10K, a club marathon record, a very tough 20-mile obstacle race, and a 5K

Saturday 7^th May saw the Ivybridge 10K, which 18 Teignbridge Trotters participated in. Organised by Erme Valley Harriers, the marshalling and support on the course was fantastic as usual and the shirt this year was brilliant. It was a muggy evening and the country lanes whilst scenic made for warm conditions trapping the evening warmth, the light drizzle at times was a blessed relief!

Emily Levey has been training very well, and on what was her third 10K took nearly 4 minutes off of her previous best, by going under the 50-minute barrier for the first time with a 49:16. Emily is rightly delighted with that time.

Jamie Barnett led the Trotters home with a 36:21, which was a 1 second PB for him over this distance, and he feels he has more to come in forthcoming events.

There were a record 745 finishers in this race, and full Trotters results were:

Jamie Barnett (10, 36:21), Bruce Campbell (74, 42:51), Richard Gentry (99, 44:42), Gary Watson (110, 45:19), Nigel Barnett (128, 46:12), Paul Johns (184, 48:45), Hannah Jones (185, 48:46), Neil Pallant (186, 48:46), Emily Levey (204, 49:16), Jennie Roberts (261, 50:57), Keith George (312, 52:45), Becky George (353, 54:11), Lucy Payne (389, 55:32), Claire Ayling (590, 57:38), Kirsty Golden (492, 59:11), Duncan Hogbin (507, 59:35), Jo Billyard (524, 1:00:20) and Nikki Evans (1:14:12). 

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David Taylor completed the Prague marathon, in what were hot and humid conditions, and knocked about 13 minutes off the club’s V70 marathon record, with a time of 4:07:23. The route takes runners through some cobbled streets, which are painful to run on and although David was hoping for a slightly better finishing time, he was satisfied with his performance on what were quite difficult conditions.

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Mixing it up a bit, Derek Skinner took part in the world’s longest obstacle race. It’s a 20-mile, 200 obstacle race – although Derek says “race” isn’t really the word to use! The event is run at the Burghley estate where they have the horse trials at Stamford, Lincolnshire.

The event has over 6,000 competitors and is run by the Rat Race team and is called The Dirty Weekend. It lives up to its name, as it has mud, water jumps, slides, crawling and lots of climbing up and down things. 99% of any running is off-road, and the event also has a very long cargo net, which goes 50 feet up and over a river. At the finish, the competitors then have to make their way up a five story cargo container obstacle, with climbing frames and cargo nets…..before a slide to the end.

Derek commented that this is an extremely tough event, but the conditions were warm meaning the river crossings were great fun, which is in contrast to the first time he did this event. Derek finished in about 5hrs 30mins, and then had a boogey (despite the grazed knees and elbows!) and a couple of beers to celebrate.

Phew! I was tired reading about all of that. Well done, Derek!

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On Tuesday 3rd May, several Trotters travelled to Exeter to take part in the second round of Run Exe Summer 5K series. Kevin Woodard led the Trotters home on what was his first 5K race, in a time of 17:07, for 14th place. Other results were: Jamie Barnett (15, 17:11, PB), Tim Pratt (20, 17:43), Louise Gentry (67, 20:21), Richard Gentry (79, 20:54), Nigel Barnett (100, 21:55, PB), Tim Theobald (108, 23:01), Hannah Jones (114, 23:34), Jennie Roberts (115, 23:50) and Kathryn Steemson (118, 24:15).

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Thanks for the contributions from Emily Levey, David Taylor and Derek Skinner.

Thanks for the Rat Race picture from Derek, and the Ivybridge picture from Lance Mason.

Please note that next week (14/15 May), Emma Pearcy will be covering the report so please send any information about races to her.