As we head into prime marathon season, five Axe Valley Runners started the ball rolling with Richard Hardy and Joel Seward taking on the 26.1 miles in Newport while Matt Frost, Jack Broom and Steve Lewis headed to Manchester to tackle the biggest UK marathon outside London.
There were four personal bests, one brilliant debut and such is the standard at AVR that the four youngsters all ran sub-3 hour marathons.
Three intrepid AVRs braved Storm Noa on Wednesday last week and tackled Yeovil Road Running Club’s (YRRC) Spring and Summer Yeovilton 5K race series. David Cull was first AVR back in 15th in 19.25. Adrian Strawbridge followed in 20th in 20.06 with James Ashforth in 38th in 22.15.
Ian Kinnersley and Eleanor Wood headed into Somerset for the Butleigh 10k, which was actually closer to 6.5 miles of muddy off road running on tracks, bridleways and through woods all underneath the Glastonbury Tor. They both loved it with Ian storming home in 51.39, an excellent 20th, and Eleanor fourth female finisher in 53.36.
Rik Tumber took part in the KVK - Kernow’s Vertical Kilometre which is a 15-mile trail race across the hills and coastline of Cornwall around St Agnes with an incredible 1000m of climb. Rik finished an excellent tenth in 2:16.33 from 121 finishers. Cliff Marriott popped up to Wiltshire for the Lightening Bolt 10k in a village just outside Chippenham, and Cliff finished in 54.10.
The family and friends of John Mellodew attended Seaton parkrun on Saturday to remember John, who passed away in January. John, AVR member for many years, had been a regular participant at parkrun until the Covid break and often took part with three generations of his family. On Saturday his daughter Anita celebrated her 50th milestone finishing second female in 22:25. Her daughter, Elsie also completed Saturday’s run.
The sun shone again making conditions perfect. First female finisher was new AVR member, Deborah Whiston in 20:28. Ron Seward celebrated a PB in 22:26.
Tim and Amie Sibley nabbed the elusive ‘J” for the parkrun alphabet challenge by running Jamaica Ponds parkrun in Boston, USA.
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