Silverware For Steele and Scanes

Rachel Steele and Julian Scanes proved their marathon preparations are bang on track as they both claimed podium places at the Granite Way 20 Mile event on Sunday 20 March.

Organised by Exeter City Community Trust and setting out from Okehampton, the event offers scenic Dartmoor views and a perfect opportunity to build up to a springtime marathon. Despite very windy conditions, there were some superb performances.

Scanes ran brilliantly to finishing as third male overall in 2:12:56. It also meant he was the leading male over 50 and was another huge PB as he heads confidently towards next month’s Boston Marathon.

For Steele, it was another very solid performance. She clocked 2:46:29 to finish as third lady to continue her fine form in the lead in to the North Dorset Village Marathon on 1 May. There were other highly creditable Trotters finishes through John Holland who clocked 2:52:31.92 to place 27^th overall and Tim Synge who logged 3:00:01 in 34^th. In total, 59 completed the race.

The preceding day saw the hosting of the Granite Way 10 mile race and there was another healthy Trotter presence. Despite easterly winds, there were also some cracking times. James Saunders sliced nearly four minutes off his previous best over 10 miles. He finished 9^th overall and 2^nd M55 in 1:06:34. Ian Langler was not far adrift, placing 12^th in a strong 1:08:45.

There was a fabulous new PB for Debbie Proctor who clocked 1:18:10 to finish 35^th overall, 9^th female and 2^nd in the F35 age group. She was expertly paced by husband-to-be Ben Elphick, one place behind in the same time, but scoring more timely brownie points ahead of their wedding this year.

There was another fantastic PB by Sarah Pike, who placed 49^th overall and 16^th female in 1:21:41. Finally, there was another impressive outing from Dominique Harcourt who clocked 1:31:23 to finish 80^th overall and 28^th female. There were 143 finishers in total.

Also on Saturday, Neil Pallant took part in the Pound for Pound 6hr endurance race at Wistlandpound Reservoir near Barnstaple. Running from 10am through to 4pm, the object is to run as far as possible on the looped circuit.

Despite a cool start and some headwinds, the sun broke through and Neil covered the multi-terrain route 11 times, eventually reaching 27.65 miles before the cut off. It placed him 24^th out of 74 finishers. He reported that the race offered a fantastic aid station and incredible views. The races profits were being split between the local charities, the Calvert Trust and Chemohero. 

the weekend also saw a return to long-distance racing for Joanna Randall, who was the lone Trotter at the Tavy 13 in West Devon. In one of the more challenging half marathons on the Devon event calendar, she finished in 160th 2:07:41. There were a total of 233 finishers.