The Armed Forces’, March Five Marathons in Five Days event , took place recently and it was the fifth time the Veterans’ Charity had organised the event, writes Judy Davey.

It starts in Ilfracombe and passes through glorious countryside in Exmoor, the Quantock Hills, rural Somerset and much of Salisbury Plain finishing in Bulford, Wiltshire. The three stooges; Honiton Running Club’s Stephen Boyes together with Steve Retro Reynolds and Geoff Woodward completed the 137miles over the five days. They were awarded a cut glass trophy to recognise the effort.

Last Saturday, several Honiton runners took part in the 10k multi-terrain Umborne Ug. The Ug is a challenging race and there was plenty of mud this year although the weather was pretty much perfect on the evening. Axe Valley Runner’s Tim Lenton won the race in a time of 41 minutes 37 seconds and the first Honiton runner home was Kevin Hawker who came fourth in 44:21 winning his age category.

Ben Stone followed closely coming seventh in 46:12. Hadleigh Davies was next back coming 18th in 51:48. Just one place and 46 seconds later was Steve Davey who also won a category prize. Young Iain Ross had a much better run than last year coming 22nd in 53:29. Ross Penwill is running really well at the moment and stormed home to finish 24th in 53:44 ahead of Rod Inglis by just four seconds. Ceri Oak was the first lady back for Honiton coming 27th in 55:07 and she was followed by the next lady, Judy Davey who finished 39th in 58:05. Simon Spiller had followed Judy for most of the race but couldn’t quite catch her coming 40th in 59:06. This was the first race Greg Axsel has taken part in for about two-and-a-half-years so he did remarkably well to come 46th in 1:02:29. Once again John Burgess was accompanied by his camera taking photos along the way. John came 52nd in 1:02:54. Tony Peek was next back having enjoyed the race to come 57th in 1:04:33. Brent Dicks stopped twice for cider mid route which slowed him down a little to come 61st in 1:07:37 just two places and 15 seconds ahead of Sharon Wells. Kathy Layzell put in another gutsy run to finish Honiton’s line-up coming 69th in 1:11:32. There were 84 finishers. On their return racers were welcomed back to wonderful refreshments in the form of a barbecue, cakes and the bar! Thank you to Eleanor and Rick Wood as usual for organising such a superb race and to all the other helpers, marshals and landowners.

There was also a junior fun run on offer and this was won by AVR’s Alfie Devine-Wright. Jasmine Stone was first back for Honiton coming third female and 13th overall. She was directly followed by Josh Foundling-Hawker and James Oak. Lara Oak, accompanied by her Dad Warren, came 31st and completing the line-up for Honiton was Ellen Layzell in 39th place. There were 45 finishers.