Jamie Barnett smashes Half Marathon club record at Bideford

On Sunday 3^rd March, a huge contingent of Teignbridge Trotters travelled to North Devon to take part in the very popular Bideford Half Marathon.

This was the 25^th running of the event organised by Bideford Amateur Athletics Club, locally known as the Bideford Blues. The club was formed in 1870 as a gymnastic club, but it wasn’t until 1980 that the running club was formed.

The course start and finish was situated very close to the athletics club, and took the runners through magnificent countryside alongside the River Torridge between Bideford and Great Torrington. The course was run half on roads and half on the Tarka Trail. The runners also had to negotiate a tunnel at the 10 mile point. The race would be described as moderately flat, with one small hill section at mile 4 to 5.

The male course record stood at 1:06:09 and the female course record is currently 1:17:15. To celebrate the 25^th running of the event, prize money was awarded to the first ten male and female finishers, as well as new course records broken.

On a wet and very windy morning, 47 Trotters took their place on the start line for what was the 3^rd Club Championship race of the season. There was plenty of encouragement amongst the cold and wet spectators, and the marshals were very supportive along the route.

The overall winner of the event was Ronnie Richmond running for the home club, Bideford AAC. Ronnie finished in 1:07:33, to record the second fastest time since this race began!! The first female was Katie Synge-Curtis who finished 19^th overall, finishing in a time of 1:20:29.

Teignbridge Trotters highest placed finisher was Jamie Barnett, finishing 4^th in a superb time of 1:11:25. This time not only beat his previous best by 5 seconds, but having just turned 21, Jamie also smashed the senior male Half Marathon record by 2 minutes 8 seconds!! The previous record was held by Dave Tomlin when he ran in the Bath Half in 1996.

Helen Anthony was the first female Trotter home finishing in 1:29:41 to claim 111^th place. Helen is gearing herself up for London, so used this race as prep for the big one.

There were some outstanding performances from many of our Trotters, with silverware won and personal bests smashed.

The other positions and times were as follows: Roger Hayes (91, 1:28:14), Lance Mason (106, 1:29:15), Julian Scanes (116, 1:30:01), Christian Robinson (124, 1:30:48), Jason Trevenen (154, 1:32:25), Susanna Goffe (174, 1:34:02), Derek Skinner (196, 1:35:41), James Saunders (199, 1:35:59), Stan Hayes (212, 1:36:39), Duncan Knight (243, 1:38:23), Jacki Woon (270, 1:39:33), Paul Sharples (287, 1:39:50), Nigel Barnett (320, 1:41:56), Neil Rutley (331, 1:43:02), Sarah Pike (367, 1:44:15), Travis Wood (396, 1:46:07), Bon Rymel (439, 1:47:48), Joanna Randall (464, 1:49:44), Peter Kirby (482, 1:50:35), Bob Small (508, 1:51:20), Kim Knight (592, 1:55:28), Peter Blakesley (605, 1:54:08), Scott Knight (614, 1:54:18), Caroline Clark (653, 1:55:23), Danny Brown (655, 1:56:35), Eleanor Taylor (658, 1:56:04), Eamon Crowe (746, 2:01:54), Sue Tremlett (770, 2:03:12), Sharon Sharples (786, 2:02:11), Emma Ray (815, 2:03:40), Lucy Payne (836, 2:04:48), Corinne Bright (843, 2:05:01), Katey Blackmore (844, 2:05:00), Karen O’Brien (894, 2:08:29), Slly Ingledew (924, 2:10:39), Susanne Westgate (938, 2:12:26), Andy Distin (952, 2:11:44), Lucy Evans (953, 2:11:52), Yasemin Jeffrey (986, 2:15:02), Sara Keatley (994, 2:14:13), Richard Keatley (995, 2:14:13), Kay Shillabeer (1064, 2:19:01), Sue Brown (1065, 2:19:01), Keith Anderson (1137, 2:26:37), Joanna Billyard (1223, 2:44:59). There were 1263 finishers.

As mentioned earlier, there were some notable performances on top of Jamie Barnett’s exploits!! Bob Small won the MV70 category, Lucy Payne claimed 2^nd in the FV65, Paul Sharples also collected 3^rd place in the MV60 category and Lance Mason finished third in the MV55 division.

There were also some great personal achievements as a result of their considerable efforts. New personal bests (time improvement in brackets), for Jason Trevenen (13:58), Neil Rutley (4:49), Yasi Jeffrey (4:25), James Saunders (4:38), Kate Blackmore (3:03), Karen O’Brien (5:00), Andy Distin (2:0), Julian Scanes (0:30) & Bon Rymel (0:1).

There were Half Marathon debuts for Corinne Bright, Kay Shillabeer and Scott Knight. Congratulations to all three of you. Onwards and upwards from here!

Peter Blakesley also ran his 60^th Half Marathon & Peter celebrates his 60^th birthday next week! Congratulations.

A very successful race for the Club on so many fronts, and some startling performances amongst our runners. All the hard work in training is paying dividends!! Well done to you all.

Graydon Widdicombe travelled to Telford for the Groundhog Marathon, which took place on Saturday 2nd March.

This event is held on the 400m athletics track, at Telford Athletics Stadium so is 105 laps to complete the marathon distance. The race was very well organised by How Hard Can It Be Event. There was an automatic lap counting system so there was no chance of the runners accidentally running too many laps, which in the circumstances was just as well!

On the day of the event, the weather was quite good, although the open and exposed nature of the track meant that any wind was felt by the runners, and there was a headwind on the back straight for the entirety of the race. Conditions could have been a lot worse, though.

Graydon did struggle during the race! Firstly he developed a slight knee niggle that was probably brought on by turning left all the time, and then nearly had “a moment” with around 15 laps to go, where he almost threw his toys out of the pram!! Graydon did battle on and finished 35th in a time of 4:26:57. 

Race winner was Scott Hill in a time of 2:53:02.There were 64 runners.

Mark Wotton travelled to Redruth on Sunday, to take part in the Duchy 20.

The race has been revived after its last running in 2012 by Hayle Runners. The race route comprised of two loops, varying in length. The race started outside the Penventon Park Hotel in Redruth. The runners headed out through the town and on towards Illogan through lovely country side. They continued out onto the beautiful Northern Cliffs coast road for a long flat section towards Hells Mouth, before turning inland through Coombe and Pool. This completed the longer loop. The shorter loop took the runners around the outskirts of Tehidy Park and back to the finish outside the hotel in Redruth.

The weather on the morning of the race consisted of heavy drizzle, but as the race progressed, storm Freya hit, making conditions really tough!!

Mark said that the race was very well organised and the marshals were outstanding. The water stations were manned by local cadets.

Mark finished in 161^st position and recorded at time of 3:30:49. Mark was pleased with his run, especially in those horrendous weather conditions.

Natalie Clare and Joe Hornsby took part in the Saucony Cambridge Half marathon on Sunday 3^rd March.

The conditions were not ideal with wet and windy conditions to endure. Luckily the route was primarily a flat fast one, so fast times were expected!

That’s exactly what our two Trotters achieved. Natalie clocked a great time of 1:41:37 to finish in 1651^st position. Natalie also smashed her previous best time by 11 minutes!! Unbelievable!!

Not to be out done Joe also repeated the same feat, posting a time of 1:28:18 to give Joe 429^th place. Superb running from both of you!

There were 8356 finishers. The winner was Michael Kallenbere in 1:06:40.