There were plenty of Mighty Greens competing in Winding Paths Exe Estuary 50K, marathon and half marathon on Sunday, as Jo Earlam had chosen the event to be her 100th marathon and they wanted to make it one to remember.

The ultra and marathon runners set off from Dawlish Warren in high spirits. Running their first ultras were Claudia Barry, Clare Luke and Donna Womersley-Westlake. Claudia, who is in training for a 100k run in September for the National Brain Appeal, ran with Jo until the ultra/marathon split while Clare and Donna had experienced ultra runner Grahame Womersley-Westlake to keep them on track.

Out of a field of 41, Claudia was the first SRC ultra runner over the finish line in 35th place 7:32:33 with Donna, Clare and Grahame finishing well within the cut off time in 8:36:36.

Hot on his success at last week’s Otter Rail and River 10k Colin Ryan had an amazing marathon run, his first in 15 years. The Mighty Green overtook the ‘steadier’ SRC half marathon runners at Sandy Bay and although they knew not many marathon runners had gone past them Colin didn’t and was very surprised to learn he crossed the finish line in 4th place, 2nd male overall in 3:56:22.

Social secretary Naomi Garrick ran the marathon with balloons tied on to her and with Richard King, paved the way for Jo and MG’s Becky Robson, Jane Hemsworth and Sarah Watkins.

There was no doubt that everyone knew Jo was running her 100th marathon especially as her race number was 100 too! Becky, who has only just started running again after a six-year break, was delighted to be able to run alongside Jo on her 100th marathon as was Sarah who has run several marathons with Jo.

Jane and Jo have run over 20 marathons together and at the finish line Jane presented Jo with a trophy to mark the momentous occasion. Naomi and Richard finished in 6:06:57 with Jo’s gang finishing in 6:22:59.

There was great support along the way from Mighty Greens Helen and David Palmer who cycled ahead of Jo to cheer her on and take photos.