Bostin’ Birmingham
Carol Austin and Carolyn Nation travelled to the midlands for the Great Birmingham Run, which started in Centenary Square outside the International Convention Centre and finished in the city centre near Grand Central Station attracting more than 16000 runners to the half marathon and 10k races. Both AVRs took part in the 10k option which also took in the Jewellery Quarter and Mailbox on route.
Carol Austin finished in 47:03, first F60, 66th female and 420th overall; which should secure an England masters qualification for 2025/6. Carolyn Nation finished in 1:04.32, 2852nd overall, knocking a minute off her PB.
Seven AVRs go wild in the country
The East Devon Round is a trail running festival organised by Ruby Red Running during the bank holiday weekend. Taking place across the stunning countryside of East Devon, there are five events on offer across three National Landscapes, one World Heritage Site and the world famous Jurassic Coast. The races all began at dawn on Saturday with the full East Devon Round of approx. 65 miles including more than 10,000 miles of elevation the longest event. Two Half Rounds of 35 miles and 31 miles and a quarter round of 15 miles are also on offer all with a lot of climbs but spectacular scenery for the runners who all self-navigate the route.
Lewis Brown, finishing in 17:09, was amongst just 38 who completed the full Round. Tim Sibley completed the “Tim Howarth cut-off” which is just 21k short of the total Round. Helen Holmes and Emma Richardson ran together to finish joint 22nd in 10:40 in the Half Round and Steve MacLure, also completed the Half with his two children joining him for the last few miles. James Hawker was third of the seven who completed “the other Half” in 7:12, open only to runners who have ran the first Half in previous years! In the Quarter event Cliff Marriott finished tenth of the 24 finishers in 3:29.
AVR also provided an aid station in Colyton throughout the day on Saturday so big thanks go to Rob Collier and team for organising this, to Ruby Red Running for another brilliant event and to those AVRs who ran sections to support those taking part.
Turkish Delight
Raghnild Richards completed a short version of the Babadağ Ultra
in Turkey as preparation for an upcoming ultra.
The 14k race included some 600m on very rocky, steep trails with fabulous views of the Turquoise Coast but making it a very technical race to navigate. Raghnild finished first woman 60+, with a better time than the men in the same age category, in 2:15 despite suffering a fall.
Seaton parkrun and beyond
There were many London, Boston and Manchester marathon T shirts on show at Seaton parkrun on Saturday with AVR’s Rich Hardy and Debbie Whiston as first finishers in 17:00 and 20:26 respectively. Ryan Snell was second male in 18:10 with Eleanor Wood third woman and first on age-grade with an incredible 92% for her 23:21. There were PBs for Ann-Louise Childe in 27:08; Cath Brenton in 28:12; and Margaret Bargmann in 36:21.
Further afield Tom Parsons ran Haldon Forest parkrun; John Whitaker took part in Heaton parkrun; Andy West completed Newport parkrun; Becky Eastburn enjoyed Eden Project parkrun; and Tony Smith ran Sandhurst Memorial parkrun. Carol Austin and Carolyn Nation, in Birmingham for the Great Run, took part in Cannon Hill parkrun while Helen Boehm completed her tourist streak at St Mary’s parkrun joined by Sam Tooze and Tracy Chapman.
