listen, went on to run the London Marathon and an ultra, raise a lot of money for charity all while bringing up three young boys.

Jack Broom was awarded the President’s Shield for a specific outstanding achievement following his incredible marathon debut, running 2:38 in Manchester.

The team award went to the AVR men’s team (Joel Seward, Duncan Staddon, Richard Hardy and Tim Lenton) who at the Templar 10 took first place by a whooping 25 minutes.

The Chair’s award, chosen by Haydn Boehm, went to Eleanor Wood who has stepped down as captain and committee member after more than 15 years and who has contributed hugely to making the club what it is today. She started the Umborne Ug and has served on the Grizzly Committee for many years as well as leading and supporting runners throughout the club.

Other awards were the Winter Series improvement, chosen by Rob Collier, and going to Sue Chambers; the handicap winner, Dave Hutton and runners-up, Richard Matthews and Bob Carter; and the new AVR Race Series winners: Laura Kerr (FSen) Emilie Brock (F40);  Kerry Board (F45);  Karen Eyre (F50);  Adele Girdwood (F55);  Carol Austin (F60);  Eleanor Wood (F65);  Janet Cullum (F70); Joel Seward (MSen) Matt Clist (M40);  Haydn Boehm (M45);  Robert Collier (M50); Darrell Farley (M55); Ian Kinnersley (M60);  Alan Hornibrook (M65) and  Ron Seward (M70).

The evening also saw a draw take place for the club’s TCS London Marathon place with Laura Kerr the lucky winner.  A raffle held for the Devon Air Ambulance raised nearly £250.

AVR would like to thank Committee member, Shaun Vinnicombe for his organisation and the Old Picture House for hosting the evening.

Christmas Cracker 10k

Ragnhild Richards completed the Weston Super Mare Christmas Cracker 10k on Sunday.  It was a wet and soggy day but it didn’t dampen the Christmnas spirit with many running in festive dress. She finished in 54.58, fifth F60.

Seaton parkrun

It was a good day at Seaton parkrun for AVR with almost a clean sweep on the podiums.  First finisher was Joel Seward in 17:03 with Ricthie Durrant, third finisher in 17:29.  On the female side, it was Debbie Whiston in 20:53; Lucy Watkinson in 21:36 and Eleanor Wood in 23:31 as first three finishers with Eleanor Wood’s incredible 88% placing her first on age-grade.  A big shout-out to Kevin Feeney who made his debut as Run Director successfully looking after the 152 finishers.

On the road, Tony Smith and Sam Miller completed their parkrun alphabet by running Zuiderpark parkrun in the Netherlands while Bec and Si Davey secured a Z in a snowy Poznan, completing Zalew Wrzesinski parkrun.  Closer to home Carol Austin ran The Old Showfield parkrun in Frome with Cliff Marriott and Pam Goddard completing Winchester parkrun.

 

 

 

 

Viva Valencia

Matt Frost, Ryan Snell and David Cull travelled to Spain for the fast, flat Valencia marathon.  The sun shone and the conditions were perfect for the race which was being targeted as an Olympic qualifier because of its reputation for fast times.

Both David Cull and Matt Frost ran huge personal bests. Matt achieved a negative split and some seriously good pacing to come in 2736th in a tremendous 2:49.49, a six-minute improvement on his PB.

David Cull, paced by Ryan Snell, took a massive 21 minutes of his PB, finishing agonisingly close to sub-3 but still a brilliant 3:00.59, 5650th and 1075th M40 with Ryan given an identical time.  More than 26000 completed the race which was won by Ethiopian Sisay Lemma in a course record of 2:01.46 with the women’s crown going to Ethiopian Worknesh Degefa in 2:15.50.

Jake Smith pacing for sub-2:08 for the first 21k helped some international athletes secure the Olympic qualifying time.  Briton’s Mahamed Mahamed finishing in 2:08.42 and Phil Sesemann 2:08.49 were marginally outside the Q-time.  He then paced another 5k with GB’s Lily Partridge (2:25.12) and Clara Evans (2:25.50) who both achieved huge PBs inside the women’s Olympic qualifying time of 2:26.50.  A great day at the office for Jake supporting others.

Glorious Goodwood

Joel Seward put his disappointing half marathon in Gosport two weeks ago well and truly to bed with a huge run at the Goodwood half-marathon.  Finishing in a magnificent PB of 1:15.23 he came in fourth place from the 3000 runners who completed the 13.1m race around the famous Goodwood motor racing circuit.

Magnificent seven at the Full Monty

Seven AVRs crossed into Somerset for the Full MontyCute on Sunday.  Run in very challenging muddy conditions the 10 mile race started and finished at Ham Hill and featured some ten hills around the grounds of the beautiful Montacute Castle and Hamdon Hill woods.

First AVR home was Sue Hayes in 1:40.41 scooping the first F45 prize.  Also first in age group, Eleanor Wood finished in 1:42.46, first F55.  Andy West was second M60 finishing in 1:43.45.  AVR were placed third mixed team with Sue Hayes, Eleanor Wood, Andy West along with Haydn Boehm, who finished in 1:42.55.  Other AVRs completing the race, which was won by Chard Road Runners and Seaton parkrun favourite, Wayne Loveridge in 1:12.48, were Simon Davey in 1:45.34; Jeremy Larcombe in 2:04.56 and John Larcombe in 2:24.20.

Devon Cross Country

AVR’s James Green, Rich Hardy and Rob Collier represented the club at the Devon Cross Country held in Exeter. A very sticky and muddy 8k course was hard going with four 2k laps.

James Green finished in 31:00 with Rich Hardy in 31:40 and Rob Collier in 34:35. Full results to follow.

Scores on the doors for InStep Devon and England Masters

Following the final race in the InStep Devon series the 2023 results have now been published with overall female winner confirmed as AVR’s Kerry Board with a magnificent 492 points.  The series, which covers a range of races of varying distances and surfaces throughout Devon, consists of 13 races of which five count towards each runner’s final score.

Kerry also retained her F45 crown and joining her as age group winners from AVR are Suzi Blackett, F35; Ron Seward M70 and Eleanor Wood, who was joint F65 winner.  AVR also took third place in both the Men’s and Women’s team competitions.  Prizes are usually awarded at the first event of the InStep Devon calendar next year, likely to be the First Chance 10k in January.

After her Brighton 10k result last month, Carol Austin received confirmation this week of her England Athletics F60 masters selection for the Great Birmingham Run in May 2024.

 

Seaton parkrun

It was a freezing morning in Seaton but, after an early morning course check, the event was good to go and the 220 finishers included a contingent of students and teachers from Woodroffe School , coordinated by AVR’s Emilie Brock, which was a joy to see.

AVR swept the board with the first three female finishers: Debbie Whiston in 20.42; Lucy Watkinson in 21:48 and Kerry Board in 22:30.  Pam Goddard smashed out a time of 28:35, a PB for the second week running clearly enjoying the extra pebbles caused by a slight course change due to ice patches.  Congratulations to Shirley Salter for her 50th milestone.

Most of all a huge thanks to all the volunteers this week cheering and supporting in those freezing temperatures.

On their travels, Alan Morbey completed Porthcawl parkrun while Aileen and Peter Heal took part in the new Five Arches parkrun in Somerset.

Westdown Wander

A baker’s dozen of AVRs tackled the challenging Westdown Wander approx. 10-mile multi-terrain race on Sunday.  Organised by Exmouth Harriers the race had a different finish with the after-effects of Storm Ciaran still causing problems.  With the recent rain it was also vey muddy as the course left Exmouth on the coastal path up and down at Budleigh and then back inland through Littleham.

First AVR home was Kerry Board who was fourth female in an excellent 1:19.16, also second F45.  Eleanor Wood was just behind in 1:22.09, a brilliant ninth woman and first F65.  Ron Seward picked up first M70 for his 1:29.18, 53rd overall while Ann Coston secured first F55 for her 1:34.38 finish.  The full results are here: with 120 completing the race.

The race was the final event in the InStep Devon series; results to follow next week on this.

Seaton parkrun

It was a very cold but a beautifully sunny day on Saturday; so cold that a slight course amendment was needed to avoid some lethal ice at the Hideaway end of the Esplanade.

First finisher was AVR’s Joel Seward in 17:15 with Rich Hardy in third in 17:54.  Debbie Whiston was second female in 20:40.  The extra pebble sections, added to compensate for the shorter Esplanade route, caused no trouble to Max Richardson or Pam Goddard who both secured shiny PBs in 18:32 and 29:48 respectively.  Rob Collier was second on age-grade with 81% for his 18:43.

Congratulations and a big thanks to Louise Rawlins who reached her 100 volunteer milestone and to Haydn Boehm for his first outing as Run Director, including navigating the course change!

Out and about, Jake Smith was preparing for his pacing duties at Valencia next week with a first finisher place at Cardiff parkrun in 14:32; Tim and Amie Sibley took part in Porthcawl parkrun; Dave Hutton and Sue Chambers ran Clevedon Salthouse parkrun while Jo Orsman visited Sharpham Road Playing Fields parkrun and smashed out a 5k PB of 26:32.