The moonlight, madness and Mark!

The recent cold spell does not seem to have affected the enthusiasm of Exmouth Harriers members for getting out there and running and Mark Thompson's exploits in Kent on 4 February were among the more impressive recent achievements by local runners.

The "Challenge Hub" organise a series of events in Kent. Not officially promoted as races, the aim is to give runners the facility to challenge themselves over long distances. This particular race took place over a 6.55 miles lap on rural tracks which athletes completed up to five times and the event title - "Moonlight Challenge" - is explained by a 6.00 p.m. start time.

We are all familiar with the reported links between the moon and madness, and setting out on a 5 lap ultra race in a temperature of -5C with an inch of snow on the ground would certainly seem to be verging on lunacy, even by runners' standards. By 11.07 p.m., while the temperature had now climbed to -3C, there was 8 inches of the white stuff to plough through! For those who have not done the calculations the maximum distance was 32.75 miles which Mark covered in 5 hours and 7 minutes. For the record, 64 started out and Mark was 2nd over all of the 32 hardy individuals who completed 5 laps. An amazing achievement: well done!