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Winchester 10 km

The superb Winchester 10 km celebrated its 40th anniversary on Sunday 19th Feb. The undulating 1-lap course starts outside the Winchester Guildhall by the King Alfred statue. It proceeds out of the city centre and through the villages of Kingsworthy and Headbourne Worthy before heading back towards Winchester and finishing at the North Walls Recreation Centre.

Facing the early start of 08:30, Cliff Marriott took part in the race and finished in 54:23. It was a good race and was highly recommended.


Roundup from parkrun

A good 31 AVR members took to the esplanade for parkrun on Saturday. Joel Seward crossed the line third in 18:16, Susan Chambers ran a PB in 29:08, and Ron Seward topped the age-graded ranking with 77.67%.

Karen Eyre was running at Killerton, third female across the line, Cliff Marriott also ran Winchester parkrun, Carol Austin continued her tour down under at Bathurst, while Craig Tiley was at Exeter Riverside, Carolyn Nation was at Haldon Forest, and Ellie and Matthew Dominey were at The Great Field, where Ellie was first female finisher 

PBs at Exeter Half

Exeter Half Marathon is a fabulous, traffic-free route, along the footpaths and cycle paths along the Exe and the canal.

The race is organised by the City Community Trust and took place on both Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th, with different cut-offs to accommodate a wide range of runners.

The flat course is ideal for those heading for a half marathon PB, and AVR saw success on Saturday, with Angela Kerr, Matt Frost and Mark Spraggs flying the flag against a strong field.



Matt finished 17th in 1:21:59, a PB by 1 minute 20 seconds and Mark also hit a new PB of1:44:32!

Ange finished in 2:07:18, first in her age category.


A great race all round, bravo folks!

Cardiff Winter Warmer

In other half marathon news, Tim Sibley travelled to Cardiff on Saturday to take part in the Winter Warmer Half Marathon in Bute Park. Tim was pleased to finish in 37th place in 1:36:35 and 3rd V50.

Grizzly training

With three weeks to go, one or two of you were out on Sunday getting in those last training sessions for the Grizzly!


   

Watch the intrepid runners set off in this video.

Looks like the training is going well!

parkrun roundup

There were 33 AVR members at Seaton parkrun this weekend. Haydn Boehm, Jase Potter, Paul Johns, Yossi Maclure, Roberta Wadsworth and Emma Sampson all ran PBs. Additionally, Ron Seward took the top age-graded position.

Cliff Marriot and Pam Goddard were running at Weymouth; Carol Austin was at Cronulla, Australia; Ian Smith at Hermanus, South Africa; and Ellie and Matthew Dominey were at Melksham where Ellie took first female finisher. 

Photos from Mark Spraggs, Matt Frost, Pam Goddard and Kathryn Thompson.

Sidmouth shines for the 4 Trigs

In stark contrast to last year, the weather couldn’t have have been more perfect for the 4 Trigs race on February 5th, ran in aid of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY). This low-key race around Sidmouth is one of the “big four” down here in East Devon, alongside Blackdown Beast, the Grizzly and Exe to Axe. It covers approximately 28 km across “an obscene” amount of climb with controls at four of the trig points surrounding Sidmouth.

The route starts and finishes at Sidmouth Sailing Club and takes in the coast path, visits the Donkey Sanctuary and is mostly off road, with some great views. 

Results update:

It turns out the perfect weather led to perfect results: new male and female records were set. AVR members were out in force: Tim Lenton finished 4th overall in 2:25:08; Rob Collier: 17th in 2:46:02; by my reading of the results, Karen Eyre was 3rd female in 3:13:19, Richard Jackson finished in 31st in 3:10:21, closely followed by Rupert Pady, 34th in 3:12:58, with Kerry Board and Emilie Brock in joint 41st crossing the line together in 3:19:24; Si Davey, Susan Hayes, Andy West and Eleanor Wood crossed the line together in 3:24:10, Steve Haines in 3:49:50, and David and Susi Sadler managed three trigs out of the four.

Every week, at least 12 apparently fit and healthy young people die suddenly from previously undiagnosed heart conditions, CRY aim to combat this by supporting awareness, screening and research. The 4 Trigs race has raised over £11,000 for CRY over the past 8 years.

Exmouth Express 5 miles

Meanwhile, over in Exmouth, a number of AVR members were also soaking up the rays in the 5 mile Exmouth Express. This road race is a 2 lap course along Exmouth promenade.

More AVR parkrun news

At Seaton parkrun on Saturday, Lee Doran crossed the line first and Adele Girdwood saw a new PB, with Ron Seward taking the highest age-graded position out of AVR runners.

Carol Austin and Lesley Adams are still on tour down under, visiting Centennial parkrun. Kristian Mears ran at Bushy, Clare Dolan at Southampton, Ellie and Matthew Dominey ran at Lydiard, with Ellie taking the top spot, Carolyn Nation was at Killerton, David Hutton and Susan Chambers were at Penrose, Ian Smith was at Constantia Greenbelt in South Africa, Tony Smith and Sam Miller were at Severn Bridge, and Joshua Hopson was at Frogmary Green.

Finally, Susi Sadler completed her 200th volunteer occasion on Saturday.

Thanks to Sam Halls and Louise Rawlins for the photos.