There was mid-week action on the track this week as Exeter Arena played host to the Devon County 10'000m championships. With the county championships having seemingly died a death at road events in 2013 (Plymouth Hoe and Torbay Regatta normally play host to the 10 mile and 10k championships respectively, but sadly not this year), opportunities to gain county glory and win county medals are becoming few and far between in Devon. The county 10'000m, held annually in September, provides one of very limited opportunities to run this popular distance on the track. And make no mistake about it, running 10k on the track is much tougher that running the same distance on the road. Although the surface is even and totally flat, making it slightly less physically demanding, running 25 laps of the 400m oval taxes the runners mentally. On the track there is no where to hide and you cannot focus on the next landmark up the road to keep you going. That said, Exmouth Harriers have never been a club to shy away from a challenge and this year two of them stepped up to take 2 of the 40 places on offer across 2 seeded races.
Due to the small entry numbers, competition across the age group categories was fairly limited, but runners still had their own personal goals to do battle against, with PBs and SBs all up for grabs. Mike Musgrove picked up a silver medal in the men Age 40-44 category and, in so doing, trimmed around 10 seconds off his PB with his superb time of 35:45. This is all the more impressive when we consider that Mike is in the throes of a tough training regime for the 3 day, 78 mile multi-stage Atlantic Coast Challenge in October, and so has not been focussing on speed over the shorter distances.
Dave Eveleigh was pleased to run an even paced race and remain focussed throughout - not easy over 25 laps of the same circuit! - to finish in just under 45 minutes (44:51) and receive the County Gold for Men Age 55-59.
Well done to both our guys: we hope you weren't too dizzy after!!
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