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Super Sunny Sunday in Sidmouth

Ten AVRs took the short trip to Sidford to take part in the LM Events Sidmouth 10k, which starts and finishes at the social hall in the village.  The route takes runners along the beautiful Byes to the seafront then loops back after two steep climbs on Hillside and Cliff Road.

After Storm Ciaran the sun shone on Sunday for the 256 runners with AVR’s Joel Seward taking first place in an excellent 37:29. After his cricket induced summer break from racing he is well and truly back!

Next AVR home was Tony Smith in 26th place in 48.43, just pipping Honiton’s Howard Bidmead, and taking third M55.  In 39th place and winning the M70 award was Ron Seward finishing in 50.48.  Fiona Seward completed a good day for the Seward family, finishing 156th in 1.03.50.

Andy Broom, 89th in 57.09; Gail Van Der Leeden, 112nd in 59.48; Sam Miller, 122nd in 1:00.56; Georgie Ryan, 161st in 1:04.41; Derek Blumfield, 82nd in 1:06.36 and Jayne Tumber, 235th in 1:15.28 were the other AVR finishers.

 

Birthday in Bideford 

Amanda Gowler and Diane Newton took part in the Bideford AAC organised popular 10-mile race on Sunday.  The race takes in magnificent views of the Taw and Torridge estuary heading out on roads and back on the Tarka Trail.  It is a mainly flat route with three small inclines so can be a fast course depending on how the wind is on the day, especially on the Tarka Trail when head winds can make it a tough return.

On Sunday, new member Amanda Gowler celebrated her birthday, finishing 351st in 1:27.15 while Diane Newton was very pleased to finish in 2:12:26, 687th, well under the target she had set for herself.

More than 700 completed the well organised race, which forms one leg of the Bideford triple- 10k, 10 mile and half marathon organised throughout the year-

 

All for a pasty!

Jeremy Slade took part in his first road marathon for a number of years running the Cornish marathon on Sunday.  After a number of hilly off road marathons and ultra marathons he had just the 26.2 miles to deal with and was rewarded with stunning views, a big PB and a Cornish pasty!

The very scenic but hilly circular route started along the Draynes Valley through ‘Poldark’ country of Bodmin Moor, then continued past King Arthur’s legendary Dozmary Pool, Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn at Bolventor and back along the beautiful Fowey Valley.  Jeremy completed it in 4:50.07 coming in in 248th spot from nearly 400 finishers.

Devon Trail 10k

Cliff Marriott battled through the rain and wind on Saturday to take part in the Devon Trail 10k which started at Bicton College and ran around Woodbury Common.  The lovely, undulating route was very wet underfoot from Storm Ciaran and included a number of river crossings but the rain held off during the race, which Cliff finished in 1:02.06, 58th from 142 finishers.

Rain stopped play!

There was no parkrun at Seaton due to the damage on the Esplanade including to the parkrun equipment store from Storm Ciaran.  The clean-up has begun and hopefully the event will go ahead this Saturday, 11th Nov,  when Seaton parkrun celebrates its seventh anniversary.  Volunteers and parkrunners will be in fancy dress with prizes for the best outfits and there is every chance of cake!  Check the event page or FB to confirm it is going ahead.

Stunning Snowdonia

Sue Hayes and Angela Kerr travelled up to beautiful Snowdonia to take part in the very popular Marathon Eyri, twice voted as the most popular marathon in the UK.  The 26.2 mile route encircles Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), the highest peak in Wales.

It is tough, undulating run with a mix of on and off-road trails giving spectacular views across the mountain and the valleys beyond.  Sue Hayes finished in an impressive 4:17.40, 715thplace and 30th F45 with Angela Kerr completing it in 5:37.06, 1834th and eighth F65.  There were 2241 finishers cheered on by big crowds around the course.

Couch to 5k ends in roaring success

 Another Couch to 5k programme came to an end last week with six ‘graduating’ by running 5k non-stop on Wednesday evening.  Four others have also regularly completed 5k at parkrun.  Many of these will be joining AVR in the next few weeks.  Congratulations to all of you and big thanks to Cliff Marriott and his helpers for all their encouragement and support especially given some challenging weather on occasion!

 

Grand performance from Georgie

Georgie Ryan ran the Grand Canal Canter half-marathon in Tiverton on Sunday.  In just her third half she finished 2.21.32, 54th place and second F55; a huge PB, taking a staggering 31 minutes off her previous best.  There were 69 finishers in the race that follows the towpath of the Grand Western Canal.

 Seaton parkrun

It was a quiet one for AVR with Ron Seward second on age-grade in 76% for his 23.34 and Karen Eyre third in 75% for her 22.57.  There were 249 finishers.

On their travels were Dave Hutton and Sue Chambers who completed Amager Faelled parkrun in Copenhagen.  Sally Raynes took part in Alderford Lake parkrun in Shropshire while closer to home, Haydn Boehm ran Upton House parkrun in Poole and Amie and Tim Sibley completed Weymouth parkrun.

Halloween Fun

Matt Frost took part in the Exeter Halloween 10-mile race organised by Exeter City Community Trust. Using it as a training run for his Valencia marathon in five weeks time, he finished fourth in a time of 1:05:10.

With Halloween, the spookiest night of the year, falling on Tuesday, Count Clifford has seen a fang-tastic opportunity to have a hauntingly good time with an AVR run around the eerie streets of Seaton. Ghoulishly delightful fancy dress is de rigueur, so dress to distress! Starting at the Cricket Club at 6.30pm, where the chills and thrills begin.

Local Derby at parkrun

Seaton parkrun on Saturday saw the first ever Axe Valley Runners versus Honiton Running Club Challenge with AVR taking the crown in the run while Honiton won the “Bake Off”.

The run results were based on age-grade scores as calculated by parkrun.  With 18 runners results counting from each club on the day, AVR scored a magnificent 1342 points, helped by Eleanor Wood, leading with 89.8% and Matt Clist, second finisher on the day, with 82.3%.

A tremendous 62 AVRs took part as well as some 20 or so who volunteered.   Full results are here:

In the “Great AVR v Honiton Bake-Off” challenge four magnificent cakes were entered from each club with members of The Hideaway café, the neutral judges.  All the cakes were praised for their professional standard with Honiton’s Halloween cake the overall winner.

A special mention to Kathryn Thompson for her cake in AVR colours, the parkrun logo and, of course, the Seaton pebbles.

A big thank you to all the Seaton parkrun core team, to the Hideaway for their time and patience, to Lee Moran for crunching the numbers, to Robert Nisbet for photos and, most of all to Bob Carter for the idea and organisation.  A battle set to continue and become a regular parkrun fixture.

In other parkrun news, Carol Austin completed the alphabet challenge by claiming her V at Valentines parkrun in Ilford.

Susi Sadler was in Holland for work so visited Kralingse Bos parkrun in Rotterdam while Rob Collier and Sam Summres ran the unique Severn Bridge parkrun that straddles both England and Wales.  Paul Johns and Jon Day popped up to Street parkrun in Somerset while Cliff Marriott and Pam Goddard were in Kent so took part in Walmer and Deal Seafront parkrun.

Abingdon adventure

Ian Kinnersley ran the Abingdon marathon in Oxfordshire on Sunday. The weather was ideal for running with no wind, sunshine and mid-teens temperatures. The course was a flat two-lap event around the town and surrounding villages mainly on road hence it is targeted by many to produce personal bests and “Good for Age” times. Ian ran his fastest marathon in an impressive 3:32:10, beating his previous best from Portsmouth in 2013 by a huge 21-minutes finishing 342nd from nearly 2000 runners and ninth MV60.