Saturday morning dawned sunny and bright and six Sidmouth Running Club members prepared for another marathon, writes Terry Bewes.

Following all of the razzmatazz of the London marathon the week before this one is on a more modest scale.

The Salcombe Coastal Marathon is more of an event than a race as it is a minimum of 26.2 miles but may be longer due to diversions resulting from landslides and with over 4500 feet of ascent considerably tougher than London.

The event starts at Torcross and finishes at Bantham passing through Salcombe, with a ferry across the river and along some of South Devon’s most beautiful coastline.

You have the choice of either a full or half marathon and while some took it seriously other set out to enjoy the day and took time out to enjoy the scenery and the various refreshment outlets along the way.

Of the former, Danny Painter fresh from his hill training in Gibraltar finished the marathon in sixth place in an outstanding time of 4:09:40 while Jennifer Bentley, who could not have chosen a harder run for her first marathon complete the full course in 6:45:00.

Of the latter Debbie Marriott and Don Cawthera had a really enjoyable day, even getting advice on energy bars from Mary Berry who they met in a pub just after the ferry crossing, so enjoyable that they failed to register a time.

Having previously completed the first half Joe and Katie Kent took on the second half this year and finished in a time of 2:10:32, again an excellent time for the course.

The Chairman’s Challenge received an entry from John Doherty who travelled to Liverpool to enter the John West Liverpool 10k in Sefton Park along with his nephew James and 3000 plus other runners. John finished in a time of 0:55:40 whilst James who is a novice runner came in at 0:49:00-no respect!

Closer to home on Sunday, Monica Read led a 10 mile run around Woodbury Common taking in Squabmoor Reservoir and the Bystock ponds. There were superb panoramic views all round and Portland Bill could be seen.