London calling....

And thanks to Dave Eveleigh for producing the following report on what was yet another extremely successful London for the Harriers clan. Well done to everyone on your superb times, performances, PBs, world records (that man Stoney's been at it again....!) and on all the hard earned money you raised for your respective charities.


With extensive television coverage you could hardly be unaware of the London Marathon taking place last Sunday (13 April). Among over 22,000 running were several participants from Exmouth.

Best placed of these overall was Dave Stone who was 569th (putting him in the top 3%) and 107th Man Age 40 – 44 in a time of 2:49:51. Dave was attempting to claim a World Marathon record for a runner dressed as a television character and to this end was dressed as Virgil Tracy of Thunderbirds fame. Given his time though it can be assumed that Dave was not adopting the persona so enthusiastically that he moved like the puppet Virgil was. This is the fourth time Dave has done the London race in costume. This year Dave has used his participation to raise funds for the St John Ambulance, deciding on this cause after they came to his aid when he fell at a recent race. I wonder if Dave can recall which Thunderbird Virgil flew though?

Mike Musgrove was raising funds for Whizz-Kidz. The recurrence of a calf injury did not stop him finishing and he was still comfortably inside 3 hours but he would have been hoping for a much better time than the 2:54:16 he recorded. He was 813th overall (top 4%) and 91st Man Aged 45-49.

Over 70 Veteran Mike Keep is another who has had to overcome injury recently so he would have been happy to complete the course in 4:14:17 in 15,029th place, leaving a third of the finishers behind him. Impressively there were 20 runners in his age category ahead of him.

Jane MacDonald was 8712th overall and 232nd Woman Age 45-49 in 3:48:49, a minute faster than in Amsterdam last year and believed to be a new Personal Best. Jane’s performance was particularly even paced and she used her participation to raise funds for Diabetes UK.

Amanda McCann finished 11,414th in 3:58:41, so just inside 4 hours but just outside the top half of the field. Amanda was 480th in her Women Aged 40-44 category and she was raising funds for Cancer Research UK.

Lorraine Kirby was not far behind Amanda with a time of 4:01:37 for 12,127th place. She was 356th in the female 45-49 age group

Virgil flew Thunderbird 2, the green one!