Axe Valley Runners Carol Austin and Angela Kerr travelled to Chester over the weekend, to represent England Master in a half marathon.

Carol and Angela represented England Masters in the female 60+ and the female 65+ categories respectively, following a selection process that involved achieving a qualification standard and position on a nominated race during the previous 12 months.

The course started at Chester racecourse before a short tour around the city centre, then out into the Cheshire countryside before returning to finish with a steep hill up to the cathedral.   

In her first England appearance and in perfect conditions, Carol finished in 1:49.08, 11th F60 out of 42 and 994th overall, so within the first quartile of the 4,000-plus finishers.  

Angela, making her third England Masters appearance, finished in 2:03.13, 16th F65 out of 24.  

Overall England took the victory over Wales Masters.  

Axe Valley Runners excel in Exeter

On a hot and sunny morning, conditions were excellent for the big contingent of Axe Valley Runners (AVRs) at the Great West Half Marathon.

Laura Kerr was first female AVR home in a huge personal best of 1.44.34 knocking a massive seven minutes off last year's time.   

Matt Frost was first male AVR in 1:23.41, 31st out of more than 1,700 finishers, improving on last year's time.  

Katharine Moran was delighted with her personal best of 2:01.33; Haydn Boehm finished in 1:35.27, 18th M45; and Jason Potter in 1:39.21. 

 Wayne Tooze in 1:46.13 and Kathryn Thompson in 2:32.37 both secured personal bests for the Great West.  

Mark Spraggs continued his current fine form finishing in 1:46.31; Cory Schultze came in in 1:53.11; Lindsey and Simon Freathy ran together coming in 1:57.26; with Jules Conway finishing in 2:04.31.   

Lucyann Ashdown ran for Hospicecare completing the race in 2:06.31 and raising money for a great cause.

Full results are here: http://www.titaniumresults.co.uk/results.aspx?CId=19747&RId=284&EId=4&dt=0&PageNo=16&adv=0

Binfield 10k

Cliff Marriott headed to old haunts and despite a night of curry and karaoke he completed the Binfield 10k in Berkshire in 54.05. It was surprisingly undulating, very warm and a well-supported race.

Loughborough International for Innes

Innes Fitzgerald made her British U20 track debut on Sunday at the Loughborough International, where she took third place in the 3,000m with a time of 9:09.45, competing against seniors from England, Scotland and the rest of the world.  

Personal bests at parkrun

At Saturday's Seaton parkrun third place was secured by Ritchie Durrant in 17:01 and first woman finisher was Deborah Whiston in 20:32.

Axe Valley Runners managed an impressive four personal bests – Luke Reed 17:31, Max Richardson 19:24, Jeremey Norcombe 23:17, and Zoe Trewick 29:14.

The third-place age grade of 79.49% was achieved by Ron Seward in 22:45. There were 222 finishers and congratulations go to core team member, David Sadler, who reached 200 appearances at Seaton (including volunteering and running).  

Tony Smith and Sam Miller travelled to Jersey Farm parkrun in St Alban's to nab their 'J' for the parkrun alphabet challenge, while Bec and Simon Davey took part in just the third Thames Path parkrun in Woolwich, a lovely riverside run with an interesting 'curly-wurly' finish.  

Carolyn Nation was in Wales and took part in the challenging Hafan Pwllheli parkrun, which takes place on sand, and on Saturday involved an incoming tide!  

You can see all the events attended by AVR members here: https://www.parkrun.com/results/consolidatedclub/?clubNum=1863  

Planning for the ColyTEN

Rob Collier and Karen Eyre organised a recce for a new local race to be known as the ColyTEN, a 10-mile multi-terrain race to be held on Sunday, October 15.

Starting and finishing in Colyton, this is a challenging trail race with some 1,400 feet of elevation but with spectacular views across the Coly Valley.  Look out for this new race.