Trotters travel across the county to Kingsbridge, Cornwood, Stoke Gabriel, to Dorset for the Invader Marathon and to Milton Keynes for marathons

On Thursday 26th a group of Trotters travelled down to Kingsbridge to run a 10k race organised as part of the town's fair week. Competitors were a mix of club runners and holiday makers. 

The race start was 7:30pm, in warm and breathless conditions.  The route started and finished in the town centre. The first 2.5 miles proved to be a tough and challenging for the runners, comprising of 11 varying length hills.  At that point, the course became more undulating for the next 2 miles, before a sting in the tail met the runners 200 metres from the finish adding to the challenge. 

The race was well organised and the marshals were very supportive. There were pockets of supporters around the course who encouraged and were very supportive too.  Ewan Walton ran a consistent race as lead Trotter finishing in 9th place. Roger Easterbrook made his long awaited comeback from a long injury lay off. He finished a very creditable 10th, having to spend much of the race following Ewan’s wiggle!!

Trotters finish positions and times: 9th Ewan Walton - 41:09, 10th Roger Easterbrook - 41:31, 34th Graydon Widdicombe - 48:26, 37th Craig Churchill - 49:12, 48th Chris McIntosh - 51:30, 60th Jim Donovan 53:45. There were 115 entrants.

--

On the evening of Saturday 28th, a trio of Trotters ran the Cornwood 10k.  Jim Donovan, Mark Wotton and Ruth Johnson were the Trotters representatives. The race started and finished in the village, and the route took the runners through country lanes, lovely wooded tracks and fields. The final 1k was a fast downhill finish into the village. The weather was much cooler for the runners as they set off. The event was well organised with very friendly marshals. There was no silverware won, but Mark did win a spot prize!! A day ferry trip to France!

Trotters finish positions and times: 62nd Jim Donovan - 52:30, 113th Ruth Johnson - 59:00, 116th Mark Wotton - 59:33. There were 193 entrants.

--

On the morning of Saturday 28th, four Trotters travelled up to Dorset to run in the Dorset Invader Marathon, organised by White Star Running. 

This was the 4th time the race has been held, centred around East Farm near Blandford. The route comprised of 95% trails. There were aid stations and even a ‘Lovestation’. Roger Hayes was our top finisher in a very respectable 5th place, which won him the MV50 award. All runners collected a Dorset goody bag, which included East Farm jam and Roman Buffalikess??

Trotters finish positions and times: 5th Roger Hayes - 3:44:54, 13th Allen Taylor - 4:03:52, 167th Donna Walker - 6:28:02, 244th Suzie Mills - 7:49:49. There were 256 entrants.

--

On Sunday 29th, 6 intrepid Trotters travelled to Stoke Gabriel for a 10k-ish 90% undulating off road race. 

The weather conditions took a turn for the worse overnight, making the course quite slippy and muddy on parts of the course. The runners were met with wind and rain at the start, although still quite warm.

The course went through lanes, fields and up one long rocky hill that went on for ever!! The runners even had to undure a paddle upto their knees in the river Dart at one point. It was a great course and very well marshalled. All the runners were rewarded with cider and a bacon bap having crossed the finish line! The weather conditions made a change from the high temperatures that we have all had to run in of late.

Trotters finish positions and times: 19th Christian Robinson - 54:38, 31st Derek Skinner - 1:01:58, 45th Max Conroy - 1:07:40, 63rd Jim Donovan - 1:10:48, 90th Mark Wotton - 1:19:18, 108th Sharon Still - 1:26:35. There were 121 entrants.

--

Graydon Widdicombe and Lance Mason travelled to Milton Keynes on the weekend to take part in Enigma Running’s ‘Show Me The Money’ marathons.

On Saturday 28th, the conditions were much cooler than in recent weeks, although there was a strong, gusty wind on parts of the course. Still, much better than very hot conditions, so shouldn't complain! Saturday’s event was 7 clockwise laps of Caldecotte Lake and on lap 6 it started raining heavily for a short while; it actually felt cold at one point, believe it or not! Lance finished in 3:41:06 for 6th place (hampered by his glute injury) whilst Graydon was happy with 3:54:57 for 11th place. There were 55 finishers.

Graydon completed Sunday’s event too, which this time was anti-clockwise around the lake - how exciting! Conditions were quite wet for about half the race, and the wind was still an issue in places on the course, but the forecast torrential rain didn’t materialise. Graydon was pleased to go quicker than on Saturday’s race, managing 3:52:50 for 5th place. There were 47 competitors.  

--

Well done to all our Trotters on a weekend where the weather offered them slightly different challenges.