Lizzie Maynard and her team from LME organised a fabulous Sidmouth 10k race on Sunday and even the heaviest of the rain held off.
Sidmouth Running Club are very fortunate to have this event on their doorstep and its popularity was reflected by 65 members taking part and the race itself being sold out.
The Mighty Greens are also lucky because most of the marshals are either friends or family of club runners or club runners themselves and the nature of the club means there is a lot of encouragement among the MG’s.
The race starts and finishes at Sidford Village Hall taking in the Byes and seafront, a pleasant flat route, except there is an added extra-Hillside Road and Cliff Road to climb!
Luckily for the club, chairman and run leader Terry Bewes offered a four-week training programme with the aim to be able to run up these hills without walking and even he was surprised when 45 club runners signed up for it.
The hours of hill reps in the dark paid off though, as no one resorted to walking up the hills on the day, a great achievement, and a boost for morale to be able to overtake a fellow runner on a hill!
Out of a field of 265 runners, a cleanly-shaven Toby Garrick was the first MG to power over the finish line in second place in 37:13 and Catherine Hilton was the first female MG to finish in 49:49. The club did very well in the 70+ age category with Rob Edwards and Terry Bewes coming 1st and 2nd respectively in the men’s and Marion Johnson 1st in the ladies.
For some members like Amanda Darling, who finished in exactly one hour, it was their first race, while for others like Beccy Johnson, PB’s were smashed. For others recovering from Covid, it was an achievement to get around and for a few, possibly regret for staying out to watch the Midnight tar barrel in Ottery but every Mighty Green enjoyed running in their home town.
In the emailed race information, Lizzie asks entrants to bring a smile with them and there were plenty of those, especially among the Mighty Greens!
Results: Toby Garrick 37:13; Mark Andow 45:39; Colin Ryan 46:35; Grahame Womersley-Westlake 48:43; Colin L’Anson 49:09; Catherine Hilton 49:49; Richard King 50:43; Adrian Harris 51:31; Ed Broughham 51:42; Tim Swarbrick 53:20; Paul Reeve 53:26; Neville Hylton 54:26; Naomi Garrick 55:27; Hugh Jenkins 55:38; Christine Farnham 55:49; Yasmin Salter 55:49; Clive Gilbert 55:52; Becky Knapman 55:53; Chris Heywood 56:12; Rob Edwards 56:49; Bex McDonald 56:50; Stuart Moul 57:33; Bert Dykema 57:53; Karen Farnham 58:14; Cheryl Boulton 58:40; Amanda Darling 1:00:00; Sarah Clapham 1:00:42; Cameron Baker 1:00:55, Christie Ward 1:04:09; Greg Ward 1:04:10; Kerry Salter 1:04:35; Alexa Baker 1:04:40; Jim Hudson 1:05:03; Kathy Jordan 1:05:05; Beccy Johnson 1:05:08; Helen Neighbour 1:06:04; Marion Johnson 1:08:11; Lesley Fitzhenry 1:08:36; Anna Bastyan 1:08:39; Kay Hylton 1:08:58; Christine McCormick 1:08:59; Liz Wright 1:10:21; Leeann Thomson 1:10:52; Kate Jenkins 1:14:05; Liz Goodman 1:14:06; Jennifer Benattar 1:15:38; Alison Long 1:15:46; Clare Luke 1:16:22; Donna Womersley-Westlake 1:16:23; Judith Jeeves 1:16:40; Terry Bewes 1:16:52; Tracy Scannell 1:17:01.
Pictures from Chris Woodcock
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