Sidmouth Running Club leader Clive Gilbert returned to the town of his birth to run his 200th park run; his 74th in a different venue! Accompanied by fellow MG and run leader Derek Blackburn, Clive enjoyed his trip down memory lane.

Mighty Greens represented the club at two half marathons on Sunday. Yasmin Salter and Alice Ambrose headed up to Bath where they had a beautiful morning to run around the city. Run leader Yasmin achieved a new PB finishing in 1:54:34 and Alice knocked a huge 8 minutes off her Great West Run time back in May, finishing in 2:06:37.

Sarah Clapham and Sue Collman headed off in the other direction to take part in the 13th Eden Project half marathon, Cornwall’s biggest running event organised by St Austell running club and the Eden Project.

The ladies enjoyed the route, which took them through woodland, along quiet lanes and through villages where there was great support from locals. The final stretch was downhill within the grounds which offered great views of the biomes. They were very pleased with their 2:36:17 finish time considering the hilly terrain and thoroughly enjoyed the complimentary pasty and beer at the end. All runners had free admission to visit the biomes afterwards and one tree will be planted at the Eden project for each runner registered. A great day out.

Much closer to home, 25 club runners, including three Juniors, took part in the inaugural ColyTEN and fun run organised by Axe Valley Runners in association with Colyton Football Club. It was a superbly well organised event; everyone was very welcoming, there were lots of encouraging marshals and the route was marked out very clearly. AVR know what they are doing as organisers of The Grizzly and, as MG run leader Bex McDonald said, it felt like a mini Grizzly with all the best bits of deep streams, sticky mud, steep hill scrambles and even a samba band!

Just getting to the start line was a taste of what was to come, a five minute walk from race HQ at Peace Memorial Playing Fields, which involved skirting a large section of slurry, only to learn that you were soon to turn around and run through it!

Whilst the runners were getting to the start, the one-mile fun run took place and Barney, Dom and Amelia, wearing their new club t-shirts, did the club proud and enjoyed themselves too.

MG Niall Hawkins had recced part of the course the previous weekend and it paid off, he was the first SRC over the line in 1:18:17, finishing 20th out of a field of 235 runners and MG Louise Dalton was the first SRC female to finish in 1:36:10.

The multi-terrain 10-mile route involved two river crossings (a chance to wash off the slurry), a steep ascent through Ox Woods, beautiful undulating woodland paths through Morganhayes Woodland and two extremely steep climbs which made it very difficult underfoot at times.

This was reflected in the slips, trips and falls that were experienced along the way, from run leader Alexa Baker sliding elegantly to her knees on a fresh cow pat to MG’s Becky Knapman and Amanda Stokes who are now sporting some nasty bruises, cuts and grazes. It wasn’t just the MG’s who took a tumble, Christine and Karen Farnham assisted a fellow runner who took a nasty fall in front of them, as did Scott Chown and Nikita Kay, which reflected in their finish times but shows how supportive the Mighty Greens are.

Although all the runners knew there was a lap of the playing fields before crossing the end, it was mentally challenging to turn away from the finish flags to run it. Vice chair Sarah Watkins, loudly pronounced her dislike of it as she crossed the finish line with Carol Hounsell, referring it to the ‘slurry’ at the beginning of the race!

Sidmouth Herald: Slurry at the start