OTTERTON REINDEER RUN
The festive season kicked off with that good old local favourite, the Otterton Reindeer Run. Being held in the neighbouring village of Otterton, by our good friends, the Sidmouth Running Club, this event is always popular with Exmouth Harrier members. This year was no exception with 10 of the royal blue and yellow vests on display at the event which is billed as 10k but in fact measures in at just short of 6 miles. Of those 10 we had victory in the women's race, courtesy of Hannah Bown, victory in the women's team competition, with Hannah, Carly Miller and Lisa Hatchard all scoring valuable points. We also bagged 3rd spot overall, thanks to Adam Miller, 2nd MV40 (Mike Musgrove) and 3rd female team with our next three scoring ladies - Lorraine Croome, Dawn Teed and Nicola Kelly. We also had a first in terms of prizes won in the club: Adam and Carly took the honours in the 'first married couple' contest! What a novel idea and with so many married and/or cohabiting couples now within the club, it's a shame that more races don't offer this fun yet mildly competitive incentive. Who knows, it could strengthen the marital bond... but then, if the couples weren't as successful as Carly and Adam, it could have the adverse effect!
Well done to all the Harriers who ran and got into the festive spirit. The Harriers results were as follows:
Adam Miller, 3rd (37:24)
Mike Musgrove, 7th (39:58)
Hannah Bown, 15th, 1st lady (43:20)
Carly Miller, 36th, 9th lady (47:24)
Lisa Hatchard, 49th, 14th lady (49:18)
Lorraine Croome, 58th (50:26)
Phil Bater, 60th (50:38)
Dawn Teed, 78th (52:19)
Nicola Kelly, 84th (53:33)
Claire Baxter, 117th (1:00:53)
177 finishers. There were also lots of "mini Harriers" strutting their stuff in the 3k Junior race and fun run. It's good to know that the future of the club is looking promising in their hands / feet!!
Start of the Otterton Reindeer Run, with Lisa, Carly and Phil tackling the first hill.
WELLINGTON MONUMENT RACE
On the Sunday before Christmas (22nd December) Dave Eveleigh took more than a minute off his 2012 time at the challenging Wellington Monument Race, held mostly on roads, over the 10km distance, and requiring an ascent to the highest point in the Blackdown Hills: the monument hitherto mentioned in the race title! For some reason, this event always attracts a competitive field and this year was no exception, so Dave ran exceptionally well to complete the tough, hilly route in a time of 52:35 for 130th place overall and 5th in his MV60 category. 199 runners completed the race which was won in a time of 34 minutes by Phil Burden of Taunton AC.
STOKE STAMPEDE 10K
Just the 2 Harriers on the start line for this undulating 10k race staged on the country lanes around the village of Stoke St. Gregory in Somerset. Held on the 29th December, it represented the last chance to post a decent 10k time in 2013. For myself, Ellie Sutcliffe, it represented a last desperate stab at clocking a much covetted and seemingly elusive sub 38 minute PB. After not the most ideal of build ups, involving months of colds, coughs, mild food poisoning and a family death, I was amazed that today, of all days, should be the time that I finally cracked it! I ran a time of 37:43 which, in a highly competitive field, was only good enough for 19th overall and 3rd female, but that was irrelevant: it was seeing that magical '37' on the results next to my name that was the best prize ever!
Dave Eveleigh followed up his run at Wellington the previous week with another fine performance, clocking a time of 46:45 for 101st place overall, putting him comfortably inside the top third of the 322 finishers.
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