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Magnificent marathons: five PBs, 4 sub-3s
As we head into prime marathon season the first five AVRs started the ball rolling with Richard Hardy and Joel Seward taking on the 26.1 miles in Newport while Matt Frost, Jack Broom and Steve Lewis headed to Manchester to tackle the biggest UK marathon outside London. There were four personal bests, one brilliant debut and such is the standard at AVR that the four youngsters all ran sub-3 hour marathons.
Over in Wales, Richard Hardy finished a tremendous 15th in a massive PB of 2:40.52 at the ABP Newport Wales Marathon while Joel Seward also improved his PB finishing 23rd in 2:44.30. More than 1700 completed the race which was won by GB-ultra-athlete, Dan Nash in a course record of 2:19.46.
More than 18000 took part in the Adidas Manchester Marathon that started and finished near Old Trafford with the fast flat route heading out to Altrincham via Sale. Jack Broom was making his marathon debut with a very impressive 87th place in 2:38.08. Meanwhile Matt Frost also nabbed a PB in 2:56.23, 770th place. Steve Lewis completed the marathon in 4:32.37, a PB, coming in a very creditable 11th M70 and 12871st.
The event also offers a team-relay option with teams of two or four. Kevin Feeney joined with some family members running his first leg in an excellent 53:08 to set the team up for a brilliant 66th place from 238 teams with 3:57.40 overall.
Monday is the famous Boston marathon where our very own Tim Sibley will give Kipchoge a run for his money. You can follow the race on Eurosport 2 from 2.30pm (UK time).
Noa batters Yeovilton
Three intrepid AVRs braved Storm Noa on Wednesday last week and tackled Yeovil Road Running Club’s (YRRC) Spring and Summer Yeovilton 5K race series. With strong gusts of wind and driving rain, David Cull was first AVR back in 15th in 19.25. Adrian Strawbridge followed in 20th in 20.06 with James Ashforth in 38th in 22.15. This is a great event well organised by YRRC and with five more events in the series it is well worth considering to check out your speed over 5k.
Boggy Butleigh
Ian Kinnersley and Eleanor Wood headed into Somerset for the Butleigh 10k, which was actually closer to 6.5 miles of muddy off road running on tracks, bridleways and through woods all underneath the Glastonbury Tor. They both loved it with Ian storming home in 51.39, an excellent 20th, and Eleanor fourth female finisher in 53.36. About 120 completed the race in excellent Spring conditions.
A vertical Kilometre!
Rik Tumber took part in the KVK – Kernow’s Vertical Kilometre which is a 15-mile trail race across the hills and coastline of Cornwall around St Agnes with an incredible 1000m of climb. Rik finished an excellent tenth in 2:16.33 from 121 finishers.
Lightening Bolt but no Usain!
Cliff Marriott popped up to Wiltshire for the Lightening Bolt 10k in a village just outside Chippenham. It was a flat road race which Cliff finished in 54.10, 56th out of around 100 finishers.
Remembering John Mellodew at parkrun
The family and friends of John Mellodew attended Seaton parkrun on Saturday to remember John, who passed away in January. John, AVR member for many years, had been a regular participant at parkrun until the Covid break and often took part with three generations of his family. On Saturday his daughter Anita celebrated her 50th milestone finishing second female in 22:25. Her daughter, Elsie also completed Saturday’s run. Many AVRs who used to run with John also came to remember him.
The sun shone again making conditions perfect. First female finisher was new AVR member, Deborah Whiston in 20:28. Ron Seward celebrated a PB in 22:26 which also placed him second on age grade with 80.61%.
Prize for the furthest travelled for parkrun tourism this week goes to Tim and Amie Sibley who nabbed the elusive ‘J” for the parkrun alphabet challenge by running Jamaica Ponds parkrun in Boston, USA.
Fantastically Fast Friday
Six AVRs kick-started their Easter taking part in the Fast Friday 10k organised by City Runs with the route using the riverside paths in Exeter. The flat two-lap course and the excellent conditions ensured some very fast times with the winners, Jim Cole of Tavistock and Katie Knowles of Newquay finishing in 32.08 and 36.46, respectively.
First AVR home was Terry Emmett in eighth and second M40 finishing in a superb 34.35. Matt Hewer was 37th in 39.05 with Tim Sibley coming home in a PB of 42.04, despite recovering from a virus.
Carol Austin was third F60, 163rd overall, in 50.20; Angela Kerr, 207th and second F65, in 56.08; and Sam Summers, 254th in 1:14.07.
Special mention to the female Grizzly winner, Molly Smith who was a brilliant third placed woman in 37.08. She held the fort for the Smith family as her brother (Jake) and parents, along with a few other AVRs, succumbed to injury or illness and did not start.
Momentous Milestones at Seaton parkrun
Event Director, Carol Austin, celebrated her 250-milestone run at Saturday’s parkrun in Seaton. Carol began her parkrun journey in Birmingham where she ran the second ever Cannon Hill parkrun before joining the core team of volunteers there. After moving to Seaton she joined with Tony Smith to become Event Directors as Seaton joined the parkrun phenomenon.
Regular volunteers Tim Sibley and Martin Kerr hit their 100 milestone volunteer stints. A whopping 341 runners including many visitors enjoyed the lovely weather on Easter Saturday.
First finisher was Joel Seward in 16:55 who had a fabulous battle with the eventual second placed visitor with our own Ritchie Durrant finishing in third place in 17:09. Andrew Snook was fourth finisher in 17:47.
First AVR woman home was Deborah Whiston in 20:03 and the top age grade score of 93.1% was secured by Eleanor Wood in 22:27.
AVRs also travelled far and wide for their parkrun fix this Easter weekend with visits including Brighton, Monmouth, Macclesfield, Penrose and Long Eaton.
Podium clean sweep for men at Exe to Axe
It was a 1-2-3 for AVR men at the Exe to the Axe on Sunday. Matt Clist took the win finishing in an amazing 3:05.26; Tim Lenton, second finisher just a minute behind in 3:06.27 with James Green third, springing along the seafront, to finish in 3:15.09. Although a lovely sunny day the recent heavy rain made it a very muddy and tough course throughout the 22 miles of the South West Coast Path from the Exe in Exmouth to the Axe in Seaton.
Emilie Brock was first AVR woman home in an excellent fifth female place and first F40 in 3:52.07. Eleanor Wood came home in 4:04.28 and first F60.
Vicki Wraight and Stephen Grigg decided 22 miles wasn’t quite enough so ran the full marathon option with an additional loop around Otterton to make up the extra four miles. Stephen Grigg was a brilliant fifth in the marathon, 2nd M40, in 4:38.22 with Vicki, 26th finisher in 5:56.58. Just 39 completed the marathon distance event.
Other AVRs amongst the 119 who completed the gruelling 22-mile event were Richard Jackson, 24th in 4:03.24; Jason Potter, 50th in 4:26.04; James Hawker, 71st in 4:50.59; Henry Smith, 72nd in 4:52.21; Jeremy Slade, 78th in 4:56.56 and Dan Clist, 79th in 4:57.02.
Kevin Feeney and Ron Seward ran it as a relay coming in sixth from 13 teams with Kevin completing Exmouth to Sidmouth where Ron took over to run the second leg through to Seaton with a combined finish time of 4:33.20.
Powering on at Powderham Castle
Four AVRs travelled to Powderham Castle on Saturday for the second edition of the 10-mile Power Run set within the beautiful private estate. The multi terrain course provides a mix of fields, trails, woodland paths and short tarmac sections. The runners experience a tough climb in the first mile but are rewarded with a great view at the top. The two-lap race starts and finishes in the castle’s courtyard and takes in the estate’s gems, such as the Deer Park, Belvedere Tower, American Gardens and The Old Plantation. The recent wet weather made the course very muddy and this was reflected in the slower times although, thankfully, the heavy rain forecast for the race itself did not materialise.
First AVR home, fourth woman finisher and first F45 was Kerry Board in an excellent 1:25.36. Andy West finished in 47th place 1:33.58, second M65. Next AVR was Suzi Blackett who finished in 67th place in 1:38.40 with Sarah Herfet dipping under the two hours to finish in 1:59.55 taking third F55.
The race was well organised by City Runs and was in support of the Force Cancer Charity.
Revelling in Reading
Marathon training is clearly benefiting Haydn Boehm who smashed out a personal best for the half-marathon in Reading on Sunday. His 1:32.00 represented a huge six minute PB. Next stop London!
Capital Gains
Already in the capital, Susan Wall completed the London Landmarks Half Marathon in 2:26.36 smashing more than seven minutes from her previous best over this distance.
Paris in the Springtime
David Cull travelled over to France to join the thousands running the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris. His time of 3:40.46 placed him 14646 out of more than 50,000 finishers. David is recovering from a long spell of injury and paced a friend in Paris so was very pleased to come away with a solid run.
Pacing successes at Seaton parkrun
It was pacing week at Seaton parkrun with Lee Moran celebrating reaching his 50th milestone with a perfectly paced 23:58 helping a couple of runners to their sub-24 time. Max Richardson was thankful for an early football cancellation this week to secure a big PB finishing in 19:39.
AVR hits the airwaves
On Sunday afternoon Carol Austin was interviewed on Lyme Bay Radio’s Sports Spectrum show to discuss AVR and getting into running. The show is repeated ‘as live’ on Monday at 6pm. Listen here