dawlish Coasters 2024 awards evening

Dawlish Coasters recently hosted their annual Awards night, recognising the club members acheivements through 2024.

Prizes were awarded on the night to…

Best Female Newcomer: Anna Payne

Our best female newcomer has been a powerhouse since joining the club, smashing through multiple PBs across all her distances completed so far, and is well on her way to smashing her first marathon in March. Always with a smile and so encouraging of everyone else. Her first race was the Starcross Shuffle Half Marathon in November, where she completed it in 1:50. Not only has her running been awesome but she has joined the committee this year offering support to help the club.

Best Male Newcomer: Eddie Richards
Our best male newcomer has been a great addition to the club, stepping in to become a run leader, and in the future will be our head coach. He is always very supportive of everyone and has led some brilliant training night sessions. A great runner himself, who completed the Great West Run in May in a time of 1:48, a challenging half marathon in the city of Exeter.

Most Improved Male: Charles Edmonds
For the third time in a row, this runner is again our Most Improved Male for 2024. This year saw him complete two Marathon races and PB in them both! First up was Exeter Marathon on a brutally hot day and a course error adding on about a mile, he achieved 3:32 and then went on to complete the Starcross Shuffle as a sub 3:30 placing second overall. He also came first in the Grand Canal 10k Trail in October, and achieved a parkrun PB in 19:08, you will see him regularly on our club record chart too for multiple distances with outstanding times.

Most Improved Female: Sarah Edmonds
Still going from strength to strength, our most improved female achieved pb’s across all of the distances that she has attempted in 2024. A 5k PB (overtaking Club Chair, Chris, in the process!) at the City Runs River Exe 5k in 21:47, 46:19 in the First Chance 10k in Jan 24, and 1:48 in the Bideford Half. Finally dipping her toe into the marathon arena, she is also set to do her first in March (despite saying she never would do a half let alone a marathon when she started running in 2021).

Female Personal Achievement Award: Jade King
This lady is a phenomenal runner, who has had an incredible 2024, PB-ing across all distances.
Achieving multiple PBs in her 5 and 10k runs, including placing 4th female in the Exmouth 10k, smashing 1:39 in her Half Marathon, and an almighty 3:24 (which earned her a club record at the time too), taking a huge 26 minutes of her previous best and earning herself a Good For Age place in the London Marathon 2025, where during the training block for this she has already set another 10k PB!
With the most determination and tenacity with all of her training, she is awesome, and so supportive of other runners, full of smiles and encouragement. We are so proud of you, good luck for London, we are rooting for you.

Male Personal Achievement Award: Kevin Smith
This runner joined the club on our 0-5k programme that started in January 2024, completing parkrun at his graduation in 33:14, and going on to regularly running parkrun and the Sunday Social runs. Not only this he has helped with the next two cohorts of 0-5k, encouraging and supporting others regularly and being a great asset to the club.

Coaster of the Year: Debbie Drake
Our Coaster of the Year for 2024, is a very special and inspiring lady, who having moved into a new age category this year, has set some impressive goals for herself - no less than 6 marathons to complete during the year. This amazing runner has ran some awesome races already & does it all with a smile, overcoming any hurdle thrown her way. She is working on completing the 6 World Majors, and has completed the Chicago Marathon in 3:56 in October, the New York Marathon in 4:14 in November, and having already completed Berlin in 2023, and London in 2021 (not for the first time), and having Boston booked with a good for age achievement upcoming, she is well on her way – with just Tokyo to go! Not only that but she also ran the Paris Olympic Marathon in August in 4:21. Along with collecting multiple club records (2 in her new age category – road and trail marathons, earned 2 in her last age cat in 2024, and already retained 1, plus a new one to boot in 2025 already too)! We are so proud of you and a huge congratulations from us, we will be rooting for you in Boston and all other races you have ahead of you. A wonderful supportive and treasured member of our club.

Unsung Hero: Amy Brown
There is so much we could say about our amazing Unsung Hero! Our Welfare Officer, our support for marshals for our race events, committee member, run leading and all-round amazing lady. She does so much work behind the scenes, is always so supportive and encouraging of all, and is an awesome runner in her own right. Building back from having her two boys, her running is getting stronger, evidenced by placing 3rd Female at the Wray Trail 10k in May, in a PB time of 56:58. You are awesome, we are so grateful for you and all you do.

Extra Mile Award: Linda Howell & Elwyn Howell
This award represents a huge contribution from this runner, joining the club and getting stuck in straight away in leading two 0-5k cohorts in 2024, and already started a third this year, plus adding in an extra homework run for everyone on a Thursday. An absolutely brilliant programme that has rave reviews from everyone who has taken part, which is clear from the number signing up each time. In addition, this is Supported by another of our runners every week, we felt it was also important to recognise his brilliant contribution to the club, with this and his addition of the Sunday Social Runs, and joining the committee this year. All of which is having a huge positive impact on the club and has been a big part of our growth this year. Huge well done both, we hope you are feeling very proud and thank you!

Spotlight Award: Kirsty Walker
A new award for 2024, this is to recognise a runner who has shown impressive effort in their running, always with a smile on her face, who has pushed through and done some epic running across the globe! Taking part in the Total Coastal Ultra Marathon, setting a PB in the Bideford Half Marathon in 1:53, and amazing effort in the Budapest Marathon scoring a PB in sub 4 hours! Huge well done to you, we are proud of you! Good luck in your upcoming London Marathon for 2025!

Inspirational Award: Linda Diggines
Another new award for 2024, our Inspirational Award goes to an awesome runner, who has claimed 3 club records this year for parkrun, and both Half Marathon road and trail (having a further one from 2023)! A regular over in Spain completing half marathons our well travelled runner is inspiring us all. She only started running in 2009 when she got into the London Marathon and just simply completed it from being a non runner!! Not shy of challenging herself she is doing the virtual London Marathon this year! We can’t wait to cheer you on!

Special Strength Award: Katie-louise Holman & Sarah Moore
These people have demonstrated enormous strength and resilience through trying and difficult times this year. They both love being part of the club, are very supportive of others and have continued to push themselves to overcome things and return to their running.

Honorary Lifetime Membership Awards: Lorna Richards & Eric Foster
Our club begun over 25 years ago and it started as a Ladies running group with Lorna, who is our longest serving member. Eric joined a few years later when it became a group for all, and as it is known today, the Dawlish Coasters.
Both Lorna and Eric have not only been members for all this time, but have given so much to the club, as run leaders, as treasurer, and more. So, we felt it was only right to acknowledge and show our huge appreciation for all they have done and award them with our first ever Honorary Lifetime Membership Awards!

All run leaders and committee members were also recognised with some lovely gifts for their commitment throughout the year.