Trotters attend Haldon Heartbeat as part of the Club Championship...

The Haldon Heartbeat was a part of the Club Championship and 34 Trotters made their way to the forest on Saturday 26th April to take part in the 8-mile trail race.   The course is hilly and is mainly ran on forest tracks, with one section that was very muddy.   A strong wind was helpful when behind the runners, but otherwise the wind was a hindrance for many.  A couple of Trotters did take a stumble, but most emerged from the race more or less unscathed with some managing course records.

Trotters won some prizes, picking up the first ladies and first mens team prizes.   Also Roger Hayes was first V45 and Lance Mason was first V50.

For information, Adharanand Finn (who is the author of the “Running with the Kenyans” book) won the race. I am not trying to turn this into a book review, but this is a cracking little book and well worth a read as it documents Finn’s time whilst living around the Kenyan training camps.  Amazon link.  

Full results are:
Lance Mason (5, 00:55:47), Roger Hayes (8, 00:56:42), Russell Wheeler (10, 00:57:10), Chris Broadbent (19, 01:00:29), Mark Hutchins (20, 01:01:01), Michael Mooney (21, 01:01:04), Craig Churchill (24, 01:01:44), Travis Wood (30, 01:03:08), Eyvoll Aston (35, 01:03:28), Mandy Wheeler (37, 01:03:41), John Tweedie (44, 01:05:07), Rob Cowling (45, 01:05:18), Tracy Elphick (54, 01:07:10), Stuart Moulson (55, 01:07:21), Adrian Handley (59, 01:07:59), Derek Skinner (61, 01:08:36), Peter Blakesley (70, 01:10:29), Keith Anderson (78, 01:11:15), Hannah Jones (79, 01:11:21), John Skinner (82, 01:12:04), Sally Ingledew (93, 01:13:21), Rod Payne (97, 01:14:09), Keith George (104, 01:15:41), Becky George (105, 01:15:42), David Dunn (121, 01:18:03), Chris Rogers (132, 01:19:50), Sharon Hutchins (141, 01:21:31), Sharon Bowman (142, 01:21:32), Kirsty Bowman (143, 01:21:33), Cath Pilton (146, 01:22:01), Tina Caunter (171, 01:26:48), Steve Rawlinson (180, 01:30:15), Katrina Zaple (186, 01:36:26), Jess Whitehouse (192, 01:45:01)

Plymouth Half Marathon took place on Sunday 27th April.   The sold out event attracted lots of runners, with over 4000 completing the traffic-free road race.   The course has a mixture of hills and cobbles before finishing on the historic Plymouth Hoe and some of the race was ran into a headwind.   The rain mainly held off although there was a downpour at around the 2hr mark.

Full results are:
Gary Watson (01:41:09), Neil Pallant (01:41:51), Mark Hamling (01:42:58), Kevin Besford (01:50:13), Howard Cotton (01:51:44), Nigel Barnett (01:50:31), Caroline Clark (02:03:14), Tim Hartley (02:14:31), Richard Keatley (02:11:59).

Mark Wotton ran the Stratford-Upon-Avon marathon on Sunday 27th April. The race starts and finishes in Stratford town centre and is 2 laps of an undulating but mainly flat course. The race started in drizzly and blustery conditions but the sun made an appearance half way through and Mark completed the course in 4:33:40 and was 591st out of 732 finishers.

Pictures:

Top:  Trotters before the Haldon Heartbeat

Bottom: Nigel Barnett, Caroline Clark and Neil Pallant at Plymouth Half.

Report by Graydon Widdicombe