Les nets category win at Exeter Half!

Sunday 16th February saw the third running of the Exeter Half Marathon. This is not the Great West Run but a 3 lap route of the full First Chance 10k course, down on Exeter Quay, organised by Iron Bridge Runner. Whilst this is not the most inspiring of courses, it is certainly a course with PB potential, given the right conditions. Unfortunately, it is also a course that is prone to flooding (it's on a flood plain after all!) and once again this year, the winter storms coincided with the race date. However, the organisers had at least learnt from last year and had a 'Plan B' course measured up and ready to go this year, which they reckon made the course even faster as it was run out-and-back on the tarmac and avoided the slightly slower section on the gravel track. Despite the previous bad weather, conditions on the day were perfect - clear skies, sun, not too cold, no wind, and so the weather Gods in part smiled upon the race!

This year, four PB-seeking Exmouth Harriers were amongst the eventual 251 finishers. Of those 251, the male-female split followed an increasing recent trend in races and there were only 13 more male finishers than female. The first Exmouth Harrier home was Chris Dupain. Chris has been training hard of late and producing some promising times and performances at the weekly parkrun 5ks at Killerton and so he was hoping to be able to challenge his PB of 88:26, set on this same course in 2012. On the day, this didn't quite happen and he finished 6 minutes adrift in a time of 94:06 for 45th place. However, he will have plenty more opportunities to better than time and challenge his PB later this year as he has already entered 5 more half marathons, choosing to concentrate on this distance in 2014. 

Ben White took Hannah Bown's place at the eleventh hour as Hannah was unable to run following a virus, however, the results still appeared under her name at the time of going to press, but we can confirm that it was Ben in 72nd place overall in one of his best times for the distance, 98:50, being just 3 minutes shy of his PB set in 2011. 

Dan Morley made a rare racing appearance in 58th, and put in what appears (according to his Power of 10 profile) to be a new Personal Best of 96:45. So although he has been away from the racing scene for a while, he certainly hasn't been slacking off on the training front. Can we expect to see more from him later in the season? We hope so! 

Les Turner, now an Over 70 Veteran completed the 13+ miles in 2:13:05 for 208th place and, in so doing, claimed the top honours in this category. Although, ever the sportsman, Les was keen to point out that this victory came at the expense of his category rival and fellow club mate, Mike Keep, who was several minutes up on Les when he swerved to avoid a female runner heading back on the other side (one of the perils of a narrow out-and-back course that is also open to members of the public with dogs, bikes, scooters and unruly small children!) and, in so doing, aggravated an on-going knee injury and was forced to retire from the race. We hope the injury is not too serious and Mike is soon back on his feet and posting some more impressive times, but well done to Les for his run which saw him finish in front of 43 runners, all of whom were younger than him!