While the West Country was being hit by rain and wind last Sunday, the twelve Exmouth Harriers who were among the record-breaking 35,680 runners who started the 25th London Marathon, had the benefit of bright sunshine and a calm morning. An overnight frost ensured that conditions were cool for the 9:45am start of the event, but the rising temperature during the morning took its toll on many runners in the closing parts of the race.
David Stone was Exmouth's star man, recording a time of 2 hours, 39 minutes and 40 seconds for 174th place in the men's race, although he slowed down in the second half of the race after going through the half-way point in 1:15:56. David briefly led the whole race running the first mile at 5-minute pace -- so we could say he lost 173 places in 25.2 miles! The second Exmouth runner to finish was Steve Hockings-Thompson in 2:51:20, who also lost time in the second half.
Hannah Dupain (3:26:41) and Caroline Prescott (3:29:21) were the next Harriers to finish, running much more evenly paced races. They went through half-way together in 1:43 with Stephanie French, who eventually recorded a time of 3:43:39 after slowing down quite dramatically in the last 13 miles. Lesley Godfrey and Gillian Saunderson completed the Harriers women's contingent at this race - Lesley finished in 4:19:28 and Gill's time was 4:31:09. Among the men, David Woodley (4:05:03) was the first Exmouth Veteran to finish. He was running in the Male Vet 50 category with Trevor Cope, whose finishing time was 4:27:42. Chris Dupain finished in 4:14:56 and Guy Somerfield (Male Vet 40) recorded a time of 4:28:41.
Exmouth's 12th man was Roger Rowe, who picked up an injury last Tuesday evening running down to Orcombe. From the off he was never to get within 20-seconds-a-mile of his target pace. He gave up the ghost at 20 miles having limped to that point in 2:16:11.
(Andrew Johnson & Roger Rowe)
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