Harriers toast a successful 2012 at the annual awards dinner and dance!

On Friday 7th December, Exmouth Harrier members ditched their usual lyrca shorts and technical tee-shirts and got glammed up in party dresses and snappy shirts and trouser combos (well, unless you are Dave Stone!!) for the club's annual dinner and dance and award presentations.

The evening got under way at 7.30pm at the Exmouth Rugby Club with every member being bought a free drink, courtesy of the club, to raise a glass to another successful year on the running front. As they approached the bar and waited for their drinks, members were able to admire the displays of newspaper articles written about themselves and their performances in a collage put together by Harriers' press man, Dave Eveleigh. En masse they amounted to a good amount of success stories and showed that although we are a small club we punch well above our weight! Members also received a free copy of the 'Exmouth Harriers Year Book 2012', which Dave Eveleigh has been working tirelessly on for several months and which details each member's individual achievements as well as highlighting some of the key team performances and club events that have taken place over the last year. This seemed to go down very well and members were soon engrossed in the text and the venue turned more into a library than a party hall for a few minutes whilst members laughed and grimaced at their own photos and gasped at some of their fellow Harriers' former achievements and PBs!

Next up came the very popular 'cryptic film quiz', where members got together around their tables in team of 8 to try and identify 10 listed films from the 10 cryptic clues. The victorious team, with 9/10 correct, won a bottle of bubbles for their efforts!

Then came the part that any athlete welcomes: the food! All the hungry Harriers tucked into a buffet of hot and cold foods and then even found room for desert, before the room was called to order for the highlight of the evening: the presentation of the 3 club awards and the drawing of the London Marathon ballot places.

The first award to be presented was the 'Female Athlete of the Year' award. Chosen by members, based on a vote count, this award went to Hannah Bown this year for making an amazing come back to running after the birth of her 3 children. Hannah has been in the club for some years now, and has even won this award before in 2004, but this year she has returned stronger than ever and has been setting some new PBs and life-time best performances. Since June there is not a single local race that she has failed to place in and her massive PB of 1:27:51 at the Cardiff Half Marathon, that gained her a championship start at the London Marathon, was the culmination of several months hard work and dedication to her training.

The 'Male Athlete of the Year' award, again voted for by members, went to Adam Miller. Like Hannah, Adam has been in the club for a few years now and has been a consistent performer at races, always placing in the top 10% of finishers. But this year, he has stepped up his running even more and has been knocking time off his PBs at all distances throughout the year, including a marathon best of 2:48 in London, a 36:30 10k at Ottery in May, a 77 minute half marathon at Bridgwater in September and a 28 minute 5 mile and 5th place at the highly competitive Churston Flyer in October, not to mention all his first place finishes and PBs at the weekly Killerton 5k Parkrun.

Aside from personal achievement, both Hannah and Adam have also been key players in all the club relay and team events, with Hannah helping the ladies team to success at the Sidmouth Festival 10k, the Drogo 10 mile and the Devon County XC championships. Adam has assisted the men's team to victory in the Woodland Relays and the Parrett Trail relay, and has supported teams at Erme Valley, the Coast to Coast Relay and the Westward League XC.

Talking of 'team players', the final award of the night to be presented was the president's award. Chosen solely by Harriers' chairman, Bob Keast, this award reflects an individual's contribution to the club over the year and this year it went to not one individual, but a couple: Stan and Joan Mason. Bob explained that he chose them as the worthy recipients because of their continued efforts on behalf of the club, that range from supporting Lorraine on the weekly Wednesday ladies' night run (we won't stop to debate Stan's attendance at the Ladies' runs on here!!), to supporting the club with any key events, such as club races, the Coast to Coast relay, the Sport Relief Mile and many more. They never big-up their own efforts and so this award shows that despite the fact that they just quietly get on with helping the club in whatever ways they can, their efforts are not going unnoticed and are appreciated.

Tension in the room rose again as it was time to draw the places for the London Marathon from the club's ballot. The club was allocated 2 places this year and 3 members met the criteria and put themselves forward for a place. The 2 lucky recipients were Diana Richards and Dave Backway: both of whom were thrilled but also a little bit nervous to have been successful as this now means they have a lot of training to do between now and April!

Well done to all the award winners and the London Marathon ballot winners.

The mood now lightened once again as the kareoke song book came out and, as per usual, Dave Stone was the first to put himself up for a sing-song. In previous years Dave has had a free run on the mic' and Harriers have revelled in his David Bowie impressions, but this year there was a challenger to the Stone Throne in the form of the talented Richard Hawes! Unfortunately for Dave, Rich performs live music on a regular basis and is also a recording artist, so Harriers were lucky to be entreated to their own live performance. When it came to the dancing though, Stonie is definitely in a class of his own and took to the dance floor with his smooth-moves like a seasoned pro!

All who attended had a great evening and the club is looking towards a very successful 2013!