On a really beautiful morning with wall-to-wall blue sky and sunshine, Exmouth Harriers hosted the Exmouth Express 5-Mile Race on Sunday over two laps of the Exmouth seafront starting and finishing adjacent to the Foxholes Car Park.
The popular race was held for the first time since 2019 due the seafront flood prevention works and the Covid-19 restrictions.
Harrier’s Tom Merson and Oli White led the race from gun to tape with Tom pushing ahead on the second lap of the seafront to take the top spot in 25.51 with Oli 2nd in 27.13. The podium places were completed with South-West Road Runners Gwylym Gibson finishing 3rd in 27.25.
The first female finisher was Victoria Hill of South-West Road Runners in 11th position overall in a superb time of 30.09. Okehampton AC’s Claudine Benstead was 2nd in 33.09 with Dani Water of South Devon AC 3rd in 35.06.
There were 87 finishers with lots of very positive comments about the race from the runners; everyone was pleased that the race has been resurrected in 2023 and they were looking forward to the 2024 event.
Harriers Chairman Nigel Dupain said after the race: “Well done to all of the runners and thanks to everyone who helped make it such a great event, with special thanks to Race Director Craig Butler. A great event with a really good atmosphere all round”.
Harriers had thirteen finishers: 1st Tom Merson 25.51; 2nd Oli White 27.13; 10th Dave Tomlin 30.06; 13th Mike Musgrove 30.54; 19th Josh Sale 31.39; 24th Nathan Budd 33.19; 25th David Snook 33.44; 33rd Darren Powell 35.32; 39th Anthony Lees 37.22; 42nd Jimmy Joy 37.45; 47th Bob Minting 39.12; 57th Sarah Baldwin 42.59; 61st Joan Mason 43.41.
Exmouth Harriers were assisted with the race logistics by City Runs, full results of the race are at: www.city-runs.co.uk/exmouth-express
On the same day, six Harriers (Sam Kelly, James Kelly, Amanda McCann, Nicola Kelly, Lisa Hatchard & Bob Keast) tackled the 4 Trigs - a tough off-road fell run of 17 miles in stunning conditions with fantastic scenery around East Devon’s Sid Valley, starting and finishing on Sidmouth seafront. Sam was first finisher in 2.09.11 and brother James was 3rd in 2.22.38.
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