What a fantastic Grizzly weekend! Seaton was shaken from its soporific winter slumbers and transformed into a buzzing vibrant town, writes Dave Mutter.

On Saturday the Grizfest was a great success, with crowds flocking to Cliff Field gardens for all the super activities.

On Sunday the 25th Anniversary of the Grizzly, “Every Hill has a Silver Lining”, could not have been bettered.

Crowds were out everywhere around the course and every runner was given loads of encouragement to complete the exceedingly hard 20.3 mile course.

From a mid pack runner’s point of view the course was typical Grizzly terrain up to mile 13 with beach and hills etc, then came the bog.

What a monster – the dryish weather meant that instead of turning to gloop, it was over a foot deep of sticky black gunge that clung to your shoes like super glue. Emerging from that your shoes resembled footballs, but luckily a trip in the stream helped to clear them.

Then came a new section – the Gay’s Farm loop with hills so steel ropes were required to haul yourself up.

The final torture was the climb up the “Stairway to heaven” on Branscombe East Cliff.

There was a record 1996 finishers in the Grizzly and Cub Runs with 1523 completing the main event. Ceri Rees of Wildrunning.co.uk was the Grizzly winner in 2:25:44, with Allen Smalls 2nd, 2:29:23 and Chris Sellens 3rd, 2:32:38. Isobel Wykes from Truro RC was the lady Grizzly winner, 36th overall in an impressive 2:50:27 with Clevedon AC’s Maria Powell 2nd, 2:59:43 and Clare Prosse of Wells City Harriers 3rd, 3:00:03. Jez Mancer was the 9 mile Cub winner in 58:48, with Julian Ridgley of Forever Running RC 2nd, 1:02:20 and AVR’s own Andrew Watson 3rd, 1:03:39. Benfleet RC’s Lucy Mancer was the lady Cub winner in 1:09:44, with Caroline Pleasence of Exmouth Harriers 2nd, 1:10:08 and Bethany Gregory-Smith of Tynedale Harriers 3rd, 1:11:58.

There were some superb performances by the AVR runners from the first to last finisher in both races. In the Grizzly Alex Todd was 7th, 2:36:52 was delighted to beat Patrick Devine-Wright, 8th, 2:37:17, with Tom Hilder the 3rd AVR, 53rd overall in 2:52:32. Klara Pritasilova was the first AVR lady home, 168th in 3:16:45, just ahead of Eleanor Wood, 198th, 3:19:30 and Sue Campbell, 369th, 3:34:40. Justin Holt, 96, 3:05:11; Martin Lascelles, 98, 3:05:39; James Guler, 133, 3:12:13; Lawrence Power, 149, 3:13:52; Jonathan Day, 156, 3:14:55; Robin Britton, 185, 3:18:07; Robbie Holt, 211, 3:20:46; Chris Keeffe, 223, 3:22:27; Geoff Woodward, 271, 3:25:58; Andy Bowman, 281, 3:27:03; Tim Sibley, 311, 3:29:01; John Blackledge, 384, 3:36:05; Matt Tubbs, 410, 3:38:12; Paul Johns, 427, 3:39:50; Kevin Glover, 449, 3:41:49; Adele Foxwell, 476, 3:43:39; Neil Tubbs, 514, 3:46:42; Richard Dodge, 528, 3:48:05; Rebecca Creese, 571, 3:50:39; Jacqui Stokes, 598, 3:53:12; Chris Polley, 602, 3:53:20; Steve Reynolds, 657, 3:57:03; Dave Mutter, 680, 3:58:14; Steven Lewis, 681, 3:58:18; Graham Newton, 687, 3:58:56; Ian Apps, 697, 3:59:36; Ian Clements, 745, 4:02:12; Fiona Powell, 776, 4:04:27; Christopher Driver, 831, 4:09:36; Simon Davey, 834, 4:09:57; David Thomas, 866, 4:12:13; Richard Hale, 898, 4:14:17; Gavin Warren, 904, 4:14:44; Mike Giles, 936, 4:17:25; Michael Challis, 978, 4:20:23; Martin Croad, 993, 4:21:11; Helen Eke, 1014, 4:22:14; Rhea Lawrence, 1015, 4:22:17; Kelly Dack, 1066, 4:28:00; Wayne Tooze, 1070, 4:28:40; Tracey Stone, 1107, 4:31:49; Siobhan Reddy, 1131, 4:34:59; Claire Moles, 1203, 4:41:50; Samantha Tooze, 1204, 4:41:51; Chelle Woodward, 1233, 4:45:55; Bethany Sibley, 1281, 4:51:28; Bec Davey, 1343, 4:58:11; Gill Day, 1371, 5:03:35; Chantelle Osborn, 1372, 5:03:36; Ali Chapman, 1373, 5:03:47; Paula Newton, 1395, 5:09:22; Diane Newton, 1396, 5:09:23 and Dave Braunton, 1451, 5:18:14.

The other AVR Cub run results were: Clare Hansford, 30, 1:19:00; Alison Bowskill, 51, 1:24:20; James Sibley, 62, 1:26:23; Teresa Coates, 129, 1:37:18; Kim Vine, 134, 1:37:41; Jayne Aplin, 175, 1:41:52; Jane Calvert, 183, 1:42:34; Heather Lowman-Riggs, 201, 1:43:46; Alison Gould, 217, 1:46:05; Janette Mack, 233, 1:48:02; Michelle Bee, 240, 1:48:26; Janet Woodward, 283, 1:52:21; Janet Cullum, 284, 1:52:23; Emily Hughes, 349, 1:58:53; Emma Chaplyn, 350, 1:58:55; Samantha Studley, 390, 2:04:50; Kate Hornby, 391, 2:04:55; Debbie Barry, 401, 2:05:43; Michael Barry, 403, 2:05:48 and Marilyn Hughes, 409, 2:06:06.

AVR hope that all those who ran, watched or helped at Sunday’s 25th Anniversary special enjoyed themselves, but sadly a Grizzly runner became poorly during the run and had to be airlifted to hospital and remains in a critical condition. AVR’s thoughts are with the family who have requested privacy during this difficult time. We were once again blessed with the weather so our friends at the Met Office down the road, some of whom were running, did the job! We are very grateful to all of the 500+ helpers (that many people really are needed to put on this level of event - marshals, water stations, timekeepers, first aid/comms/runner pickup and so many more). Huge thanks also to the landowners who allowed us to run over parts of their land away from the public footpaths or just unlocked gates to help the flow of the race. A lot of the route was on private land, so please don’t try to run the course away from public access land. Thanks to the various venues around Seaton who let us use their facilities and to the sponsors whose contributions allow us to give more away to charity from the race proceeds. We won’t know how much that is until we sort the race accounts in a few weeks but expect it to be a very nice sum. To remind you of this race there is some merchandise left over which will be posted the website www.axevalleyrunners.org.uk soon, including a professionally-made DVD.

A special mention has to go to the Race Director Garry “Can I stop worrying yet?” Perratt and his team of helpers, some of whom are not AVR members who have worked tirelessly over the past few months to get this prestigious race organised. Garry himself says “Special thanks to the AVR who went so far above and beyond the call of duty, took so much of the load away from me and probably prevented me from running away to hide in a cave ... you know who you are so I won’t embarrass you by mentioning any names, but THANK YOU!”

Away from the Grizzly Harry Moore ran the Great Western 10K in 1:37:13 and Wilf Walsh ran the inaugural Blackminster Half Marathon, finishing 96th in 1:48:26.