Off road tracks are the Trotters' terrain this weekend.........

On Saturday evening 9th February, a new event kicked off in South Brent called the “Wild Night Run”. It was an off road event in the dark over the moor in the Shipley Bridge Avon Dam area. Muddy tracks, rocks and lots of challenging terrain meant the competitors had to have head torches, with the route marked out with saw dust and tape. 141 runners took on the 10 mile run but according to the results it seems that only 5 finished!

There was a check point and Lance Mason went through in 33.40, Ben Epps in 36.44, Neil Pallant in 54 minutes, but it seems Ryan Anthony wasn’t marked off as passing through, even though he did! At the end, after the lads all getting lost due to the trail disappearing, they didn’t get a finishing time! (at time of print).

In the sister race “Mild Night Run”, ran over half the course but still requiring head torches and some of the same difficult terrain as the 10 miler, Tamsin Cook ran in company with mother and daughter Sharon and Kirsty Bowman, but like the lads they got lost and finished in 1.07.42.

After a very wet Saturday night, the “Exeter Half Marathon” put on by Ironbridge Runner Events had to make a longer course due to the flooding. It was run in the same area as the First Chance 10K down at Haven Banks. The revised course was deemed to measure 13.25 but competitors still ran some fantastic times. David Tomlin, who seems unbeatable at the moment, lead the whole race to gain 1st place in an incredible time of 1.15.38 and was 1st vet 40 too, his third prize in as many weeks.

Daryl ”Tarquin” Milford ran a strong race to be 7th in 1.20.39. Geoff Davey crossed the finishing line in 1.28.11 for 15th position. Craig Churchill was 25th in 1.32.59 with a new half marathon PB, Travis Wood 1.39.37 in 54th, Adrain Handley 1.43.00 (PB) in 74th, Peter Kirby 1.44.31 in 83rd and Graydon Widdicombe  1.47.53 (PB) in 96th bringing all the Trotters home inside the top 100. 217 competitors completed the course.

Also on Sunday, the Trotters staged the 5th round of this winter's “Westward League Cross Country” at Parke in Bovey Tracy. After the overnight rain and the general weather over the winter, the course was very hard with plenty of thick mud and water to run through. The senior vet ladies and girls and boys under 17s race kicked off at 12.30 over 5km, meaning they had to go up a nasty hill twice. Stephanie Ross stormed the Trottettes home in 26.24 for 37th place, followed in 40th by Sharon Bowman in 26.46. Next was a Trottette entourage with Ruth Johnson 27.30 in 44th, Tamsin Cook 28.30 in 45th, Charlie Rice 28.38 in 46th, Sarah Seymour 28.30 in 47th, Kirsty Bowman 29.00 in 48th and Tina Caunter 29.12 in 49th. 56 took place in this race.

The Senior and Vet men's race went off at 1.40pm, consisting of three times up the big hill and 3 laps of the field, giving a total distance of 9,300 metres. Ewan Walton brought the Trotter men home in 40.15 for 34th place, followed by Alan Boone 43.17 in 50th, Roger Hayes 44.01 in 53rd, Steve Barker 45.18 in 58th, John Tweedie 46.39 in 66th, John Crocker 49.30 in 77th, Jim Donovan 50.51 in 83rd, Dave Dunn 53.53 in 88th, Guy Roberts 57.49 in 91st and Graeme Baker 58.05 in 92nd. There were 94 finishers in this race - 95 started but one competitor lost a shoe in the boggy conditions!

REPORT BY FIZZ -as it's the AGM in a few weeks, the postion of Press and Publicity Officer will be up for grabs (time for some new input), so if your interested then let me know and I can tell you what is involved.

PHOTOS -TOP - The Wild Night Runners MIDDLE - Graydon in action in Exeter BOTTOM - Dave at Bovey cross country