Sidmouth Running Club chairman Terry Bewes continues his look at the past 12 months at the club, writes Terry Bewes.

Another who I woudl like to commend is Exe to Axe race director Paul Mitchell who once again, with the help of Rob Edwards organised and ran an extremely challenging event exceedingly professionally as I have seen by so much favourable feedback from those that entered.

Thanks also to all the club members who helped out on the day.

The Chairman’s Mighty Green Challenge has been a resounding success and will be repeated this year.

The Mighty Green on holiday has been seen in Gibraltar, Hanoi, Greece, Tokyo, Scotland, Ireland, Morocco, the Baltic, Spain, Croatia, Portugal, Wales, England, Bali, Australia, Africa, India, Madeira, Thailand, South Africa, Italy and France.

The Mighty Green Racing shirt has been worn in the following races: The Wolf Run, Liverpool, Edinburgh, Bristol, Taunton, Windsor, Exeter, London, Dartmoor, Dublin, Drogo, Templar 10, Barcelona and Australia.

Earlier in the year we sent out a questionnaire and from that we were able to find out what you would like from the club. This has resulted in Justin Ashby developing an eight-week 10k training programme focussing on the Ottery 10k with over 30 runners registering, ranging from those who were on the Beginners course to the more accomplished runner. Already PB’s are coming in from members on this course.

The Time Trials have been resurrected under the leadership of vice chair Becky Robson.

She must have been overwhelmed with the 74 members who recorded times on the first outing, together with the helpers and others running but not recording a time we had over 80 members out on a Wednesday evening, truly remarkable.

Members also showed an interest in Parkruns and Debbie Marriott will be organising these.

Guess the time of your run will be back later in the year.

The January beginners’ course was a huge success. Expecting 10 to 15 people, on the first night 35 enrolled with a further 10 the following week, and for once I was at a loss of how to cope with this!

Helen Palmer came to the rescue and once again got involved with organising them. The positive feedback from them regarding Helen and the run leaders on the course speaks for itself and only about 10 dropped out.

This autumn we will try and arrange for Gavin and hopefully Jo Pavey as well to come and give us a talk and maybe run with us. But with Gavin’s experience in the Exe to the Axe, that might be optimistic.

We will see what interest there is in going to Exeter Arena on a Monday night for training on the track and we will arrange a coach if there is sufficient interest.

During the year club runners have collectively entered 60 different events (39 the previous year).

The Sports relief mile organised by Colin Flood raised £3,475.07.

It is great to see those that started in the beginners continuing to improve, likewise the more accomplished runners who have joined throughout the year. One of them told me that when she told her friend she was thinking about joining us she was told “you don’t want to join them they are hardcore” Well that is one thing we are not. We are one big family that enjoys our running and that is the message we must get out there. The press reports play a part in this as the public can see not only the range in the age of our members but also that their friends run.

Thank you to my grandson Kyle for the time he gives to the club with his amazing photography.

And finally, to sum up, I would like to thank you all for continuing to support your club, renew your membership, buy that Mighty Green shirt and wear it with pride, enter more races wearing it, it’s not about winning but supporting your club, show them the strength of The Mighty Green Army. Thank you everyone.