450 runners participate in Exeter's half marathon

Exeter’s leading health and wellbeing charity, Exeter City Community Trust, hosted another popular running event in the heart of Exeter.

More than 450 runners took part in last weekend's two day running festival, which began at the Quay and followed a two-lap route along the River Exe and through Riverside Valley Park.The event proved popular selling out weeks in advance. 

Saturday’s race was a fantastic opportunity for many club runners to test their winter training, while Sunday’s event provided an ideal opportunity for those first time runners to achieve their goal over a relatively flat, traffic-free course

Jamie Vittles, head of CITY Community Trust, said: "The weekend was an enormous success, we have two half marathons, one for the more elite runners on the Saturday and a second open race on the Sunday. The events are really starting to make their mark on runners’ calendars, attracting lots of top class entrants from outside the area, as well as local people."

"The weather conditions were changeable to say the least, I think we saw snow hail and rain over the weekend. Our team, led by Pete Ferlie, did an amazing job organising these events."

With a blistering time of 1 hour 12 minutes, Jamie Barnett was quickest on Saturday’s event, he was closely followed by runner up Adam Holland, from Tavistock running group, and Graham Bale, from Plymstock Road Runners.

With an astonishing time of 1 hour 19 minutes, Matt Dell, from Weston Athletic Running Club, finished quickest on Sunday, with Gavin Mackay and Ian Patchett following.

The women’s race saw Katie Synge win Saturday’s event followed by Alison McEwing and Alison Thorn both representing Erme Valley Harriers. With Sunday’s honours going to Ruby Orchard who finished fifth overall in 1hr 28 with Catherine Hodkins in second, closely followed by Jodie Koep.

The charity is now looking ahead to its next running events which are the Granite Way race, a 10 or 20mile race across Dartmoor, on March 4 and the Exeter Marathon on May 20.

For more information or to challenge yourself at their next events, visit www.exetercitycommunitytrust.co.uk