Glorious Goodrington

There was a veteran hat trick of titles for Teignbridge Trotters at the South Devon Relays at Torbay Velopark on Friday 19 August. Both the male and female over 50s teams and the male over 60s team took the honours on glorious night in Goodrington for the club.

For M50s, in-form Juilan Scanes ran a scorching opening leg of 10:28 for the 3k distance and he was ably supported by Roger Hayes (11:21), Jason Trevenen (11:42) and anchor man Duncan Knight (11:30) to beat Torbay Tri by 21 seconds with 45:01.

For the W50s, Jackie Woon led the opening charge with 12:37, followed by Kim Knight (14:12), Deb Hart (14:03) and Mandy Wheeler (12:31) for a winning time of 53:23. For the M60s, opening leg runner James Saunders ran a blistering 10:19 with Derek Skinner (12:42), Neil Rutley (12:23) and Alan Boone (12:19) providing rock solid back up for a winning time of 47:43. There was also a notable individual run from Luke Reynolds, who dipped under 10 minutes with a third leg run of 9:58 for the senior men who were fifth.

That winning feeling extended to the weekend with club chairman Roger Hayes placing first in the Plym Trail Marathon on Sunday with a solid 3:29:14 finishing time. He was joined over the classic distance by regular sparring partner Derek Skinner who clocked 4:23:19.

Conditions were described as “…perfect for running; a heavy drizzle with no wind,” by the victorious Roger.

In the half marathon, Karen O’Brien clocked 2:49:00. A day earlier, the same event hosted identical races and Trotters duo Peter Blakesley and Kate Williamson ran lock step in the half marathon, sharing a finish time of 2:01:00.

For Pete, it was all part of his build up to October’s London Marathon and after completing the 13 miles, he added another 7 to make it a round 20. For Kate, it was a welcome return to racing after having baby Jack in September last year.