Ruby Red Running organised the perfect Grizzly training event last weekend - the Dalwood 3 Hills 10-mile race, writes Alexa Baker. With the Yarty bursting its banks on the morning of the event, a quick re-route had to be done to ensure the runners safety and the parking fields were out of bounds too.
Four Mighty Greens took part in this seriously muddy, hilly trail race, with MG Scott Chown in his element ploughing through the flooded tracks and enjoying every minute. Martin Barnard was the first Sidmouth Running Club member over the finish line in 1:32:31, 39th out of a field of 167, with Scott finishing in 2:09:17, Charlie Fawell 2:12:20 and Christie Ward, first SRC female to finish in 2:29:15.
Alongside this event is the Dalwood Dash, a 6k muddy, boggy, hilly race with plenty of surface water to wade through. SRC were lucky to have two juniors representing the club, Emily Smith and Amelia Womersley-Westlake.
Emily ran with her dad and finished 17th in 50 minutes and Amelia had both her parents, Donna and Grahame, running with her. Amelia, who is already looking forward to the event next year, finished in 1:06:00. They all enjoyed the challenging course; knee high water at times and both did extremely well with this distance.
On Saturday, Scott joined fellow Mighty Greens Alice Gill, Christine and Karen Farnham at Escot to take part in a 10k event organised by Exeter Trail races. The one-lap off-road course took them around the scenic grounds of Escot with a few tough hill climbs and unavoidable mud.
All four of them enjoyed the event with Alice having to clean and dry her trainers quickly, as she was on the SRC Sunday runners coach trip to run the East Devon Way the next morning! Christine was the first SRC runner to finish in 1:01:43, 45th out of a field of 90, with sister Karen not far behind in 1:02:17, Scott 1:03:00 and Alice 1:12:15.
The club’s social secretary Naomi Garrick missed out on the Sunday club run as she was in Brighton dressed as a dalmatian! The MG was taking part in the Brighton half marathon, raising money for International Animal Rescue. Naomi who ran alongside 8,166 runners, finished in 2:02:32, her tail still wagging!
Beginner’s course member Emma Salter has been showing her Mighty Green spirit on Wednesday club nights. After running the SRC 5k route without stopping, Emma joined the 4-5 mile group the following week, with coach Terry Bewes on hand. Emma did a great job running up hills and coping with the increased mileage and was determined to run non-stop all the way up Broadway to the finish.
Unfortunately, the effort she had put in took its toll with three metres to go and was sick but this did not put her off. With encouragement from Terry, Emma got herself together and with a monumental effort ran past the finish. Well done Emma!
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