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More than 65 members of Axe Valley Runners attended the annual awards celebration at the Old Picture House in Seaton on Saturday evening.

A great night included the presentations of the awards with each winner receiving a lovely, specially commissioned mug from local potter, Gilly Humphreys.  Chairman, Haydn Boehm and captain, Rob Collier presented the prizes.

The first winner was Suzi Blackett, who followed her “most improved runner’ last year, to take the top gong, female runner of the year.  She has had an outstanding year culminating in winning the InStep Devon Championship F35 category for a range of events across the county over different distances and terrains.

Matt Clist won the male equivalent for his first places at the Exe to the Axe, the Beer Blazer and Umborne Ug, along with first AVR at the Grizzly and fourth place at the Ham to Lyme ultra.

This year’s most improved runners proved difficult to call after great progress for many runners in the club. Zoe Harp and Georgie Ryan both demonstrated a sustained and significant improvement and were impossible to separate. On the male side, Tony Smith has improved in every race this year while Jase Potter, has had improvement on both short and long courses and even ran three relay legs at the Race the Tram event.

Club person of the year had one stand out candidate supported by members votes and the committee.  Louise Rawlins has supported so many runners throughout the year including helping at two Couch to 5K programmes and then nurturing runners afterwards in their transition to the club.  She is developing the junior section with a view to it restarting next year and has recently successfully completed her Leadership in Running Fitness qualification.  A regular helper at both Seaton and Stopline Way junior parkrun events where she is loved by the volunteers and runners alike, she is known for her encouragement and motivation.

The Founder’s Trophy recognises determination and effort to achieve a significant goal and this year was awarded to Kathryn Thompson who a year ago was suffering from a serious illness and told she may never run again.  But she didn’t listen, went on to run the London Marathon and an ultra, raise a lot of money for charity all while bringing up three young boys.

Jack Broom was awarded the President’s Shield for a specific outstanding achievement following his incredible marathon debut, running 2:38 in Manchester.

The team award went to the AVR men’s team (Joel Seward, Duncan Staddon, Richard Hardy and Tim Lenton) who at the Templar 10 took first place by a whooping 25 minutes.

The Chair’s award, chosen by Haydn Boehm, went to Eleanor Wood who has stepped down as captain and committee member after more than 15 years and who has contributed hugely to making the club what it is today. She started the Umborne Ug and has served on the Grizzly Committee for many years as well as leading and supporting runners throughout the club.

Other awards were the Winter Series improvement, chosen by Rob Collier, and going to Sue Chambers; the handicap winner, Dave Hutton and runners-up, Richard Matthews and Bob Carter; and the new AVR Race Series winners: Laura Kerr (FSen) Emilie Brock (F40);  Kerry Board (F45);  Karen Eyre (F50);  Adele Girdwood (F55);  Carol Austin (F60);  Eleanor Wood (F65);  Janet Cullum (F70); Joel Seward (MSen) Matt Clist (M40);  Haydn Boehm (M45);  Robert Collier (M50); Darrell Farley (M55); Ian Kinnersley (M60);  Alan Hornibrook (M65) and  Ron Seward (M70).

The evening also saw a draw take place for the club’s TCS London Marathon place with Laura Kerr the lucky winner.  A raffle held for the Devon Air Ambulance raised nearly £250.

AVR would like to thank Committee member, Shaun Vinnicombe for his organisation and the Old Picture House for hosting the evening.

Christmas Cracker 10k

Ragnhild Richards completed the Weston Super Mare Christmas Cracker 10k on Sunday.  It was a wet and soggy day but it didn’t dampen the Christmnas spirit with many running in festive dress. She finished in 54.58, fifth F60.

Seaton parkrun

It was a good day at Seaton parkrun for AVR with almost a clean sweep on the podiums.  First finisher was Joel Seward in 17:03 with Ricthie Durrant, third finisher in 17:29.  On the female side, it was Debbie Whiston in 20:53; Lucy Watkinson in 21:36 and Eleanor Wood in 23:31 as first three finishers with Eleanor Wood’s incredible 88% placing her first on age-grade.  A big shout-out to Kevin Feeney who made his debut as Run Director successfully looking after the 152 finishers.

On the road, Tony Smith and Sam Miller completed their parkrun alphabet by running Zuiderpark parkrun in the Netherlands while Bec and Si Davey secured a Z in a snowy Poznan, completing Zalew Wrzesinski parkrun.  Closer to home Carol Austin ran The Old Showfield parkrun in Frome with Cliff Marriott and Pam Goddard completing Winchester parkrun.