Exmouth Harriers tackle the hills

A few Exmouth Harriers raced over the weekend but, as there weren’t any events staged locally, they had to travel further afield to compete in some seriously challenging races.
On Saturday, June 12, Dawn Teed, Lisa Hatchard and Hugh Marsden competed in the first race of the 2021 Dartmoor Fell Race Series.
The five-mile event was called Marilyn's Meldon Madness and took the runners to the highest point in the south of England with an ascent of 1,362ft.
There were stunning views over the county from Yes Tor and High Willhays (the highest point) before a welcome descent to Black Tor and down Homerton Hill to the finish at Meldon reservoir.
Due to difficulty of marking the course accurately, self-navigation was required by all runners.
All three Harriers ran strongly throughout the race with Hugh winning the M60 prize. Dawn and Lisa finished together in 68 minutes 16 seconds with Dawn winning the W50 prize.
Following on from last weekend’s Conquer24 event at Powderham Castle, brothers James and Sam Kelly travelled a few hundred miles north to take part in Abraham’s Tea Round; one of the Lake District’s toughest challenges on Saturday, June 12.
They ran together and finished in an amazing 7 hours and 50 minutes over a 30-mile route with 12,000+ feet of ascent that started and finished in Keswick.
It isn’t a race as such but a challenge that you complete whenever and when you finish the 30-mile loop, you submit your time to get on the overall leaderboard. The bonus (and the reason for the name of the challenge) is that on completion you get a free cup of tea from Abraham's Cafe in Keswick.
Thankfully, the next races for Exmouth Harriers are local, with the first race in the City Runs RunExe Summer 5km series City at Exwick on Tuesday, June 22 and the Devon 10,000m on the track at Exeter Arena on Wednesday, June 30.