Sidmouth Running Club conquers London Marathon

It was Mark’s first LM and he was aiming for a sub 3:30:00 finish, which he certainly achieved, finishing in an impressive 3:28:22. The Mighty Green tucked in with a very encouraging pacer for the first 18 miles, caught a glimpse of Mo Farah, and enjoyed the encouraging shouts of ‘Go Sidmouth’ from the crowd.

Mark took the opportunity to raise some much-needed funds for a small local charity, SnackPack (Exeter’s Children’s Diabetes Group). Mark chose this charity as the 9 year-old daughter of his Mental Health Team colleague, Claire, became critically unwell and subsequently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.

Claire now volunteers as Chair for SnackPack, which organises outings and events throughout the year for children and their families to get together and share their experiences, concerns, successes and have fun. The link to Mark’s fundraising page is https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/claire-potts9

Lynda Hawkins was the next Mighty Green to cross the finish line in 3:53:48. It was her third LM and was delighted to get a new PB. Hot on her heels was Richard King finishing in 3:53:03. Richard has been looking forward to this event since he completed the LM for the first time last year and has been training hard to get a sub four-hour finish.

One memorable moment came when he went to the family meet up point after the race, which was near the Horse Guards Parade ground just as the Government alert went off - the noise was something else! The Mighty Green also met the record-breaking milkman from Exmouth, who carried four bottles of milk all the way round!

MG Jane Hemsworth had to wait patiently to get through the starting line, her wave went off at 11.09am and it was 11.20am before she ran over it, nearly her lunchtime! Running her sixth LM, Jane had a lovely day, enjoying the carnival atmosphere with drums, singing and live music. Jane said residents were offering food, water hoses and unofficial rest stops, while pubs and spectators were offering runners half pints of beer! The Mighty Green declined the offers and finished in 4:53:35.

Closer to home, several Mighty Greens gathered under the club flag at Exmouth in brilliant sunshine ready to take part in LMEvents The Maer 10k and Maer Half.

Marion Johnson decided to challenge herself and signed up for the half marathon, her first, along with MG Janice Ranson who finished in 2:18:27. The course was definitely challenging, a multi-terrain single lap climbing nearly 1000ft along the spectacular coast path but Marion took it in her stride and finished in 2:41:59, coming first in her 70+ age group!

Lizzie Mayne from LMEvents does a great job creating a community event and encourages marshals by offering a free place in a future event. Niall Hawkins was running thanks to his wife Kate for marshalling at the Sidmouth 10k and Yasmin Salter had her dad, Ollie, to thank. Christie Ward had volunteered her dad, John Sharples, to marshal for this event and earnt herself a future race entry.

The Maer 10k Challenge is a single lap course which is scenic and a little challenging at times but the Mighty Greens excelled themselves, especially Niall Hawkins who finished 4th overall and first in his 40-54 age group in 40:14 out of a field of 116.

Yasmin and Becky McDonald were also well under the hour, finishing 51:09 and 53:30 respectively, and a PB for Becky to boot! Christie had a fantastic run too, finishing in 1:00:19 with Alexa close behind with a PB of 1:01:18.

It was a very friendly, well organised event (as you can tell by the smiles in the race photographers’ photos), especially as MG John was manning the water station halfway round and everyone received a medal and cake.