Start of the Bideford Half with Dave Stone and Mike Musgrove leading 12 Harriers out.What a cracking day of racing for the Harriers! On Sunday 4th March, 12 of them travelled north of the county to Bideford for the Bideford AAC organised Bideford half marathon. Always a popular event due to the fantastic organisation and to the course boasting a flat and fast route, this year was no different and drew over 1000 runners.
For many of the Exmouth Harriers contingent, this race represented a good opportunity to assess their form and fitness in their build ups to spring marathons. If that was the case, then those marathon times are looking good as some excellent performances were had all round.
First Harrier home, as he so often is when he chooses to race, was Dave Stone. He placed a highly commendable 11th place in a very strong field of runners. His time of 1.17.20 gave him 3rd place in the MV40 category, so really a great run and one which must fill him with confidence in his preparations for breaking more Guiness World records at London!
Next in was Mr. Consistency, Mike Musgrove. Having just bashed out a 1.20 half the week before in Barcelona, he repeated the performances again, but this time in slightly tougher conditions. Mike reports that there was a very strong headwind on the last 3 miles of the course, which made the going hard, especially once the fast 13 miles from the previous weeks started to kick in at around the 8 mile mark. Nevertheless, a time of 1.20.48, giving him 25th place overall and 9th MV40, shows that a comfortable sub-3h run in London is looking very promising.
Another Harriers representative in the MV40 category was Adrian Kearns. Adrian does not do all that much competing, but when he does put in an appearance, he always makes a good job of it and makes the performance count. On this occasion he clocked 1.27.30 for 81st spot and 19th MV40 - a strong category as always on the day.
The performance of the day, however, has to go to Dave Backway. Dave is in fact not training for a marathon and so doesn't have the mileage under his belt that some of his fellow club mates do, neither did he have the security of knowing that he could comfortably run the distance - his long runs typically being about 10 miles in length. Instead he has been working on his speed and power over the past few months and if his performance in Bideford is anythign to go by, it's paying off! Dave smashed his PB by 17 minutes to run 1.28.11 and take a place in the top 100 finishers, 94th. This is made all the more astounding when we mention, just in passing, that he'd been on about 3 consequetive stag weekends in the run up to this race... just imagine what time he would clock with a more salubrious lifestyle!!
David Wright also set a new PB when he ran 1.30.26, just outside the magical 1.30 mark but there is no doubt more to come there. He claimed 124th spot and 8th MV50. Early indications are that all is looking good in the Wright camp for the Dartmoor Discovery in June...
Another performance deserving a special mention is that of Scott Jordan. Proving to his fellow club members that he was a worthy recipient of the 'Male athlete of the year' award, Scott followed friend Dave Backway's lead and also smashed his PB. Scott's initial motivations for joining a running club were to improve on his half marathon performance after he tackled the Great West Run as an isolated race a few years ago. At last year's race he did just that when he clocked 1.42 for the distance, and this year at Bideford he obliterated that time by stopping the clock at 1.31.29 to claim 133rd place. The high mileage training he's been doing for London has obviously worked wonders on his performances at all distances.
Andrew Johnson is yet another Harrier training for a spring marathon; the Paris, in his case. He laid down a solid run at Bideford, bringing him across the line in 210th place in a time of 1.36.25. This time will easily give him a marathon clocking of around 3h40-3h45 in April.
John Lambert does not compete on a regular basis, but when he does he always gives it his all. He clocked 1.42.30 for 316th place, putting him easily inside the top third of finishers.
Nicolas Brown continues his come back to racing following on from a fine performance off road at the Dalwood 3 Hills the previous weekend. On the road surface this time he recorded a time of 1.44.01 for 342nd spot on the day.
Mike Allen, a.k.a. our super super vet Harrier's star as he runs in the MV70 category (only in running is it acceptable to discuss openly and boast about a person's advancing years as something to be proud of!). This proved to be a VERY strong category at this highly competivie race as Mick's solid time of 2.00.11 (though 1.59.31 on chip time) only earned him 5th spot amongst the MV70s. He was 706th overall though and so beat hundreds of runners who were much much younger than him!
Roger Riggs upped the distance on this event, having not been with the Harriers all that long he has made huge improvements since joining, so well done to him for having a go at his first half marathon. He recorded 2.02.20 for 756th place.
Lastly, the time that no athlete wants to see next to their name: no time. Jon Garrity was forced to withdraw on the course with a calf pull and so recorded a dreaded DNF. A real shame as Jon has been running really well of late and would have been easily capable of a sub-1.25 time had he been fully fit. We wish him a speedy recovery.
Disappointing not to see a single female Harrier on the start line - come on ladies!! We can't let the men monopolise us like this!!
The race was run by in-form North Devon athlete, Shaun Antell, also winner of the Plymouth Hoe 10 mile in February. He posted 1.09.39.
Winning woman was Vicky Pincombe in a time of 1.21.14.
There were 1072 finishers.
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