Local Derby at parkrun

Seaton parkrun on Saturday saw the first ever Axe Valley Runners versus Honiton Running Club Challenge with AVR taking the crown in the run while Honiton won the “Bake Off”.

The run results were based on age-grade scores as calculated by parkrun.  With 18 runners results counting from each club on the day, AVR scored a magnificent 1342 points, helped by Eleanor Wood, leading with 89.8% and Matt Clist, second finisher on the day, with 82.3%.

A tremendous 62 AVRs took part as well as some 20 or so who volunteered.   Full results are here:

In the “Great AVR v Honiton Bake-Off” challenge four magnificent cakes were entered from each club with members of The Hideaway café, the neutral judges.  All the cakes were praised for their professional standard with Honiton’s Halloween cake the overall winner.

A special mention to Kathryn Thompson for her cake in AVR colours, the parkrun logo and, of course, the Seaton pebbles.

A big thank you to all the Seaton parkrun core team, to the Hideaway for their time and patience, to Lee Moran for crunching the numbers, to Robert Nisbet for photos and, most of all to Bob Carter for the idea and organisation.  A battle set to continue and become a regular parkrun fixture.

In other parkrun news, Carol Austin completed the alphabet challenge by claiming her V at Valentines parkrun in Ilford.

Susi Sadler was in Holland for work so visited Kralingse Bos parkrun in Rotterdam while Rob Collier and Sam Summres ran the unique Severn Bridge parkrun that straddles both England and Wales.  Paul Johns and Jon Day popped up to Street parkrun in Somerset while Cliff Marriott and Pam Goddard were in Kent so took part in Walmer and Deal Seafront parkrun.

Abingdon adventure

Ian Kinnersley ran the Abingdon marathon in Oxfordshire on Sunday. The weather was ideal for running with no wind, sunshine and mid-teens temperatures. The course was a flat two-lap event around the town and surrounding villages mainly on road hence it is targeted by many to produce personal bests and “Good for Age” times. Ian ran his fastest marathon in an impressive 3:32:10, beating his previous best from Portsmouth in 2013 by a huge 21-minutes finishing 342nd from nearly 2000 runners and ninth MV60.