Graham Newton, Geoff Woodward and Steve Reynolds competed in this year’s Forces March writes Dave Mutter.

This involved running five Marathons in five days, starting at Ilfracombe, Devon and finishing at Bulford camp in Wiltshire.

The previous day, Graham had run the Edinburgh Marathon in an excellent 3hrs 36mins, but then his problems began. His flight back home was cancelled because of the volcanic ash cloud, so he had to hire a car to drive back to Seaton. Unfortunately, he only had four hours sleep before being picked up by Geoff for the trip to the start line.

In spite of this, all three ran together on the first two legs, with Retro gaining a two minute advantage at the end of the first leg. Graham’s traumatic start to the week started to tell on day three and he decided to run walk that stage, finishing the 30 mile stage very tired, some seven hours later.

He was determined not to be beaten and overcame severe muscle fatigue to complete the final two stages. Geoff and Retro ran on together, finishing in 22hrs 20 minutes, about an hour quicker than last year. Both were very proud of Graham who finished in 29 hours, a great effort after the Edinburgh episode. They have raised about �2,500 between for Project 65, in aid of Forces veterans and would like to thank everyone who supported them, especially Rick and Eleanor Wood who helped them enormously with their fund raising events.

?The first of the summer Woodland relays, with four runners in each team, was hosted by Sidmouth RC on a somewhat blustery Mutter’s Moor, with the East Devon Elite team from the host club winning in 59:18.

The junior girls Morgan Davy, Chantelle Blackledge, Lydia Clapp and Layla Felgate won in 74:34. Layla also posted the quickest girls time of 16:36.

The Junior boys, Josh Coates, James Sibley, Will Blackledge and Harry Felgate were ninth overall in 67:54, with Josh being the fasted boy overall in 15:35. Other AVR times – Old Men fifth, 63:04; Mixed Up 10th, 68:00 and Even Older Men 13th, 71:33.