The Harriers unfortunately didn't manage to put a couple of teams together for the Bampton to tiverton 7 mile road race which, this year, incorporated the Ross Shield team competitions within it, in addition to it being one of the counting races in the InStep Devon Championship race series.
Men's and ladies' team captains, Adam and Carly Miller, had hoped to get a couple of teams together for the race, but due to the event taking place on Easter Monday, many people were either away, recovering from the London Marathon, or out with injury. That said, a few Harriers did toe the start line and all gave good individual accounts of themselves.
Leading the team by example, Adam Miller was the first Harrier home, in the unlucky position of 4th overall (a.k.a., first one back to not get a prize), missing out on 3rd spot by just 21 seconds with his time of 40:41.
In 43rd place with a time of 50:03 was Andrew Johnson. Andrew is a big fan of historic road race events such as these and always doles out some consistent performances, year after year.
Next, and coming in in quick succession, were our super-vet duo of Roger Rowe (97th in 60:28) and Mike Keep (98th in 60:37). After 5 knee operations and a life-time mileage count in the region of 50'000 miles, Roger has had to reign back his ambitions in recent years and just be content to be able to enjoy the sport at a more leisurely pace. Mike, however, is still running strongly for his age group and took a well deserved top spot in the over 70s category here - great work!
170 finished the race. Perhaps the being bused out to the start and/or running along a busy road that is not closed to traffic have led to a dimished uptake in numbers at this race. It would be a real shame to see it drop off the race calendar though as it is one of the longest standing races in the county.
Exe-rated runners!
The successful Harriers team, en masse, at the Erme Valley Relays, July 2013
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