John and Tina - 'Fleet' of foot in Hampshire

After a flurry of activity recently it was a quiet weekend for the Trotters ahead of the upcoming Templer 10 this coming weekend with only a handful of runners finding races.

There remains some outstanding business from 23 October. One of our many husband and wife teams within the club John and Tina Caunter travelled to Fleet in Hampshire to compete in the Peter Driver Memorial Fleet 10k. The race starts and finishes at the Civic Hall in the town centre and follows a 2 lap course around the streets of the town. Fleet is on the face of it totally flat but little lumps and bumps along the route add a little bit of interest to procedings. In a field of 540 John ran well to finish 194th in 47.47 and Tina in finishing 290th posted a very good time of 52.09.

On Saturday 29 October Graham ‘Inky’ Penn was accompanied by his faithful friend and Collie dog Kelso at the 6.8 mile Sourton Scramble. The race is run over a multi terrain course just west of Okehampton, starting and finishing on the ‘Granite Way’. This is part of the now defunct Okehampton to Plymouth railway and with the course crossing into Dartmoor the race was a good test of fitness. In windswept conditions, Kelso and his master Inky obediently crossed the line 51st out of 80 finishers in 1.00.04 and were duly adorned with a shiny medal for their fine effort.

On Sunday Mark Wooton, Chris Wride and Roger Hales crossed the Welsh border to take part in the inaugural Newport Marathon. Unbeknown to them they were to embark on a real adventure as the race took on a farcical turn that the late and great Brian Rix would have been proud of. The event also includes a half marathon option and this proved to be of real benefit to Mark as things transpired. For the first mile or so the race follows a complicated City Centre route through subways and over bridges and the run was quickly thrown into chaos with runners taking the wrong route. This was to be the first in a series of mishaps for the field of 60 runners. Our Royal Blue trio along with several others next found themselves at a dead-end and had to retrace their steps to pick up the route along the town bridle paths and onto the canal and River Usk. After finding himself in difficulties for the fourth time Mark' humour failed him and he decided to finish at the half marathon point. Despite doing about 3 miles too many Mark recorded 2.25. Meanwhile, our other 2 intrepid runners toughed it out for the full distance (and some extra miles for the pleasure), with Roger ‘Smokes’ Hales, running his second marathon in consecutive weeks, finishing in around 3.16 and Chris Wride with his ‘smile’ severely tested still posted a very respectable time of 3.36. The verdict on the day is that they don’t think they will be back next year. Results are not yet available for the race.

As mentioned earlier we are hosting the Templer 10 on Sunday. The race starts at 10am at the Passage House Inn and with the entries sure to reach the limit of 270 it promises to be a real spectacle as the runners take on the 10-mile Templer Way route.
 

Pictured: Top Inky and Kelso after the Sourton Scramble. Middle: Mark Wooton pictured en-piste at Dalwood earlier this year and Bottom: Tina Caunter who had a fine run at Fleet.
 

Report by Rod Payne