Plymouth 13.1 & Edinburgh 26.2

Six Exmouth Harriers completed the Plymouth Half Marathon which was won by Jean Ndasenga of Birchfield Harriers in 1:06:00. A large field of 3,421 runners finished the race.

The first Exmouth Harrier to finish was Shaun Lock, in 21st place in 1:17:57, after a superb run that saw him knock around 2 ½ minutes off his personal best. Well done, Shaun! Hugh Marsden, consistent as ever, was next to the finish line, 1st V45 and 25th overall in 1:18:33. The equally consistent Cathy Newman was 1st LV45 and 63rd overall in 1:24:37. Dawn Teed also ran well for 969th in 1:48:41 and Stef French was 1486th in 1:56:59, a good result considering her lack of training recently. Trevor Cope may have been the last Harrier to finish, in 1501st place in 1:57:48, but he achieved an amazing milestone in the process. He has now completed 230 half marathons, an English record by a considerable margin and quite possibly a world record as well!! Trevor, has also completed around 70 marathons too... Congratulations!

Another Exmouth Harrier, Julie Gellender, ran a superb race in Scotland at the Edinburgh Marathon. Her time of 3 hours 18 minutes was a personal best, achieved in difficult, windy conditions. Well done, Julie!

(LT)

BMAF Road Relays - Sutton Park

17th May - 21st Year of the event.

[The Exmouth Harriers BMAF 2008 V60 team]

35 V/60 teams entered this year, and the Exmouth 'lads' came in a respectable 17th overall.

Roger took his accustomed place -- 1st leg runner -- but found the pace very hot (the 2008 race was the fastest in some years due, no doubt, to the cool weather). he struggled somewhat up the hill, but found from then on he could gradually move up the field. At the turn he was around 16th place in the V/60s, but running down the hill he quickly caught and passed the 'gaggle' in front driving home up the hill in 18:53 in 12th place overall.

Jim, taking on the mantle that Ray normally carries, was our 2nd leg runner. His gutsy performance against much faster men showed his grit and determination, but overall lost 9 places to the V/60 field in 22:54 a decent effort.

New team member Duncan (Linklater), new to such distances (3 x 3 miles) flew away as if he was going to pull everyone back in the first mile. But as always for the Sutton Park 'rookie' found the long hill not much to his liking. However, his strength and power saw his gain place after place to the field, and 4 places in the V/60s. Pulling away from his chasers came home in a great time of 19:46 -- a great 1st attempt at anchoring the team.

Our friends from Clydesdale - Bobby, Brian and Peter, like us all another year older, came in a brilliant 4th overall. This is quite exceptional as all three of them are over 65.

Here is a photo of both squads in front of the Harriers tent.

Many thanks to 'supporter in chief' Mandy Marvin and the date flapjack, and especially to Les Turner acting as driver and travelling reserve (never a great position to be in). And Mary for the photos and encouragement.

Overall, Oxford City were knocked off their perch (hooray) by Elswick, with Rotherham coming in 3rd, with the aformentioned Clydesdale boys in a close 4th (we almost feel they are honorary members of Exmouth Harriers, as they feel we are of Clydesdale Harriers)!

(RR)

Kernow May '5'

The Kernow May 5 Miler took place on bank holiday Monday in Launceston, Cornwall, and was unusual in that the first and second places went to two brothers. Matthew and Ryan Cleave of Cornwall AC. They completed the race in 28:07 and 28:45 respectively, to head the field of 133 runners. Exmouth Harrier Andy Johnson was 29th in 33:36.

Ivybridge 10k

At 18.30 hours on Saturday 10th, on an evening better suited to barbeques and cold beer, several hundred runners lined up at the start line for the 2008 Ivybridge 10k road race. A contingent of eight Exmouth Harriers lined up with the starters.

The start was fast with the a short descent from the Station car park to the main road, B3219 where the course took a sharp left turn. The front runners set a blistering pace on a hot balmy evening hoping to achieve a course record, which was, unfortunately, not ultimately achieved.

The course followed a gradual ascent to just after the 2k marker where the course again turned left under the railway bridge for a very steep ascent for nearly a further 2 kilometres. The runners had to dig deep to maintain their momentum along the gruelling stretch. This climb highlighted the need for both speed and hill work in training. The course was well marshalled as the course meandered through the quiet lanes of Bittaford where at the 5k marker essential supplies of water were available. The hot night saw a greater than normal supply of liquid taken.

Shortly after the drinks station the course took a right turn to rejoin the B3219. The runners faced an undulating 3.5k run along the road before turning left off the main road for the final stretch to the finish.

The first runner home, Kairn Stone of the Newham and Essex Beagles, completed the race in 32 minutes and 6 seconds.

Andrew Johnson was the first Exmouth Harrier home in 80th position in a time of 41-26, followed by Mark Thompson in 107th position in a time of 42-51. The next Exmouth Harrier to complete the race was Chris Dupain in 115th position in a time of 43-11 followed closely by his sister Hannah Dupain in 137th position in a time of 44-06.

Bob Woodall finished in 143rd position in a time of 44-16. Ray Elson was the second Vet65 in 181st position in a time of 46-08. Nigel Dupain completed the family trio in 195th position in a time of 46-56. Finally Jim Wyatt complete the Harriers contingent in 320th position in a time of 53-24.

All the Harriers turned in admiral performances and there were some good individual performances especially from Jim, who considering that 24 hours previous he was still languishing in Gambia completing his "bird watching" holiday, without his wife finished strongly.

A total of 552 runners completed the course and the last runner home completed the 10k in just over one and one half hours.

(RW)

Great West Run (13.1 miles)

The official account of the Great West Run stated that "Twenty-two years after she first won the half marathon the 46-year-old Exmouth Harrier Cathy Newman underlined what a great competitor she is with an emphatic victory. Newman and Torbay AC rival Helen Parkinson ran together for the opening three miles before Newman edged clear and opened a gap that stretched to 59 seconds by the finish line, which she crossed in 1hour 21mins 11secs. 'I have run it a few times since then but not for a couple of years now so it is great to come back and win it again. I’m pretty pleased with that,' said Newman", who was also 14th overall out of the field of 2043 finishers. Congratulations, Cathy, on yet another awesome performance!!

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The race was won by Kairn Stone of Newham & Essex Beagles in 1:10:26.

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Fourteen other Exmouth Harriers completed the race:

Paul Samways was 42nd in 1:27:06 and Roger Rowe was 2nd V60 and 79th overall in 1:31:08. Considering that Roger had not been able to train properly for 7 weeks, his time was very acceptable and he was pleasantly surprised to be 2nd in his category. He felt strong all the way, but found the last 5k pretty tough due to a right heel problem he has been carrying for months.

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Andy Kennedy was 3rd V50 and 204th overall in 1:39:15, Hannah Dupain was 208th in 1:39:21 and Chris Dupain was 245th in 1:40:20. Duncan Parkes came 350th in 1:43:42, with Nigel Dupain 514th in 1:47:38 and Emma Dupain 661st in 1:51: 13. Katie Comer was 666th in 1:51:17, Trevor Cope 873rd in 1:55:50 and Nicky Crook was 1040th in 1:59:40. Liz Pridham came 1328th in 2:07:29, Denise Kennedy 1444th in 2:10:46 and Guy Somerfield 1577th in 2:14:59.

(LT)

Great Edinburgh Run (10k)

Just heard that Mandy Marvin ran 1:06:57 in Edinburgh this morning. Nice to know there was a representative of Exmouth Harriers in 'Old Reekie'.

(RR)

A Jurassic Coast Jaunt? No, a real Toughie!

The 78.6miles (3 Marathons over 3 days on the South West Coastal Path) Jurassic Coast Challenge 2008 was completed by Exmouth Harrier Sue Wilkin. Fellow Harrier Paul Champion completed “the oner” form of the event which involved doing all 3 coastal marathons in 24hrs, starting at night, navigating yourself round. After the remarkable 20 starters : 5 finishers ratio of 2007, thirty five runners signed up for a crack at 2008 including past winner Tim Holsgrove.

Like many of the other runners, Sue and Paul both felt that the organisation was brilliant and the camaraderie was fantastic. They completed the JCC as part of their preparation for the single stage North Face Ultra-Trail Du Mont-Blanc this August. Paul plans to run the 102-mile route (time limit 46 hours) for the second consecutive year, while Sue will be attempting the 60-mile route (time limit 25 hours) for the first time. Two other Exmouth Harriers, Jon and Lorraine Croome, are also training for the 60-mile Tour Du Mont Blanc.

Day 1 – Lyme Regis to Chickerell (Weymouth)
Taking in Charmouth, Seatown, The Golden Cap and heading for Burton Bradstock for the rough half way point for the day, most of the hills were done and dusted in the first half of the day.
The runners, who had to navigate their way from checkpoint (CP) to checkpoint, had to deviate inland slightly after CP3, through the Abbotsbury Swannery to edge around Fleet Lagoon and complete the last 8 miles to the finish.

Day 2 Chickerell to Lulworth Cove.
With the new Portland leg of the 2008 route finally cleared, everyone moved onto the Weymouth sea front, with ever more forceful gusts of wind and heavier showers drilling the runners as they mounted the coast path proper once more bound for Osmington Mills. From Osmington to Lulworth took in the steep paths of Ringstead Bay, White Nothe and the legendary photography spot of Durdle Door, before plunging the athletes on a roller coaster descent to the finish at Lulworth Cove.

Just as the majority of the 3-day challengers were finishing their day at Lulworth the 35 competitors of “the oner” were gathering at Lyme Regis at 6pm Saturday night before purposefully moving off from the Lyme Regis Cobb and up the hill to Charmouth. The winds then approached force 10 and the rain drove across soaking the runners from every conceivable angle within seconds of exposure.

At CP 1 (Seatown), with no sign of imminent improvement, the event had to be interrupted so as not to endanger the lives of the competitors. Then they re-commenced at 5:30am for a double marathon stint to arrive at the finish at Studland around the same time as the JCC 3-day competitors.

Right from the re-start Tim Holsgrove took advantage of the favourable conditions and assumed the lead that he held right through to the finish line in 8hrs 55mins, over half hour before runner up Andy Barnsley, to pick up his second “oner” title.

Of the 35 runners who started, only 18 completed the “oner” (or the 2/3rder) as it was now being nicknamed. Exmouth’s Paul Champion, up against some much younger runners, ran superbly for 5th place in 10hrs 33mins. Genuine congratulations go to all the runners for handling some atrocious weather, changed plans and a really tough course to make the finish.

Day 3 – Lulworth Cove to Studland (the finish line).
The course for day 3 took over where day 2 left off with massive undulations over the ranges to Kimmeridge for CP1. From Kimmeridge the increasingly tiring athletes conquered Hounds Tout, Chapmans Pool and St Aldhelms Head before reaching Peverill point and the last CP before the finish. From here it was up and over Ballard Down and along the beach to the end of the challenge. Oliver Sinclair led them home to claim his second ‘Golden trainer’ award in 14hrs 12mins, and Lucy Brooks and Steve Hilton were once again in together joint 2nd just 8 minutes later.

Exmouth Harrier Sue Wilkin struggled with badly battered feet but is certainly no quitter and was never going to be one of the 30 or so runners who failed to run the full distance, which turned out to be 23 to 25 miles more than that completed by the oners. Sue finished 63rd in 23hrs 20mins out of the original 80 + starters.

Taunton Half Marathon
Three Exmouth Harriers were among the field of 1,089 runners who completed the Taunton Half Marathon, which was won by Philip Parry of Bristol & West AC in 1:11:30. Andy Johnson, the first Harrier to finish, needed to average 6:50 pace to avoid the ignominy of his first 90 minute + half marathon since 1990. (That would leave him with 30 seconds to spare for the final 5K). He had to work hard into the breeze and up the long incline but got through 5 miles in 34:11. By half-way he felt very tired and stopped looking at the pace on his watch so that he could concentrate on running as fast a pace as he could maintain. After going through 10 miles in 68:19 - bang on target - he really struggled up the climb to the 11th mile (7:20 split), so his 30 seconds to spare had already gone. Fortunately, the next mile was downhill and he picked up more time on the final mile to finish inside 90 minutes, in 1:29:53, in 85th place.

Julie Gellender had an outstanding race to come 1st LV35 and 79th overall in 1:29:27. Although she arrived at the finish line after Andy, she had been much further back in the starting pack and her adjusted time for the race was slightly quicker. Trevor Cope was 577th in 1:55:03.

(LT Reports - 29.4.08)