Honiton runners did not have to travel too far for last Saturday’s Yarcombe Yomp race which meant that the Club was well represented.

The race consists of two laps of five miles with plenty of slippery mud and cow deposits en route. The race was won by Alex Todd of Axe Valley Runners in a time of 1:07:43. Bruce Strawbridge was first in for Honiton, winning the ongoing battle on this occasion with Steve Davey. Bruce was 14th in 1:21:20 and Steve was 18th in 1:23:31. Ceri Oak has been training hard and had a great race; coming third lady and just one place and 25 seconds after Steve. Vernon Gillard surprised his club mates by turning out for the event as off road is not usually his thing and the Yomp has only a short stretch of road and that is up a steep incline. He was next back in 21st place in a time of 1:24:44.

Judy Davey had a disappointing run in 27th place and 1:32:26. Greg Axsel had followed her for a few miles but, as Judy had kept running up the fields when Greg had taken the walking option, she gradually pulled away. He finished in 31st place in 1:35:02.

This was only the third running of this race and John Burgess has a history of falling on the course as he has hit the ground during both previous races.

He began the race with the idea of taking it gently and he even took his camera to take photos of the amazing views. Luckily he had given his camera to a marshal at the start of the second lap before managing to fall over again, only this time with more dramatic results. He managed to knock some teeth out, cutting his lip badly and sustaining several other more minor injuries. He did pick himself up and continue the race to the finish where he was treated by St John’s Ambulance crew. He was then directed to hospital where he had four stitches to his lip. He was extremely disappointed to miss out on the homemade soup and cakes which as usual were delicious. Amazingly, he still managed 37th place in a time of exactly 1:39. There were 48 runners.

?Runners have the choice of completing just one lap and Tracey Strawbridge took up this option. She completed in 1:03:09 and was 10th out of 19 runners. Amongst others, she raced against a group of ladies on a hen weekend in fancy dress all the way from London.

?This race was the last in the Axe Valley Runners Race Series for 2010 which consisted on six local independent races and is scored by using runners’ age graded results – the older you are, the less you have to do!

The team result was very close, but Honiton Running Club was the overall winner followed by AVR in second place and Sidmouth RC in third. Garry Perratt of AVR was the individual winner.