ON Sunday Tom Elliott and Liam Roberts raced at the London Triathlon, the world s largest with 13,000 competitors. Tom had an excellent race with a good 1500m swim in 25:38.

ON Sunday Tom Elliott and Liam Roberts raced at the London Triathlon, the world's largest with 13,000 competitors.

Tom had an excellent race with a good 1500m swim in 25:38.

He then cycled well on the 38.5km bike stage, taking 1:07:37, and finished with a fast 9.8km run in 39:50. His overall time was 2:17:57, making him 20th in his age group. Liam was disappointed with his race after starting well in the swim as he dropped 100m off the people he was swimming with in the last 400m to take 29:51. Liam felt that he paced the bike well, taking 1:04:08, and had enough left in his legs for a good run, but suffered a stitch having accidently drunk some of the dock water during the swim! He eventually got round in 47:11 with a total time of 2:26:11, 43rd in his age group. Congratulations to them both.

l The annual AVR triathlon was scheduled for last Monday but was changed into a duathlon due to choppy seas and high winds. There was a mile run followed by a seven mile bike ride and finishing with a 2.5 mile run. Liam Roberts finished first in 39:47, the day after his London race, and was glad to finish, saying that he didn't have much left in the tank and found the second run heavy going. Second place was taken by Ironman Steve White, after a long bike-run brick session the previous day in preparation for Ironman UK, and in third place was Bernard Fry in 44:42. Other results were Andy Sayers (running) and Phil Bayliss (cycling) 45:28, Eleanor Wood 48:07, Paul Johns 48:46, Julie Rowe 51:49 and Susie Pitt 54:25.

l On Wednesday evening four of the younger senior members alongside the oldest attended the fifth race of the Yeovil Town RRC 5K series.

After a lot of rain in the build-up to the race, the weather decided to be kind, the rain stopped for an hour and the conditions were near perfect.

The 120 strong race was won by Jon James of Wells City Harriers in an impressive 15:40. First over the line from AVR was Liam Roberts, 10th overall, in 17:16. Liam felt right at home on this very flat course and thinks he could break 17 minutes in the last of the series next month. Next AVR was Luke Reed, 17th overall. Luke continues to improve in every race he does and set a PB of 18:05. In 20th spot came young Josh Rosindell with a season's best time of 18:20, a great effort as the last run he did was last month's 5k! Next was Emma Kiernan, 51st with a new PB of 20:20 - if she keeps improving at this rate, look out London 2012! Finally, and nudging ever closer to his 1,000th run, was Harry Moore, 119th in 36:03.

l A few hardy AVRs spent Sunday eating their way around the Tree Trip Trot, a 32-mile loop from Seaton designed by the club's resident tree geek, Garry Perratt. They visited a number of the notable trees in the area including the Grizzly Tree at Seaton Heights, Uplyme Yew, Kilmington Pine, King John's Oak in Umborne and many more. Eleanor Wood and Garry ran the whole lot ("ran" being used very loosely!) while Bernard Fry, Dave Kelf, Jon Day and Rebecca Creese each did between nine and 24 miles. Bernard lost his bottle on the Undercliff (but found it again) and after Saturday's rain much organic muck was wallowed in. Sustenance was provided by Garry and Eleanor's culinary skills. The weather was kind and much fun-on-the-run was had.

By Dave Mutter

Axe Valley Runners