First time marathoners at a local marathon and ultra event, a Half Marathon as a Club Championship event, plus a 100 Marathon Club record is recognised

Several Trotters took part in a local Marathon and Ultra Marathon event in aid of the THHN charity, which took place on Saturday 3^rd September. The charity provides holidays to families who have seriously ill children, or families who are recently bereaved, so it’s a very worthy local charity.

First up, there were 3 Trotters who took on the Ultra distance – 53 miles. The route takes runners from Exeter Quayside all the way to Berry Head in Brixham, before taking the runners back to Babbacombe Downs in Torquay. Trotters who completed this event were Kris Ward (9, 11:06:27) and in joint 21^st place were Paul Sharples and Derek Skinner in a time of 12:46:24. 27 competitors completed this event.

Several Trotters took part in the marathon distance, with Roger Hayes leading them home in a fabulous 4^th place, in a time of 3:51:18.

There were also six Trotters who had this as their first marathon attempt, which is a very tough course for a first marathon. So very well done to Oli Prouse, Kim Nicholls, Charlotte Barnes, Gavin Forbes, Kevin Sampson and Daryl Hall.

Conditions were not ideal, as the wind came in and you can see from this photo that some of the terrain was very tough, but it all added to the challenge!

There were 284 competitors, and full Trotter results are:

Roger Hayes (4, 3:51:18), Allen Taylor (11, 4:16:58), Roger Hales (14, 4:34:35), Charlotte Barnes (15, 4:44:50), Kevin Sampson (25, 5:09:27), Neil Pallant (38, 5:25:08), Gavin Forbes (45, 5:28:37), Kevin Besford (74, 6:10:14), Melanie Dunn (78, 6:14:35), Richard Keatley (80, 6:15:18), Oli Prouse (84, 6:19:43), Daryll Hall (85, 6:19:45), Kim Nicholls and Katrina Zaple (92, 6:28:01) and Sharon Bowman (107, 7:04:02).

On Sunday 4th September, 15 Trotters travelled to the Bridgwater Half Marathon, which is a lovely course ran on country roads, although a head wind made conditions tough in places.

There were some great results with Ashley Wood and Julian Scanes claiming PBs at this distance.   Also, Roger Easterbrook used this event as his first road half marathon since 2008, and was pleased with his time and appreciated the company of fellow Trotters, in particular Geoff and Peter.

Kevin Woodard, who led the Trotters home, was very pleased with his time as he was using this event as a test race for a marathon he has coming up in 3 weeks time,

With 359 finishers, full Trotter results were:

Kevin Woodard (6, 1:20:14), Tim Pratt (8, 1:20:46), Roger Easterbrook (11, 1:21:58), Ewan Walton (15, 1:24:33), Peter Heckles (18, 1:25:39), Geoff Davey (21, 1:26:35), Julian Scanes (42, 1:32:10), Ashley Wood (48, 1:34:14), Craig Churchill (71, 1:39:44), Louise Gentry (78, 1:40:50), Pete Hayward (97, 1:43:57), Graydon Widdicombe (101, 1:44:08), Hannah Jones (164, 1:55:09), Lucy Payne (217, 2:02:13) and Tina Caunter (284, 2:15:22).

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Trotter legend, Mark Wotton, ran his 100th marathon at his favourite race back in June this year – the club’s very own Dartmoor Discovery.  It goes without saying that running 100 marathons is a great achievement, and once validated allows runners to become a member of the iconic 100 Marathon Club.  Mark took 34 years and 251 days to get to 100 marathons, following his first marathon back on 27th September 1981, which the 100MC have ratified as a record for “Longest 0 to 100 marathons”.  Well done, Mark!