Adam takes on Torbay at the Templer 10

On Sunday 6th November, under a cloudless sky and with a crisp, cooling breeze that formed ideal running conditions, Adam Miller hopped across the river to take part in the Teignbridge Trotter organised Templer 10 race. A bit of a misnomer as the course actually mesures in at 9.7 miles, but that would spoil the alliteration, hence the title!

This is a multi-terrain route that starts and finishes alongside the River Teign at the Passsage House Hotel in Kingsteignton. It gets its name from the Templer Way that forms part of the route as runners head out to do a loop of the Stover Country Park. It is a flat course but runners are slowed by the various tree roots, mud, stiles, slippery wooden bridges and sharp turns that they have to negociate.

As in previous years, Torbay AC were out in force and a force to be recokened with they always are. This did not phase Adam though who set off behind last year's 1st and 2nd placed finishers, Lee Turner and Peter Monaghan, and a third Torbay AC athlete, Jon Parkinson. A little way in and Jon pulled away from Adam and by the time the runners reached Stover Park he was out of sight. Adam stuck to his task though and kept running hard and as he emerged from the park, at about the 5 1/2 mile marker, he caught site of Jon again and gradually closed the gap before going past him at about 8 1/2 miles. Unfortunately, chasing him down left Adam slightly depleted in energy and he didn't have it left in the legs to keep ahead of him, so he passed Adam again, putting Adam into 4th place as they crossed the finish line. How frustrating for our Harrier as the gap between 2nd and 3rd place was almost 3 minutes, yet the gap between 3rd place and Adam in 4th was a mere 6 seconds! Adam finished in 57.13. Peter Monaghan won the race, finishing just 1 second ahead of Torbay club mate Lee Turner in a time of 53.43. With 3 Torbay athletes in the top 3, small wonder then that Torbay scooped the male team prize!

Another member of Torbay AC, Wendy Urban, won the women's race in 64.10, from Karen Cook of SWRR in 2nd.

Despite coming 4th - usually the frustrating so-near-yet-so-far position that puts you as the first runner not to win a prize, at this race there were prizes for the top 5 men and women and Adam also won a prize for 1st place in the male vet 35 category. Quite a lucrative day out then!

Susan Hill was also competing in a Harrier's vest and ran a strong race taking her to 146th position overall and 5th in the female vet 50 category. Bravo!

There were 242 finishers.