Roger Hayes chalks up 150th at Plym Trail Marathon

This weekend Firstandlastrunning staged their Autumn Half and Marathon races, on both the Saturday & Sunday.

On the Saturday, Graydon Widdicombe and Roger Hayes competed in the full marathon.

Situated on the edge of Dartmoor, the start took place at Clearbrook Village Hall. The runners set off with a short loop of the village, before heading down Cycle route 27 towards the outskirts of Plymouth, before climbing back towards the finish at the village hall. Marathoners had to complete this treck twice!

Race conditions at start time were horrendous, with strong winds and heavy rain lashing down. The first mile of the race was very exposed, so the runner’s trainers were soaked within a mile or two!!

Due to the recent weather conditions, there were a couple of fallen trees, one of which the marathon runners had to hop over 4 times as it lay right across the route. Also, there were lots of fallen leaves, and numerous twigs and large branches to negotiate, leading to tricky underfoot conditions..

Nevertheless, Roger and Graydon both ran well, and the weather did get marginally better as the race progressed. Roger finished in 3:28:40 to claim 2nd place, whilst Graydon managed to sneak just under 4hrs, with a time of 3:59:10 to finish in 8th place. This was also Rogers 150^th Marathon, and probably his wettest!! There were 26 very wet finishers. Richard Pedrick, from SWRR, took the honours, winning in a time of 3:15:00.

On Sunday 27^th October, The Tavy 7, took place on Dartmoor. This is a very popular event for local runners as well as visitors to the region. Alongside the seven miler was a 1.5 mile fun race for the children. The whole event proved to be a great family day out, with the added bonus of great weather conditions for this time of the year.

Sue Tremlett and Karen O’Brien were the only Teignbridge Trotters on show.

This was the third different course since the race was started back in the late 1980’s! Now run on Dartmoor, the route is an undulating but a fantastically scenic one. The race started at Plaster Down, on the western edge of Dartmoor, before the runners ran past Pew Tor and the small hamlet of Sampford Spiney.

Tavistock AC, the host Club, were proud to announce that the Ross Shield, Devon’s oldest running Championship, would be competed for.

Both Sue and Karen really enjoyed the race, remarking on how supportive the marshals were, and how well the event was organised.

Both our ladies ran well, with Sue just having the upper hand on Karen. Sue completed the tough course in 1:01:54 to finish 288^th, and 4th in the FV55 age category competition.

Karen finished in 321^st place, recording a very respectable time off 1:03:57. There were 596 finishers.

The winner of the Tavy 7 was Phillip Wylie, representing Cheltenham and County Harriers. His winning time was 00:36:23.