It's February: it's Fulford Five time!

Yes, February is upon us already and that means one thing: it's time for some Fulford 5 fun!

Fulfords Estate Agents first became involved with Exmouth Harriers when they supported Harriers member and erstwhile Fulfords' employee, John Watson, in his Paralympian exploits some 30 years ago. They first starting to support the annual Exmouth 5 Mile road race in the early 1980s. Lots of local businesses support sports events and teams in their area without actually asking for very much in return. However, if participants and spectators came to a subliminal conclusion that this particular sponsorship suggested that Fulfords was a business that is “in it for the long run” that would probably be something of a reward for their generosity! The Harriers are also grateful to their continued support as having their name behind the event allows the continued use of alliteration in the race title; a popular linguistic tool when according names to races to ensure that they are memorable. If Fulfords pulled out, we'd have to change to the Exmouth 8k!

The Harriers are also pleased to continue their association with the Wukro Project which is helping young Ethiopian athletes access opportunities to progress that are not normally easy to obtain in their remote part of the athletically talented but financially impoverished East African nation. The Fulfords Five event is one source of a total annual sum of £750 contributed by Exmouth Harriers which helps maintain the project.

This year’s Fulfords Five took place on its usual route over two laps through the heart of Exmouth and on the picturesque sea front on Sunday 2 February. Indeed, we were lucky to find a very small window of opportunity in the weather to allow the race to go ahead as the following day storms and tidal surges meant that much of the roite was under 3ft of water! As it was, near perfect conditions greeted the 261 finishers, of which 115 were women, with a light tail wind being behind them on the sea front, making for some fast times. 

Keen to capitalise on these ideal conditions was the popular and talented Exmouth based athlete, Tom Merson. Tom is regularly seen at local races in Exmouth colours in his capacity as a second claim member for his home town club, (he utilised his Bristol and West first claim membership to undertake challenges and to seek coaching opportunities further afield). Tom managed to retain his title from last year with another emphatic win, this time knocking 9 seconds off his 2013 time and also setting a new PB for the 5 mile distance with his time of 24:31. Runner-up was Jon James, who runs for Wells City Harriers: this a fair distance to have travelled, suggesting this increasingly rare distance (the 10k has taken over from 5 and 6 mile races in terms of popularity since the U.K. turned metric), is still very much in demand. Perhaps the outstanding male performance of the day though came from the Bideford based athlete, Jon Shapland. At 60 years old his time of 28:41 and this 17th place overall was a quality piece of running, gaining him over 90% on age-graded performance calculations. 

The outstanding female run (again allowing for an age-graded score of over 90%) came from Exmouth Harriers' own super-speedster, Cathy Newman. Cathy had a storming run to finish 2nd woman overall, just 17 seconds adrift of Tiverton Harriers' athlete, Serane Stone, who is 14 years her junior. Cathy was 29th overall in 29:52 and at 51 was a more than comfortable winner of the FV50 category. 

East Devon has a reputation as a retirement hot-spot, but four Exmouth Harriers who refuse to take to their settees and watch day-time TV or go for a sedate stroll along the promenade, all competed last weekend and are the tangible proof that age is no barrier to competitive running. Seventy-one-year-olds Mike Keep, making a welcome return after injury, and Jim Wyatt were 179th in 42:11 and 221st in 47:17 respectively. Just behind Mike was 75-year-old Mick Allen in 183rd place with a time off 42:31. Re-joining the club and, in his case, making a welcome return to racing after illness, finishing 231st in 48:16 was John Perratt who is now 76. In the days in which more and more athletes are continuing to run competitively well into their 70s and, in come cases, into their 80s, this quartet would make a cracking Over 70 vet relay team. 

With most of the Harriers members occupied with marshalling duties, there were just five more members who completed the race. Ladies' captain, Carly Miller was 107th overall and 20th woman in 36:04, around half-a-minute faster than in 2013 despite having to have some time off recently due to on-going issues with shin-splints. Sarah Jackman was 127th and 28th woman in 37:39. Andrew Johnson, now running in the MV50 category, was 60th in a swift 33:05. Richard Pyle ran home in 86th place in 34:40 and Roger Riggs (MV55) made up the team with 195th spot in a time of 45:33.

Well done to all the Harriers who ran but also a massive well done and thank you to all the Harriers, their families and friends, and to the Exmouth cadets who helped to marshall the race and make it another success. Marshalling road races in the these sad days of apparent increasing road traffic (and resultant road rage) is never easy and so keeping the runners safe is paramount. It was heartening to receive some lovely emails of thanks from participants who appreciated the highly vocal support of the marshalls. It was slightly disheartening to witness some rather aggressive displays of driving from some drivers on the sea front who clearly couldn't spare 1 minute out of their busy Sunday schedules to let the runners pass by in safety, but I guess that that is a sign of the times and we have not to let it spoil the enjoyment of our sport. *steps down off her soap box and bows out*  !!!

Start of the race, outside the Exmouth swimming pool and leisure centre on Imperial Road.