Trio of Trotters enjoy more good results

TRIO OF TROTTERS RUN THIS WEEKEND

Last weekends mass racing for the Teignbridge Trotters up and down the country saw a very quiet weekend for them on Sunday 24th October.Three Trotters found races to part take in.

Ian Langler and Tarquin(alias Daryl Milford) ventured down to the small village of Seaton, on the South-East Cornwall coast, to run the Seaton Valley 5 mile. This is the little brother event to the Deviock Bounder, but unlike that race, which is a ten mile on-road monster, the Seaton Valley 5 mile is an off-road event. With less than a mile of road, this 5 mile race takes the runners through forest trails and along the river bank of the Seaton Valley. With plenty of mud and variety, this is a true cross country event with 47 runners completing it.

Tarquin lead the field for the first mile, but was then joined by a local runner Simon Parry. Simon is a Royal Navy Athletic runner and, as last year's winner, was in no mood to let a couple of foreigners from Devon steal his crown! Simon and Tarquin battled for the remaining four miles, although Tarquin set a fast pace to try to shake him off. But with only 1/2 mile to go, Simon put on a surge and Tarquin just couldn't stay with him and due to the consistent high pace, he had nothing left in his legs for any sort of comeback sprint. Tarquin crossed the line in second place, some 7 seconds behind, in a time of 28:56. The good thing about it was that Simon had to run a faster time than last year to win!

Ian battled throughout the race with three young East Cornwall Harriers runners, who put a small gap on him over the short road section. However, once the course turned back through the wooded Seaton Valley, Ian started to close the gap. Through part of the river valley the runners have to traverse raised board walks, which despite being covered with chicken wire, where still very slippery. Ian used his runner experience to out fox these young Harriers and gradually closed the gap over this section. Ian took two of these runners but was unable to catch the third, with 800 metres to go. However, one of these Harriers came back hard and Ian had to use all of his sprinting ability to stave off this late charge by the youngster, giving the crowd an amazing sprint finish tussle. After a near "photo finish", Ian achieved a hard fought fourth place, with a time of 30:46. (As written By Tarquin himself)

The 29th Stroud Half Marathon.
(As written By Wavell Vigers)

The conditions were near perfect, very similar to those at Dartmoor Vale last week.
1600 runners finished the race which was run mainly on rural roads, similar to the Taunton half route if you know that and was pretty flat with some minor hills/undulations. There was a strong field of international and good club runners. Over-all, the event was well organized with a good medal and T-shirt afterwards. I was very pleased with my chip time of 1:21 10, beating my previous PB set at Taunton earlier this year (1:22 31). I finished 57th overall and very happy that I managed to take
1 min 21 secs off my previous PB.
Report compiled by Sharon Bowman(Fizz)


Photos -Top-Wavell and Tarquin at the Dartmoor vale last week.Bottom-Ian Langler before the Teign Valley Toddle