A double-marathon weekend, including two first-time marathoners and a Trottette who ticked off her 50th. Plus Allen Taylor completes his fourth 100-mile race, there was a Half Marathon for a few Trotters, and a tough off-road race for Tracey Jolly.

Several Trotters took part in the Plym Trail marathon weekend, excellently organised by firstandlastrunning (ran by popular, local 100 Marathon Club runner, Davey Green). The events take place along the Plym Trail cycle paths, amongst some stunning scenery.

Sharon Bowman tackled both days, to take her marathon total to the magical 50^th number.  Sharon had a great couple of days, running Day 1 with her daughter (Kirsty Bowman) and fiancé (Paul Sharples Snr), whilst also having her fiancé alongside her for Day 2 (it was Paul’s first double).  After several years of ticking off the marathons, Sharon is rightly proud of her great achievement.  Meanwhile, another popular Trotter, Sally Ingledew, is striving to make the Dartmoor Discovery her 200^th marathon.  Sally also took on both days taking her total up to 198.

Some nice touches by the organiser saw Eamon Crowe running in Race Number 1 on Day 1, which was Eamon’s first marathon. Sharon had number 49 for Day 1 and number 50 for Day 2, whilst Graydon Widdicombe did Day 1 in race number 41, on what would have been his late wife’s, Claire’s, 41^st birthday.

Day 1 was ran in good weather conditions on the picturesque out-and-back course (ran twice), whilst Day 2 was raining for most of the event. Never the less, there was a great first marathon for Day 2 with Adam Johnston finishing in a fabulous time of 3:05:12 and also Kevin Woodard knocked 40-mins off his PB with 3:10:58). Adam and Kevin were placed 1 and 2 respectively, with Julian Scanes finishing off the top 3.

Day 1 had 46 finishers, and results were: Graydon Widdicombe (14, 4:29:27), Sally Ingledew (15, 4:29:31), Lucy Payne (21, 4:35:30), Eamon Crowe (29, 4:40:55), Rod Payne (34, 5:06:03), Paul Sharples (35, 5:08:07), Sharon Bowman (36, 5:08:07), Kirsty Bowman (38, 5:08:07), Richard Keatley (40, 5:17:24).

Day 2 had 36 finishers, and results were: Adam Johnstone (1, 3:05:12), Kevin Woodard (2, 3:10:58), Julian Scanes (3, 3:14:23), Sally Ingledew (22, 4:41:00), Paul Sharples (33, 5:56:45), Sharon Bowman (34, 5:56:45).

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Just six days after achieving a marathon PB at London Marathon, Ultra runner Allen Taylor completed the Thames Path 100-mile race in a staggering time of 19:51:13, for 24^th place, which was an awesome 40-minute PB for him.  This was Allen’s fourth 100-miler, and he’s now completed the Centurion series.

The race started in Richmond at 10 am and followed the River Thames to Oxford. The race was the most painful out of the series due to an elevation of only 1900ft, therefore very flat and very hard underfoot. The weather was superb throughout the run.

His son and fellow Trotter, Josh, ran with him for 21-miles to help keep him going, and Allen is delighted to finish the series and have ran part of the route with Josh. Allen’s wife, Marie, and sister-in-law Louise, crewed him on the course, whilst Trotters were tracking him throughout the race, and the whole club are hugely proud of Allen and his achievement.

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A group of Trotters travelled to Saltash to take part in the Half Marathon on Sunday 30^th April, organised by Tamar Trotters.  There were 134 finishers and results were: Craig Churchill (24, 1:40:26), Pete Hayward (47, 1:49:38), Kathyrn Steemson (79, 1:59:54), Joanna Randall (89, 2:03:25), Sara Collman (108, 2:13:15) and Tina Caunter (111, 2:18:40).

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Tracey Jolly completed the Trail Events company's Bolt Head to Head race on Saturday 22nd. It is a 23k coastal race around the cliff tops starting at East Soar and taking in Hope Cove, Bolberry Down, Bolt Head and the National Trust’s Overbeck House. The course had 832 meters ( 2730 ft ) of elevation and Tracey’s time was 2:21:59.

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