Monday, February 16, 2009

Ho, Ho, Hoe...

[Tom leaving Kairn Stone for dead, second time up the Hoe hill]
[Andy, enjoying it rather too much]
.
The Plymouth Hoe 10 (miles) Race, which started and finished at the Brickfields, Devonport, was also the annual Peninsula Challenge between Devon and Cornwall. The first of the 558 runners to finish, Jim Cole of Tavistock A C in 52:06, led home the victorious Devon County squad that included Exmouth athlete Tom Merson who was 2nd in 52:13.
.
Although Devon won the men’s race easily, the women’s event could not have been closer. Devon and Cornwall finished on the same number of points, but the Duchy were awarded the title on countback.
.
Harrier Andy Johnson had an unusual experience. He completed the race in 1:08:29, but was not included in the official results list. Had he appeared there, he would have come 110th.
.
Exmouth Harriers were well represented by eleven runners in the 9th Sidmouth Four Trigs Challenge, out of the field of 92 who completed the race. The 15 – 16 mile Fell Runners’ Association Cat. B course started and finished at Sidmouth Sailing Club and visited each of the four Triangulation Pillars around the Sid Valley, with what the organisers described as “…an obscene amount of climb involved!” The hardest part of the event, however, was trying to finish the enormous Hayman’s pasty that was given to each runner to restock the energy reserves after the race.
.
The event was won by Edd Charlton-Weedy in 2:19:07 and the first Harrier to finish, after a superb, strong run, was Jon Croome, 4th in 2:27:34. Paul Champion also had an excellent race to come 28th in 3:01:00, Lorraine Croome was 40th in 3:14:08 and Tim Gent was 43rd in 3:19:45. Dawn Teed, Lorraine Slight and Terry Oldham were 62nd equal in 3:44:09. Nicky Crook ran really well and was 66th in 3:45:12, with her coach Steve Merry 67th in 3:45:30. Sue Wilkin also had a very good race to come 78th in 4:04:23 and Les Turner was 79th in 4:05:10. Sue would have been several minutes faster without the handicap of having to drag Les around the course behind her – he did finish all his pasty, though!
.
Last but not least, Exmouth Harrier John Perratt took part in the South West Veterans A C 5K Road Championships at Barton St David, Somerset. There are no prizes for guessing that he was 1st V70 and his time was 22:19.
.
(LT)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I think you caught Mr. Johnson cooking up his scheme to dodge the timekeepers.

Wonderful results for all the races, ladies and gentlemen!