Hot weekend for hardy trio of Trotters.............

After some very busy weeks of racing the weekend was very quiet for the Teignbridge Trotters. Mark Wotton went to the “Trailblazer Forest of Dean 10k” on 26th May organised by Rat Race Adventures. It was a very hot day with the race starting in 8 different waves. Mark was in wave 1 and the course followed its way through woodland trails on a gently undulating course but with a long steady climb at around 4k  and with 1 water station at halfway. It was a very well organised race with lots of free gifts, although they could have done with another water station. Mark managed 48.37 and was 105 out of 763 finishers. (thanks Mark)

Up in Edinburgh in Scotland on Sunday 27th May ,Tarquin and new member Peter Kirby ran the “Edinburgh Marathon”. Starting in the city’s London Road, the marathon followed a near out and back course, which took them past Holyrood Palace and then out of the city and along the sea front proms of many of the outlying towns and villages from Edinburgh. Turning back at the 18 miles point, the route then took them  through a country park, with difficult underfoot conditions, before the last five mile drag back along the main road to the finish in Mussleborough, which is about 8 miles out of Edinburgh. Although billed as a PB course, the stiff sea breeze and sweltering conditions on the day made any pretentions towards this aim very difficult. Even without the weather, the course was quite unrelenting, despite being largely flat.

Tarquin personally found it very hard and quickly found himself unable to keep up the pace he had intended. But after digging in during the last 8 miles, he managed to gain a respectable time of 2:49:36 for 38th out of around 20,000 competitors. Maybe trying to run two sub-2:45 marathons within 5 weeks of each other was a bit over ambitious, but the experience was still worthwhile. By way of encouragement for all Trotters who have recently completed or are contemplating their first marathon, this is now his 12th marathon in just over 3 years and shows how far he has  progressed from his first marathon time of 4hrs 13 mins at Paris in April 2009!

Peter has only been with the Trotters for a couple of months after transferring from the Launceston Road Runners, following his move to Teignmouth with his wife, from the Devon/Cornwall border. However, he has already thrown himself into Trotter life and immediately offered his services to assist at the Dartmoor Discovery, as well as being a regular at the Trotter training evenings. He has also pretty quickly become a mainstay of the ‘Friday Club’ training session, which is held in Teignmouth on a Friday evening. Peter has already started to show his racing mettle this season and will be a great addition to our great club.

Peter ran strongly with a good consistent pace for much of the race, but did find the last 8 miles, after the turn back point, to be the toughest and quite soul destroying, with the heat here being the most oppressive. His finishing time of 03:42:11 was testament to the grit and determination of our newest MV60 club member. (thanks Tarquin)
 

Report complied by Fizz

PHOTOS- top-Mark at the Haytor Heller in 2010  middle-Peter enjoying his 2nd Edinburgh marathon bottom-Tarquin and Nigel Fenn (Torbay AC) at the start.