Honiton Running Club’s Stephen Boyes ran the Salisbury 54321 Trail Marathon on 11th August. His time was going really well until the 20 mile point when he followed 3 other runners who had gone the wrong way. With no marshals and just a few arrows, this was almost inevitable. This added 2 more miles giving Stephen a finish time of 4 hours 9mins and recording a distance of 26.9 miles!

Honiton Running Club was well represented at the Dalwood Fayre 10k multi-terrain race on 14th August. Weather conditions were near perfect and there wasn’t too much mud to be found. The race was won by Tim Lenton of local Axe Valley Runners in 40 minutes 1 second. First in for Honiton was Chris Entwistle who came 4th overall in 43:55. This was his first time running the race and also running for the first time was Honiton’s next finisher, Alisdair Moffett in 5th place in 45:07. Steve Davey followed in 8th place in 47:48 and Tom Bornet is running very well to finish just after in 48:20 and one place later saw Richard Harvey in 50:24. Suzanne Spiller finished just 2 seconds later as 1st lady winning a bottle of wine. Howard Bidmead had a great run to finish 14th in 51:34. Judy Davey and Mark Andow ran pretty much the whole race within metres of each other and there was a great battle for the finish line. Time keepers couldn’t separate the two giving them 18th place in 52:41. Esme Wilson had a great race finishing 2 places later in 54:43 followed directly by Ross Penwill just 7 seconds later and Steve Briggs 16 seconds after him. Mark Dallyn couldn’t get his head or legs round this race at all finishing 26th in 56:03 just ahead of John Burgess in 56:27 and Tim Wigram in 56:52. Linda Pike loves this run and finished strongly in 37th place in 1:04:50 followed by fellow lover of the race, Pete Lyus in 42nd place in 1:06:15. Kathy Layzell enjoys this sort of challenge and came 46th in 1:08:30 closely followed by Carol Turnham in 48th place in 1:11:33. Entries were low this year with just 50 finishers enjoying the delicious curry and chips upon their return.

Six Honiton Runners went a little further afield to Snowdonia in Wales on Saturday, 17th August to take part in the 30th Annual Race the Train from Tywyn to Abergynolwyn Station and back again. This is a very popular event with four races on offer competing against the steam train and all Honiton runners chose the longest being 14 miles of undulating off road running. Runners are set off at the same time as the train and run beside the railway line sighting and hearing the train several times. Unfortunately, none of the Honiton runners actually managed to beat the train although Steve Davey was tantalisingly close. The train recorded a time of 1:48:07 and Steve’s time was 1:48:49. Bruce Strawbridge was next back finishing in 1:55:35. Judy Davey and Howard Bidmead had run the race within spitting distance of each other for most of it and their positions changed several times. Judy eventually got the better of Howard although she was slightly disappointed to have missed out on recording a time of under 2 hours by just 16 seconds. Howard’s time was 2:01:32. Clare Melbourne made it a family affair with her brother and sister in law also taking part. She was the only one to have completed 2 races that day as in the morning she had run with her niece to complete the Toddlers’ Trot. She finished in 2:29:07 with her brother managing to beat the train by an amazing 9 minutes. Tracey Strawbridge completed the Honiton line-up coming just outside the 3 hour mark in 3:02:21. The weather conditions were awful with driving rain and a strong wind blowing against the runners but the race had a bigger than usual field with 935 runners taking part.

Last weekend 4 Honiton runners took part in Le Tour - Exeter. The event involved three events in three days with yellow jerseys for the winners of each stage, plus 'king of the mountains' and 'sprint' jerseys to be won. The first race was a 4 lap, 10k route along the River Exe on Friday evening; the second was an 8k trail route around Haldon Forest (the conditions for which were much welcomed by the runners as they saw rain for the first time in weeks!) The final race was a 5k track race with runners seeded according to their predicted finish times and set off in 4 separate heats. Graham Reeves (although running for SWRR, but deserving of a mention) finished with a total time of 1.32, Tom Bornet finished well in 1.46, Clare Melbourne in 2.20 and Juliet Hall in 2.26. There was also the option to take part in just the 10k race which Mark and Anna Andow took up with Mark finishing in 49.11 and Anna in 1.02. The event was well supported at each stage and runners were awarded with t-shirts, medals and goody bags. Vive le tour! 

Last Sunday, Howard Bidmead of Honiton Running Club organised a social event for the Club and other invited runners. The weather was typical for Exmoor being very wet which was disappointing considering the wonderful weather we have been enjoying lately. Nevertheless, 44 runners and several dogs set off from West Anstey Village Hall to run across Exmoor for the 10 mile mainly off road route. The Moor was wet underfoot and by the time runners had completed the distance, they were thoroughly soggy and much in need of the excellent refreshments awaiting them. The event was enjoyed by all who took part and no-one managed to get lost! Huge thanks to Howard (and others he had roped into help) for a thoroughly enjoyable morning. This was the old Yeo Mill Yomp race route and maybe next year Howard will decide to resurrect the race itself.