A Trickey track meeting for Dave and Rich!

On Saturday 20th April, two Exmouth Harrier representatives were on the track for the annual Ken Trickey Memorial Meeting at Exeter Arena. They tackled much shorter distances than their London and Llanelli bound marathon running club-mates would face the next day, however, they still faced challenges of their own on the Exeter rubber as the physical demands on the body do not last as long but are arguably more intense.

Richard Hawes has been with the club for about a year now and during that time he has been keep to try out a whole range of events, from off-road events such as the Haldon Heartbeat and the Tipton Rail and River Rub, to road races such as the Chudleigh Carnival 6, the Exeter 10ks and the Bath Half, cross-country and also track races. He ran extremely well on his first outing on rubber back in September when he picked up a silver medal for his age group in the Devon County A.A. 10'000m championships. This time though, he was trying out a new distance and taking on his first ever track 5000m. With his only other experiences of 5ks being at the local Killerton Parkrun, the track was always going to get him a faster time, and for this first attempt he recorded a fine 19:07 clocking. True to form, Rich put on his now signature finish kick, showing an impressive turn of speed over the last 200 metres to come 3rd in a field of five, which was mixed in age and gender. In fact, it was an interesting race, as it was won by a clear margin by local talent, Tom Merson, with Rich being the only other male in a race which also contained two senior females and local super-vet 55 athlete, Karen Cook. 

In contrast to 5000 metres novice,  Richard, Dave Eveleigh had well over a hundred 3000m events under his belt when he lined up in a similarly eclectically mixed, but slightly larger, field of nine to race over the seven and a half lap distance. He finished 7th overall and first veteran athlete of any age in a time of 11:54, a more than respectable time for a 59 year-old. This was a vast improvement on his first outing of the season , in which he posted a time of 12:21, and which, with an age-graded percentage of nearly 76%, will prove a useful addition to his Club Championship portfolio.