Last Sunday, 17 Sidmouth Running Club members travelled the short distance to Ottery St Mary to run the Karen Hall Ottery 10k race, writes Sarah Brown.

For most members, running the 10k is enough, however for Lawrence Bolam, this was merely a section of his morning’s run, as he also ran six miles there and back!

On arrival at the race, an original Olympic torch from 1948 was being paraded by the organiser, Nick Hall to celebrate London 2012 and the current torch relay. This had been lent by a friend of the club’s treasurer, who ran with it all those years ago.

The course is completely on road, and starts by climbing a short but steep hill up to the monument, before running out to the main road, completing a loop of Fairmile and finishing at the cricket club. It was a strong performance from Sidmouth’s runners, with Mateusz Szala (35.13) finishing second, despite taking a wrong turn; Lawrence Bolam (36.07) finishing a strong fourth and Milan Goc (38.03) also finishing in the top 10 in seventh place. Aaron Smith (40.47), Guy Bennett (41.13) and Naomi Garrick (41.54) (in that wedding dress) also finished well in the top 25.

Other notable performances include a very strong, age-category winning run from John Perratt (46.22), an impressive debut performance from Claudia Barry (54.48), and a return from injury from Adrian Organ (45.12) and John Docherty (59.12).

All Sidmouth runners finished smiling as the sun came out and made the finish of the race very pleasant and almost worth the pain! It was a very good club turnout and performance overall.

?Sidmouth Running Club meets on every Wednesday at 7pm, normally at the sailing club. It offers four different runs per week, and there is always something for everyone!

Anyone is welcome to go along and give it a go. Please check the website for times and location www.sidmouthrunningclub.co.uk