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Hot and hilly for Crewkerne 10k

There was a good turnout of AVRs who hopped over the border to Somerset to support the Crewkerne 10k.  Hot conditions and a hilly course made it a challenging run but the beautiful route and great atmosphere made up for it.

The winner, from Chard Road Runners was regular Seaton parkrun first finisher, Wayne Loveridge in a very impressive 34:53, over a minute ahead of the second placed, Shaun Dixon.  First AVR home in fifth and first M40 was Duncan Staddon in an excellent 37:17. Rob Collier took first M50, 14th place, in 41:17.  Eleanor Wood was fifth female and, second F55 in 49:25.  Interestingly all three F55 placings were faster than the F35 and F45 categories! Ian Kinnersley had another good afternoon taking second M60 in 46:33, 35th overall.

More than 180 finished the race, organised by Crewkerne RC and full results can be found here:

No rest on a Bank Holiday!

 Mandy Harris ran the White Star Running’s Ox Half Marathon on Bank Holiday Monday as part of a whole weekend of races organised by the Wiltshire club.   The half marathon was held in the stunning Rushmore Estate with the route going across the rolling Wiltshire Downs and Cranborn Chase as well as the old Ox Drove, an area of outstanding natural beauty.

With nearly 1,700ft of climb and a sneaky evil hill towards the finish, Mandy was pleased to finish in 2:57:13, fourth F50.

Rik Tumber was also competing on the Bank Holiday at the Chagford 2Hills, tough fell race on Dartmoor.

After a lap around the cricket ground runners were straight into a steep technical climb of 225m in less than 1km up Meldon Hill.  A rapid technical descent followed into deep bogs and then another steep technical climb of only about 150m onto  Battadon Common.   Finally another rapid technical descent down to the cricket club to finish.  Rik was an impressive sixth finisher from more than 200 who completed the short but gruelling challenge.

Couch to 5k graduation!

 On Wednesday the latest group of newbies to AVR “graduated” at the end of their Couch to 5k programme.  Nine completed their final week with a 30-minute non-stop run.  Big thanks to Cliff Marriott, Pam Goddard and the other helpers who have supported the group over the last nine weeks. On Wednesday they were rewarded with a shiny star, made by Louise Rawlins, and choc-ices!

Sunny parkrun again

Another sunny Saturday brought the crowds to Seaton again for parkrun with 252 finishers including a large contingent from Southampton celebrating an upcoming wedding.  Second female home was Debbie Whiston in 19.56  who was also third on age-grade with 79%.  First on age grade was Ron Seward in an impressive 81% with a shiny PB too of 22.16.  There were also PBs for Gareth Walker, 23.42; Jo Orsman, 26.57; and Liz Curley, 33:09.

With the holiday season upon us, AVRs also took the opportunity for a parkrun while on their travels with visits to Sharpham Road Playing Fields, Cheddar; Heartlands in Cornwall; Bideford; Conwy and Lymington.  All the details of these and the local parkrun results are here

 

 

Resounding success for AVR at Exe Relays

AVRs had a great evening in Exeter on Friday with 11 teams taking part in the Run Exe 4 x 4k relay event.  With a total of 94 teams competing on a glorious sunny evening there was a wonderful atmosphere alongside the river for the event, well organised by City Runs.

AVR’s men’s 40 (Ryan Snell, Matt Hewer, Terry Emmett, Duncan Staddon) and women’s 40 (Karen Eyre, Kerry Board, Sue Hayes, Debbie Whiston) both took first in category and the men’s 60 (Ian Kinnersley, Ron Seward, Andy Charrington, Alan Hornibrook) also came first, retaining their crown from last year.

The F60 (Janet Cullum, Carol Austin, Angela Kerr, Eleanor Wood) came in second in category.  On a night of very fast times, Jack Broom was fastest AVR, ninth overall in 12:21.  Ron Seward, Janet Cullum and Eleanor Wood were all first in age category.

Lost on Langston Fell

Rik Tumber and Tim Lenton travelled to Dartmoor for the Langston 10k Fell Race on Sunday. Starting from Peter Tavy village hall, it was straight into a big climb for nearly 3km with around 900ft elevation up to Cox Tor.

Rik and Tim both managed to take a wrong turn so finished the race having covered more like 12k!   Despite this Tim was sixth in 59:00 and Rik was eighth in 59:22.

 Taunton Trail

 Three AVRs popped up to Taunton where Prosper Events organised a half-marathon and a 10k along the canal and the river Tone.  On a very hot, sunny morning and in her first ever half-marathon, Georgie Ryan finished in 2:52.11 127th.  Georgie is a new member joining AVR after following the Couch to 5k programme which the club offer for those new to running.

In the 10k Cliff Marriott finished in 56:48, 36th from 132 who completed the race with Bob Carter coming in 58thin 1:02.32.  Bob was raising money for Cats Protection Honiton branch where he is the coordinator.

Sunny Seaton parkrun

It was another glorious day for parkrun with 285 enjoying the perfect conditions.  AVR’s Luke Reed was first to finish in 17:31 with Debbie Whiston first female in 19:34, a great time the morning after running the relays. This also placed her second on age grade in an excellent 81%.  There were five AVR PBs:  Simon Freathy 21:03, Jeremy Norcombe 23:01, David Hutton 24:24, Craig Tiley 24:40 and Sue Chambers 28:39.

Prize for the furthest parkrun this week goes to Bec and Simon Davey who visited Lovstien parkrun in Bergen, Norway, where Bec ran the beautiful, hilly course and Simon volunteered.

 

AVRs contribute to an England victory

Carol Austin and Angela Kerr travelled to Chester for the half-marathon where they represented England Masters F60 and F65 respectively.  Representation follows a selection process involving achieving a qualification standard and position on a nominated race during the previous 12 months.

The course started at Chester racecourse before a short tour around the beautiful city centre then out into the Cheshire countryside before returning to finish with a steep hill up to the cathedral.   In her first England appearance and in perfect conditions, Carol finished in 1:49.08, 11th F60 out of 42, 994th so within the first quartile of the 4000+ finishers.

Angela, making her third England Masters appearance, finished in 2:03.13, 16th F65 from 24.  Overall England took the victory over Wales Masters.

AVRs excel in Exeter

On a hot and sunny morning conditions were excellent for the big contingent of AVRs at the Great West Half-Marathon held in our closest city.  Laura Kerr was first female AVR home in a huge PB 1.44.34 knocking a massive seven minutes off last year’s time.   Matt Frost was first male AVR in 1:23.41, 31st out of more than 1700 finishers improving on last year’s time.  Katharine Moran was delighted with her PB of 2:01.33.  Haydn Boehm finished in 1:35.27, 18th M45 with Jason Potter in 1:39.21.  Wayne Tooze in 1:46.13 and Kathryn Thompson in 2:32.37 both secured PBs for the Great West.  Mark Spraggs continued his current fine form finishing in 1:46.31; Cory Schultze came in in 1:53.11;  Lindsey and Simon Freathy ran together coming in 1:57.26 with Jules Conway finishing in 2:04.31.   Lucyann Ashdown ran for Hospicecare completing the race in 2:06.31 and raising money for a great cause.

Full results are here:

Binfield 10k

Cliff Marriott headed to old haunts and despite a night of curry and karaoke he completed the Binfield 10k in Berkshire in 54.05. It was surprisingly undulating, very warm and a well-supported race.

Loughborough International for Innes

Innes Fitzgerald made her British U20 track debut on Sunday at the Loughborough International where she took third place in the 3000m with a time of 9:09.45 competing against seniors from England, Scotland and the rest of the world.

 

parkrun PBs

At Saturday’s Seaton parkrun third place was secured by Ritchie Durrant in 17:01 and first woman finisher was Deborah Whiston in 20:32. Axe Valley Runners managed an impressive four PBs – Luke Reed 17:31, Max Richardson 19:24, Jeremey Norcombe 23:17, and Zoe Trewick 29:14. The third-place age grade of 79.49% was achieved by Ron Seward in 22:45. There were 222 finishers.  Massive congratulations to core team member, David Sadler who reached 200 appearances at Seaton (including volunteering and running).

Tony Smith and Sam Miller travelled to Jersey Farm parkrun in St Alban’s to nab their “J” for the parkrun challenge while Bec and Simon Davey took part in just the third Thames Path parkrun in Woolwich, a lovely riverside run with an interesting ‘curly-wurly’ finish.  Carolyn Nation was in Wales and took part in the challenging Hafan Pwllheli parkrun which takes place on sand and on Saturday involved an incoming tide!  There is never a dull moment at parkrun!  You can see all the events attended by AVR members this week: here

 ColyTEN Recce

 Rob Collier and Karen Eyre organised a recce for a new local race to be known as the ColyTEN, a 10-mile multi-terrain race on Sunday 15 October. Starting and finishing in Colyton it is a challenging trail race with some 1400 feet of elevation but with spectacular views across the Coly valley.  Look out for this new race that takes place on Sunday 16 October, 2023.