Club Christmas Dinner & Awards

Last Saturday, the Harriers held their Christmas Dinner and disco at the Manor Hotel. After the meal, chairman Bob Keast thanked everyone for coming, before moving on to the presentation of the awards to the male and female athletes of the year. Everyone in the club can vote for these awards, so they are valued very highly by the recipients.

Female athlete of the year, Dawn Teed, has been fantastic, achieving personal best performances at all her major racing distances. First she ran the Teignbridge Ten (miles) in 1.18. Then she completed her first ever marathon, the London, in 3.35, a performance which exceeded all expectations. On to the Plymouth Half Marathon in 1.40 and the Battle of Sedgemoor 10 K in 45.55.

Shaun Lock was the male athlete of the year. At every race, his times were two to three minutes quicker than before, making this his best year ever. In the Dalwood Three Hills Challenge, a ten mile off road race, he was 3rd out of 145 finishers. Next came his best race of the year, the infamous Grizzly and 12th place out of the 1528 who completed the gruelling 19 miles off road course. Then he was 21st out of the 2130 runners who finished the Great West Run half marathon. He ran several other races after this and performed consistently well throughout the year.

Club president Roland Young presented the President’s award to Nicky Crook. Many years ago, Nicky ran with the juniors, but then stopped and became a non-running member of the club. Nicky started helping dad Phil marshalling and timekeeping at most of the races held by the club. When she was sixteen, she assisted with the timekeeping for the Exmouth Half Marathon.

About three years ago, she started running with the seniors, but only competed in small events when extra runners were needed for relay and other teams. Prior to the last London Marathon, which Nicky completed very successfully, she had not raced more than about three miles. To jump from three to 26.2 miles was a magnificent achievement!

The president congratulated the chairman on his excellent management of the club. He also showed his appreciation for everyone who assisted the chairman, because without all this support the job would be impossible.

Special guest Pete Ferlie, of Ironbridge Runner, was thanked for sponsoring the Bicton Blister for the last three years. Both Jon Croome and Dave Stone gave exceptional solo performances on the dance floor later in the evening!

Other news
Paul Champion found out at short notice that he had to complete a qualifying event of at least 50 miles before submitting his entry in January for next August’s Tour du Mont-Blanc ultra marathon.

This meant running a race longer than his current total weekly mileage. His choice, the 50 mile Rowbotham’s Round Rotherham, an off road trail race following part of the Trans-Pennine Way, with strip maps to navigate the circular route of the outskirts of Rotherham.

Previous heavy rain left the tracks very muddy, but on the day the weather was perfect with a hard frost at the start at 7.30 am. Paul settled into an easy pace. After around 20 miles he started running with a marine from Poole, which was a great help to them both mentally. The lack of training started to tell at around 30 miles. A hard five miles followed, but things picked up after food and a cup of tea at the next check point.

Three miles from home, they increased the pace and overtook the two runners in front of them with a mile to go. Paul and the marine finished 52nd equal out of 176, in 9 hours 54 mins. The winner Jez Bragg took 6 hours 27 mins.

Paul would like to say a big thank you to Sue Wilkin who acted as back-up and managed to reach all seven check points before him.

Last Sunday, two Exmouth Harriers ran in the 9 ½ mile off road Torrington Christmas Caper. It was very muddy, with deep pools of water in places and very hilly. Jo Darwood completed the race in 1.21 and Dawn Teed in 1.24.

(LT)