The first Saturday of August saw Sidmouth Running Club members Antony and Kat Hall wearing the ‘Mighty Green’ in a field of 160 runners taking on the Greenbow Running Club’s Straight Eight race.

The event got under way in the blazing late afternoon sunshine with the start being the Strand at Starcross and the route then taking runners on cycle routes and footpaths along the Exe Estuary and Exeter Canal, all the way to finish at the Quay in Exeter.

Although it is a dead flat course, the weather certainly made it a very tough race.

Right from the start the pace was very quick, with the leading group setting out at sub six-minute miles, so Antony settled into a chasing group behind the front runners.

After a few miles, this group started to break up, the pace and heat of the day starting to take effect. However, Antony, who has had some hot weather race experience this year, managed to keep his pace going. He finally crossed the line, hot and exhausted, in the fantastic time of 52:48 and finishing in a superb overall fifth place.

Kat took a more steady pace in the main field, and managed the heat of the day in a more sensible fashion, finishing in a commendable time of 1:18:27, with a well-earned mid position of 89th overall and looked in much better shape than Antony!

This clearly is a great race, run over a nice flat route, making it a perfect distance for those looking to take the next step up from a 10k. Anthony and Kat are both planning to compete in next year’s Straight Eight, hopefully taking some more Mighty Greens along with them.