The 2021 Virgin Money London Marathon takes place this coming weekend on Sunday 3rd October and Exmouth Harriers will have eight runners involved
Good luck to Alice Kelly, Dave Tomlin, Jon Mill, Kelly Thomas, Mike Musgrove and Oliver White, plus Andrew Place and Lisa Hartchard taking on the virtual event.
The 2021 race is set to be the biggest marathon ever staged anywhere in the world, with an incredible 100,000 runners.
A record 50,000 participants will run from Blackheath to The Mall in the traditional mass-participation 26.3 mile event and they will be joined by 50,000 “virtual” runners who will run on the course of their choice from 00:00:00 to 23:59:59 BST on 3rd October, wherever they are on the planet.
The recent marvellous weather combined with a plethora of races saw a large contingent of Harriers running in six Devonian events and one in Windsor Park in the past week.
In the Run Exe 5k, it was a great traffic-free and pancake flat 5km run on footpaths and cycle tracks around Exwick Playing Fields and the River Exe Flood Relief. For the Harriers, results were 11th Oliver White 16.40 (1st M35), 36th Des White 19.33 (1st M65), 42nd Hannah Bown 20.03 (2nd W40), 43rd Brian Sansom 20.06 (3rd M55), 50th Andrew Place 21.23, 53rd Jenny Reay 22.13 (1st W60) and 70th Alison White 25.32 (1st W65).
After the final Run Exe 5K in the 2021 four race series Exmouth Harriers had three age category first placings, two second placings, one third place, a fourth place and a 12th place in the overall standings. Alison White 1st W65, Des White 1st M65, Oliver White 1st M35, Hannah Bown 2nd W40, Jenny Reay 2nd W60, Brian Sansom 3rd M55, Andrew Johnson 4th M55 and Andrew Place 12th Senior Man.
Two Exmouth runners enjoyed a spectacular route of 4.5 miles of fantastic running with some breathtaking views; starting and finishing at the Fox and Hounds Hotel near Lydford. It was the last race of the Dartmoor Fell Series: 30th Hugh Marsden 48.34 (2nd M60) and 48th Dawn Teed 65.18 (2nd W50). Overall in the 2021 Dartmoor Fell Run Series, Hugh Marsden was 1st M60 and Dawn Teed 1st W50.
More racers took part in the Chagford Challenge, starting and finishing in the centre of Chagford. The routes are either 31 miles with 4,800 ft of ascent or 22 miles with 3,200 ft of ascent using paths, tracks, quiet country lanes and open moorland, around Dartmoor.
Nicola Kelly (21 miles) 6 hrs 20 mins, Sam Kelly (21 miles) 6 hrs 20 mins, Amanda McCann (31 miles) 9 hrs 5 mins, Lisa Hatchard (31 miles) 9 hrs 5 mins, Dawn Teed (31 miles) 9 hrs 5 mins and Nick Ramm (31 miles) 9 hrs 5 mins.
The Honiton Hippo is an extremely hilly 7.3 mile mixture of road and off-road running with over 1,100 ft of ascent starting and finishing at Honiton Primary School including two knee deep river crossings to negotiate enroute.
Results were 22nd Des White 65.06 (3rd M60), 56th Amy Tew 82.52 (5th W35) and 63rd Alison White 84.03 (4th W55).
In the LME Exmouth 10km, runners faced a flat, fast and furious two laps of Exmouth seafront with Harriers Dave Tomlin leading from “gun to tape”. 1st Dave Tomlin 36.50 1st M40, 17th Brian Sansom 41.01 3rd M50, 30th Regan Meadowcroft 43.55, 35th Anthony Lees 44.51 and 46th Jenny Reay 46.14 2nd W60.
The Barnstaple Half-Marathon is another flat, fast race that uses large sections of the Tarka Trail. The start and finish are at Rock Park in Barnstaple: 69th Terry McKie 1.39.43.
And finally, the 38th “running” of the 13.1 mile Windsor Half-Marathon that runs around the most beautiful Windsor Great Park: 556th Jimmy Joy 1.54.15.
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