Moira and Ellie in an all ladies line-up!

On Sunday 23rd September, the same day as the Woodbury 10k, just the two Harriers - myself, Ellie Sutcliffe, and Moira Glen - opted to run in an all ladies' race. The Newton Abbot Ladies' 10k, organised by the Teignbridge Trotters, offers a rare opportunity, certainly in the local area, for women to battle it out head-to-head with no men in the mix. With it being exceedingly rare that a woman wins a race outright, opportunities to cross a tape as the overall winner, or in, say, 46th place overall and also as 46th female, are few and far between, making this race worth doing.

Despite the awful conditions, with pouring rain, gusting winds and about 4 very long and very deep puddles that totally blocked the road and had to be splashed through at over ankle height, 182 women managed to complete the race.

There was a very strong line up, with last year's winner, super vet athelete Ann Luke of Tamar Trotters, and silver medal winning Olympic modern pentathlete, Heather Fell of Tavistock, standing out as the strongest, this was going to be a tough and competitve race.

Ann Luke set off hard from the gun and I let her go, but after the first downhill, just 500m in, she came back to me and I decided to try and sit on her shoulder and go with her for as long as possible. Alison McEwing of Erme Valley also followed and a gap opened up between us three and the chasing pack, which contained Moira.

At about 3k, Ann's shoe lace came undone and she had to stop. I was in two minds as to whether to be exceedingly sporting and stop and wait for her, but we had by then managed to create a small 50m gap over Alison McEwing, who is always a threat, having beaten me by a minute at the Exeter 10k in August, so I decided to just back off the pace and wait for Ann to catch up. It didn't take her very long! We ran together until about 6k when she started to pull away and I didn't have the lungs to respond. Nevertheless, I kept her within my sights to the finish and managed to cross the line just 13 seconds behind her in a time of 39:22. I was thrilled as I have never even gotten closer to her before. She may be 55 but she's ranked number 1 for her age group in the country over both 10k and half-marathon distance and she is a quality athlete. To be able to say I've beaten an Olympic silver medallist is also a nice bonus, however, it must be highlighted that this was Heather's first time out over the 10k distance!

Moira, meanwhile, was having a battle of her own just a couple of minutes behind. She had been playing cat and mouse the whole way round with vet 50 runner, Marilyn Blair from Torrington AC. Moira would get Marilyn on the downhill sections, then Marilyn would pick Moira off again on the uphill. In the end Marilyn just got the better of Moira on the only flat section on the course - the 600 meters leading in to the finish line around Dornafield caravan site - and Moira finished just 7 seconds behind her in 44:07. This gave her 11th place overall in a very strong field and, even more impressively, she claimed the top FV45 spot, winning an Ironbridge Runner voucher and her first ever trophy as a reward.... the first trophy of many we think!! ;-)

Times were down on last year and certainly well down on a flat 10k performance due to the high winds, water on the course and to the fact that only the last 600m of this race are flat, with the rest undulating throughout as it weaves through the villages of Ogwell, Denbury and Ipplepen.

A great race, well organised - as Teignbridge Trotter races always are -, plentiful prizes with the first 5 ladies and the first 3 in every 5 year vet category being awarded a prize, a unique momento in the guise of a specially commissioned print of the Dartmoor Vale countryside by a local artist, and, last but my no means least, some truly superb cake on offer at the end. What more could a girl (or 182 of them) want?!

Start of the Newton Abbott Ladies 10k