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Thrills and spills at the ColyTEN

The conditions were perfect for the second year of the ColyTEN held on Sunday with the event once again a huge success thanks to the great organisation of Rob Collier, Karen Eyre and a big team of AVRs supporting them.

The 10-mile race began in the muddiest of fields in Colyton with runners crossing two rivers, tackling a number of tough hills into the woods at Morganhayes then returning via more mud to the finish at the Peace Memorial Playing Fields.  AVR’s Chair Haydn Boehm rocked the MC role all morning and a host of AVRs and Colyton Youth Football members provided refreshments and huge support for the runners and spectators.

The race itself attracted nearly 250 runners with a big-turn out of AVRs amongst them.

The winners were Wayne Loveridge, Chard Road Runners, in 1:06.25 and Emily Cowper-Coles, Dark Peak Fell Runners in 1:10.43.  Second male was AVR’s Rik Tumber in a superb 1:08.18 followed by a great battle between Matt Clist who held on for fourth in 1:09.49, and Rich Hardy, fifth in 1:09.50.  AVR’s Debbie Whiston was an excellent third female in 1:17.51.  Age group prizes went to Matt Clist, M45; Rich Hardy M40; Rupert Pady M55 for his 1:18.27; Eleanor Wood, first F60 for a brilliant 1:32.34; and Sue Hayes F50 finishing in 1:36.33, even after stopping to help a fallen AVR.

The prizes, handcrafted mugs and boxes of veggies,  were presented by Jody Tucker, chair of Colyton Youth Football and Haydn Boehm, chair of Axe Valley Runners.

Full results are here.

 

My kinda marathon

Kerry Board and Angela Kerr completed the Chicago marathon in the windy city, one of the World Marathon Majors.  On the day when the women’s marathon record was obliterated by Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich who won in an incredible 2:09.56, there were mixed fortunes for the AVR duo.

Kerry finished in a brilliant 3:31, 2645th female, 197th F45, 12021st overall.  After just four weeks to recover from the Sydney marathon, Angela struggled from 30k but still dug deep to finish in 5:50, 141st F65,  to achieve an amazing fifth marathon major with just one to go to complete the set.

A Royal Affair

AVR’s Lee Brooker and Emma Richardson travelled to the Capital for the Royal Parks Half Marathon.  Starting in Hyde Park the route includes Green Park, Kensington Gardens, Buckingham Palace Garden, St James’s Park and the Mall, so covering much of the London marathon route but just the 13.1 miles.

Finishing as the 5257th male in 2:03.03 Lee Brooker was delighted with a shiny new PB while Emma Richardson ran her second fastest half marathon to finish in 2:19.23, 5195th female.  More than 17000 completed the race.

Seaton parkrun and beyond

It was a quiet one for AVR in Seaton on Saturday due to the ColyTEN but there was a good turnout of volunteers and visitors including a family from Australia showing the joy parkrun brings across the world.  Harry McMahon was first finisher in 18:03 and Helen Boehm continued her streak of PBs for her 31:04.  Julia Conway celebrated her 50th milestone; Robert Kerr achieved his 100th parkrun and 100th volunteer milestone on the same day – great synchronisation; and a shout-out to Sarah Shepley for her 250th volunteer milestone achieved recently at Stop Line Way junior parkrun.

Tom Parsons popped over the border to complete St Mary’s parkrun in Bridport in the pouring rain along with Tracy Chapman; Andy Goy did Peter Pan parkrun in Hull; Paul Johns took part in Plym Valley parkrun while Anthony and Adrianne Mullins secured their U at Upton House parkrun.  Jo Orsman ran Exmouth parkrun mid long-run and Patrick Devine-Wright was an impressive sixth at Killerton parkrun.

Celebrating Success Around the World

Templer Ten

The Templar Ten is a relatively flat multi-terrain 10 mile run in Newton Abbott, run mostly on scenic fields and trails, which proved to be a highly successful outing for AVR. Matt Clist was first to finish for AVR, 4th overall and first in his age category in 59:21. Hot on his heels were Joel Seward (5th, 1:00.37) and Richard Hardy (6th, 1:01.28) who was also first in his age category. Matt Hewer (1:04.14) was second in his age category and Rupert Pady (1:07.40) was first in his age category. Karen Eyre (1:13.17) was third female overall and first in her age category too whilst Eleanor Wood (1:20.57) was also first in her age category! Suzi Blackett (1:27.20) rounded off the winnings with third in her age category. There were 205 runners overall. Well done to all in AVR.

The latest results can be found here:-

https://www.teignbridgetrotters.co.uk/UserContent/doc/30057/2024 10 templer 10 results.pdf

Chester Marathon

Graham Newton got the chance to wear his England vest for the 5th time on Sunday when he ran the Chester Marathon as part of the England Athletics Masters team in the England v Wales marathon competition.  The course starts at Chester Racecourse, then loops around the city before heading out into the countryside and over the border into Wales. Then it’s back to England and Chester again, finishing alongside the banks of the River Dee. Graham was competing against England and Wales finest, and did us proud to finish in 3:57:01, 3rd MV75.

Race to the Sea

Lousie Rawlins and Darrell Farley took part in this tough 50 km Ultra in Bournemouth which begins in Moors Valley Country Park and ends with plenty of sand in the last 12 km of the Bournemouth prom. The final kilometre involved running over sand dunes on very tired end-of-ultra legs. Despite this, both completed the run in impressive sub-7 hour times. Louise finished in 6 hours 3 mins – a 50 km PB – whilst Darrell finished in 6 hrs 52 mins. This is the third of Louise’s long runs this year and, so, understandably was her final one. There were 542 finishers overall, approximately half of whom were female. Louise was 275th, 81st female and Darrell was 390th overall.

Cardiff Half Marathon

The Principality Cardiff Half Marathon was the biggest yet, attracting a strong elite field and a Kenyan clean sweep. The highest ever number of internationals also took part this year – with over 3,000 entrants coming from overseas. The theme for the event this year was ‘A Race For Everyone’ and was an opportunity to celebrate the diversity of the city. Matt Frost (1:19.13) was a very successful 225th out of a total of 22,407 elite and non-elite runners, running a hard-earned PB. Elliott Olds (2:04.31) crossed the finishing line of the infamous 13.1 mile road run too. Well done both!

Perth Running Festival 10k

Lesley Adams and Carol Austin finished their month in Australia with a few days in Perth, happily coinciding with the city’s Running Festival!  With a marathon, half marathon, 10k and 4k on offer, both decided on the 10k option. Starting in the city, the route went along the Swan River followed by a mile long tunnel and then over the road bridge giving a great view of the new pedestrian bridge, the Matagarup bridge.  After that it meandered uphill, past the Optus Stadium before returning to finish with half a lap inside on the track.  

Carol finished in 53:40 which was enough to take first F60, from 41 and 116th female.  She had a good first half in sub-25 but found the hills, heat and lack of training meant a tougher second half.  Lesley also found the heat hard and finished in 1:15.01, eighth F65, out of 19.  Nearly 3000 completed the 10k.

In a classic “six degrees of separation” moment after the race, Carol bumped into Sam and Mac MacDonald, former members of AVR who moved to Western Australia ten years ago.  It’s a small world! 

Happy Birthday parkrun!

It’s 5k, fun, friendly and free! This week marked 20 years of parkrun which, since its small start in Bushy Park in 2004, has gathered 10 million runners and over 900,000 volunteers all over the World. So far…. Research has shown that it has made people happier and healthier. How fantastic!

In Perth

Claisebrook Cove parkrun celebrated their 600th event as well as parkrun Global’s 20th anniversary with an international theme for the day.  Flags were provided for some volunteers and Carol Austin was honoured to be the GB flag-bearer!  A colourful morning with flags from 30 different countries and a record 491 finishers.

Worcester Pitchcroft parkrun

The Slade family (Liz, Jeremy and Molly dog) took part in Worcester parkrun which is run on a variety of surfaces around Worcester County Hall. 

A full set of results can be found here:-

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/worcester/course/

On Home Turf

It was a windy one on Seaton sea front for the birthday celebrations. Luke Reed was first finisher in  18:06, third on age grade. Max Richardson was third overall in 18:48. Debbie Whiston was first female in 20:41. There were 260 finishers in total, 106 of them female. A big well done to Matt Chenery (26:38), Helen Boehm (31:18), and Liz Curley (31:55) for PBs in challenging conditions.

A full set of results can be found here:-

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/seaton/results/latestresults/ 

Happy Holidays and Success Everywhere

Berlin Marathon

Richard Hardy and Ryan Snell ran the Berlin Marathon for the first time yesterday. The Berlin Marathon is one of the big events of the marathon-year known for its fast, relatively flat course. This was its 50th birthday too! It didn’t disappoint for Richard and Ryan who were fortunate to have perfect conditions weather-wise for 26.2 miles. Ryan finished in 2:40.53, despite a stitch at 33k, and Richard crossed the line soon after in 2:41.12; not PBs but absolutely fantastic times which rightly deserved a beer afterwards. The full results are yet to be confirmed.

Bolt Round the Holt

A little closer to home, on UK soil, Simon Dimmock was delighted with 5th place in the Portsmouth Lakeside parkrun on Saturday. He finished in 18:44 which was his fastest time since before lockdown. There were 344 runners overall. The very next day, he finished the Bolt Round the Holt 10k at Alice Holt forest near Farnham in sub-40 minutes (39:14). He thoroughly enjoyed the relatively hilly off-road run, on the trails through the forest, and came in 2nd overall. There were 83 finishers.

Barnstaple Half Marathon

In North Devon, Tim Sibley completed the Barnstaple half marathon in 1:35.47. Although the course is relatively flat, there was a brutal head wind for most of the second half, and he was recovering from illness. Despite this he was 2nd in his age group and 29th overall out of 263 finishers.

Taunton 10k

Near home, Matt Frost took part in the Taunton 10k, a gently undulating course through residential areas and along country roads. Due to marathon training and other races he has coming up he used it more as a training run with a 10-mile warm-up! He planned to do the 10k race at target marathon pace but got a bit caught up in it being a race and went slightly quicker than intended. He finished in 38:10, in 16th place. There were 429 runners overall.

The Honiton Hippo

The Honiton Hippo is a very hilly, very muddy (!) trail run of about 7.5 miles. It is a local favourite and was wholly enjoyed by AVR members. Tim Lenton was 4th overall in 56:34 and 2nd in his age group. Eleanor Wood, a day after parkrun success (see below) was first in her age group, 35th overall, in 1:10.49. Other results were Steve Maclure (54th, 1:19.36),  Jeremy Young (81st, 1:28.37), John Wittaker (84th, 1:30.42) and, Samantha Tooze, Helen Boehm and Carolyn Nation (127th, 1:53.20). There were 134 runners overall. Well done all.

Bradley’s Exmouth 10k

Lee Brooker and Matt Chenery also had success in Exmouth running the Bradley’s Exmouth 10k. Known as a popular, tarmacked, officially measured and timed 10k it is a popular run in which Lee Brooker and Matt Chenery ran. Lee took a massive near-10 minutes off his 2023 run finishing in 54:49. Matt finished in 57:31. Well done to both.

parkrun Down Under

Carol Austin continued her successful tour of Oz with a course PB (25:20) at Centennial parkrun and a “perfectly progressive” run. She was 30th female out of 196, with an age-grading of 77.70%, and 200th overall. There were 505 finishers overall.

Italian parkrun

Tony Smith enjoyed the beautiful city of Padua and the friendly Farfalle parkrun. He was 3rd finisher out of 40 on a relatively flat course around the park in 21:45.

Cranbrook parkrun

Closer to home in parkrun tourism terms for Thomas Parsons, Cranbrook Country Park parkrun provided him with a number of successes this weekend. He ran it in 21:25 which is his overall parkrun PB, he was 8th out of 159 runners and was 2nd in his age category. He described it as a great course on the trails of the country park with a fab atmosphere because it was their 3rd birthday.

Exmouth parkrun

Debbie Whiston (19:20) and Simon McClellan (19:43) ran well at Exmouth parkrun on its fast, flat course. Simon ran a 5k, and course, PB and Debbie was 3rd female out of 165. There were 373 finishers in total.

Seaton parkrun

At home, Joel Seward was first finisher in 17:52, pacing Luke Reed to a sub-18 minute parkrun. He also finished, successfully in 17:52, just behind Joel. Matt Hewer was first in his age group with a wholly sub-19 minute run – 18:34 – and 5th overall. Rupert Pady (20:15), Karen Eyre (20:40), James Hawker (21:47), Luke Freathy (23:53), Mark Parsons (24:06), Sarah Farmer (28:49), Shirley Goy (31:11) and Liz Curley (32:37) all ran course PB’s on the pebbles! Eleanor Wood maintained her remarkable record of first on age grade (91.32%) with Karen, second on age grade (84.27%), and a well-deserved first female.

A full set of results can be found here:-

https://www.parkrun.org.uk/seaton/results/latestresults/