Twelve Exmouth Harriers took part in Mark Cowen’s City Runs 5th Virtual Ekiden Relay over the weekend of March 20 - 21.
Ekiden is a long-distance, multistage relay race, based on a traditional Japanese concept – the word ‘Ekiden’ originally referred to a post-horse or stagecoach which transmitted communications in stages.
This relay is a team event, each member of the team runs a different distance to complete a 42km Marathon in total. There were six stages made up of 12km, 10km, 8km, 6km, 5km & 1km.
Exmouth Harriers entered a Women’s and a Men’s team with runners aged between 33 and 67 years old.
As it was a virtual race, each runner picked their own route and time of day to complete their run and recorded their times on their gps watches.
All times were submitted to City Runs, who then had the tough logistical task of working out the individual and team rankings in the various age and gender categories.
The Exmouth Harriers Women’s team:
12km Hannah Bown 49:11
10km Amanda McCann 49:43
8km Lisa Hatchard 39:27
6km Holly Clements 28:26
5km Emma White 22:17
1km Charlotte Briggs 3:44
Total Team Time 3:12:48
The Exmouth Harriers Men’s team:
12km Tom Packer 48:45
10km Oliver White 34:39
8km Anthony Hatchard 31:27
6km Andrew Place 26:44
5km Des White 19:21
1km Craig Butler 3:53
Total Team Time 2:44:42
From the provisional results out of the 57 teams who finished the event, the Exmouth Harriers women finished in 1st position in the W18-39 team event and in 18th team position overall. The Exmouth Harriers men finished in 5th position in the M18-39 team event and in 6th team position overall.
Great running by everyone and many thanks to Mark Cowen and his team at City Runs for organising another marvellous event.
That is probably the final virtual race of the year for Exmouth Harriers. With “real” racing returning in April, Exmouth Harriers have a number of runners competing in City Runs Fast Friday 5km & 10km at Exeter Racecourse on Good Friday.