Midweek Herald > Sport
AVR ladies up for Commando Challenge
Published: 10:43 AM October 14, 2009 Updated: 11:10 AM November 7, 2020
Five intrepid Wednesday Group ladies joined the 450 teams for The Commando Challenge 2009 .
Five intrepid Wednesday Group ladies joined the 450 teams for "The Commando Challenge 2009".
This comprised of a two mile road run, 2.2 mile Commando course and a two mile road back to the finish. The commando bit was the "fun" part, crawling through three dark and dank tunnels, one half full of brown water, crossing a river, wading through waist deep mud and being made to roll around in mud by the Marines. The best bit of course was the sheep dip water tunnel where they were shoved under, then yanked out by some jovial Marines. Ellie Potter, Gill Day, Becki Davie, Debbie Scotter and Celeste Ingerfield, were the brave team that enjoyed it. They can't wait for next year's event, but was it the run or those hunky Marines the girls loved so much?
Chris Keeffe also took up the challenge running with a group from his work. He looked good at the end - just like a mini action man! The aim of the day was to raise as much money as possible for the Devon Air Ambulance and initial indications are that it was a very successful day.
On Sunday, Liam Roberts raced in the Birmingham Half Marathon, which also functioned as this year's World Half Marathon Championships.
Although he finished 'slightly' behind the winner, Zersenay Tadese, who blitzed the course in 59:35,
Liam was pleased to finish 56th in the non-world championship race in 1:18:27, a PB by just over two minutes. He achieved this from about three weeks training after returning to university. Having had a summer with interrupted training and few races due to long hours in a summer job (the unfortunate necessity when studying for six years!), Liam is once again enjoying regular training and hopes to return home stronger next summer and participate in more local races.
However, first he has to negotiate two 14-week hospital placements and the daunting third year medical exams.
The first race of the Ironbridge Exeter Puma 3k winter series at Exeter Arena, for runners of all abilities was held last week with six time graded races. Luke Reed in his first attempt at the distance finished 15th out of 20 in the A race in 10.08.
He said: "It's a great night, with runners turning out from all over Devon, so, whatever your ability, you can have a good race on the track."
The winner of the A race was Exmouth-based Tom Merson with a scorching time of 8.40. Lydia Clapp had a very good run, finishing third in the E race with an impressive 13.06.