Sidmouth runners take on 100km Ultramarathon
Sidmouth Running Club duo Ross Walton and David Forrer halfway around The East Devon Round, Ultramarathon. Picture SIDMOUTH RUNNING CLUB - Credit: Archant
The first Saturday of May saw five Sidmouth Running Club (SRC) members take part in the 100km Ultramarathon, the East Devon Round (EDR), writes Hamish Spence.
Sidmouth Running Club’s David Wright having completed the Half Ultramarathon, East Devon Round. Picture SIDMOUTH RUNNING CLUB - Credit: Archant
This is a very tough race taking the runners through many beauty spots and two areas of natural beauty (AONB's), and it has over 8,700 feet of elevation gain.
The runners set off from Offwell, head through Honiton and up into the hills towards Beacon, Luppitt and Dunkerswell.
Then there are a few miles of woodland paths and then some ridge running up onto East Hill giving great views across the Otter Valley.
They then headed down to Sidbury, Colyton and Seaton for a Jurassic Coastline run to Lyme Regis. From Lyme it was an uphill slog to Raymonds Hill and Axminster and then a very hilly zig-zag run back to Offwell.
Jess Watkins and David Wright both completed the half-ultra EDR. Jess treated this event as a training season for her next ultra and managed to be the second lady across the line in a time of five hours and 26 minutes, only missing first place by 12 minutes. David, however, did not feel in shape to do this epic race, but decided to give it a go. He took it at his own pace by walking the hilly parts and taking full advantage of the refreshments at the check points.
He also stumbled upon an ice cream van and re-kindled his love of ice-pops helping him to a cool finishing time of nine hours and 33 minutes.
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Carine Silver continued on to check point seven while Jim Forrer and Ross Walton egged each other on for the full route taking joint 14th position in 15 hours and 37 minutes.
