Thursday, August 14, 2008

What happened last week?

Despite the awful weather on Saturday, 9th August, 235 runners turned up the next day for the Michelmores’ sponsored Sidmouth Festival 10k Run and their faith in the weather forecast was justified by near perfect running conditions. The overnight rain had made the multi terrain course a bit slippery but this did not prevent a very fast time of 40.07 by the winner, 22 year old Ashley Humphreys from Torbay.
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Dave Stone, the first Exmouth Harrier, had a superb race and finished in 3rd place just 40 seconds behind the winner. Well done, Dave! Next came Mark Thompson, 32nd in 48:40. Hannah Dupain came 55th in 51:53, with Emma Dupain 80th in 53:57. Ben White was 84th in 54:23. Congratulations to Ray Elston who was 1st V65 and 92nd overall in 55:22. Finally, Kevin Lingard came 150th in 62:27.
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120 runners completed the fifth race in the Yeovilton 5k Road Race Summer Series at the Yeovilton Air Base which took place on Wednesday 13th August and was won by Jon James of Wells City Harriers in 15:40. Exmouth Harrier Roger Rowe had his best result of 2008 so far, completing the 5k in 19:23 (6:14.3 pace) for 1st Vet/60. Jim Brumfield (Egdon Heath Harriers) however is getting quicker too, this time Roger beat him by less than 30 seconds.
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As always, it was a great evening with a large (and fast) field - Roger was 36th overall even at that pace, on a lovely sunny evening after a day of rain. There is just one more race in the series on the 10th September, but there is a small matter of the SW Vets 5k Championship before then on Bank Holiday Monday. Then Roger hopes for even more improvement before the SEAA Veterans Road Relays at the end of September.
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On Saturday, 16th August, two Exmouth Harriers competed in the Tywyn, Mid-Wales Race the Train that takes place alongside, as far as practicable, the route taken by the Talyllyn Railway on its journey to Abergynolwyn and back. In order to do this the course uses a mixture of public roads, lanes, un-metalled roads, tracks, agricultural land, and rough grazing pastures. The terrain varies all the time and was rain sodden in places, so the wise runners wore studs. The route also ascends and descends quite steep terrain and runs on narrow footpaths with little chance of overtaking.
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There were 822 finishers and the race was won by Gareth Raven of Sale Harriers in 1:18:15. Exmouth’s Hugh Marsden finished in 1:33:14, 2nd V45 and 18th overall, beating the train in the process. Dawn Teed came 521st in 2:11:32, 4 minutes quicker than the last time she ran the race. Well done, Hugh and Dawn!

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