On Thursday the Dawlish Coasters staged their very popular Dawlish Warren 4 mile classic in superb warm weather. Starting on tarmac before the soft sand section before a U turn, an energy zapping 800m.

Our man Donald Brooks was soon in the lead as the early leader who edged down to the sea for hard sand conditions blew himself out with too much gusto. The competitors followed the flat path alongside the railway line toward Dawlish. An up and over the railway line, before a sharp turn to head back to the Warren and another railway bridge. The last 400 is the sprint finish, which many relished as the photos suggest. Trotters dominated the field with our spectacular turn out, close racing followed. see pictures & facebook. Results list

After Brooks as 1st male 21:25, next trotter across the line was 6th Roger Easterbrook 23:25 followed by 18th Ben Elphick 24:52. 

The ladies were led by Helen Anthony 30th 26:16 closely followed by Melanie Brooks 31st 26:29, then Elizabeth Nuttall 43rd 27:50. 

The Trotters had good crowd support by club mates and bystanders outside a handy finish area bar with Tracey Lane 239th 56:17 bringing us home. 

We received many plaudits from the organisers and other competitors egged on by our efforts and positive attitude. The 4 mile race included a nice medal and free ice cream although the queue was almost as challenging as the race, Next up is the Erme Valley relays which are always lively fun occasions with lots of crowd support and prizes.

The longstanding Umborne Ug 10K trail race (where the club coach got stuck in the lane) took place in East Devon. The trail course included some good hills, village lanes, amd fields, before the village hall uphill including sharp corner finish. Alex Sparks, Chloe Alford, Chloe & Steve Weeks made the trip over for the fabulous BBQ, and racing. Alex said "A beautiful route through woods and by the river, a toughie with some pretty brutal hills but a nice downhill at the end It was an absolute scorcher - the hottest race I think we’ve both done!

My advice would be to anyone definitely do it! But don’t be stupid like me and wear supportive shoes. I suffered many rolled ankles. Alex came 1st, with Chloe Alford 1st female. A brilliant effort.

James Saunders competed in the 10,000 metre Devon Championships at Exeter Arena on Wednesday 18th. Depending on your predicted finish time you were placed in either the A or B race. James predicted a finish time of 40 minutes so was placed in the B race. Although the start time was at 20:00, temperatures were still 22 degrees but down at track side it felt even warmer.

James entered this event last year but didn't finish due to having his third race in 7 days! He decided to use his experience and start steadily for the first 5k and then hopefully negative split. Sat in 5th place until halfway before making his move. The leader built up a handy gap, but James came through to take 2nd place 32 secs behind the Exeter Harrier, clocking a time of 00:40:02. James was satisfied with his time on a very warm evening and to his surprise he would have beaten two runners in the A race!

Great effort, well done sir.