THE cooler weather brings a busy racing calendar, and members of Tavistock Athletic Club have been travelling around the south-west to compete.
The Oldbury Power Station 10 mile race, hosted by Thornbury Running Club, is possibly the only race in the country to feature CCTV surveillance, sniffer dogs and armed guards. It is a flat course on quiet country lanes and has plenty of potential for fast times - as proved by Jim Cole, Tony Symons and Steve Groombridge, three of TAC's fastest senior men.
Jim Cole was first of the 300 entrants home to win the event in 53minutes 27seconds. Tony finished in ninth position in 58.24 and Steve gained a UK Athletics diamond award comfortably, with a time of 1hour and 57seconds.
Cricklade, a small Cotswold town on the banks of the River Thames, holds an annual half-Marathon and 10k race. Rob and Eunice Moule and Lesley Cowie ran the half and Claire Pitcher entered the 10k race. Rob achieved a personal best, finishing in 1.46.02. Despite the warmth of the day, Eunice and Lesley gained good times of 1.53.15 and 2.04.27 respectively. Claire knocked over four minutes off her previous 10k time to finish in 53.06.
Nearer home, the Teign Valley Toddle is anything but, being a hard 10.2 miles with more than 400 feet of ascent. The 89 finishers took between just over the hour for the winner to complete the course, to just over two for the last man home. TAC's Martyn Williams used the race as training for the start of his build-up to next year's London Marathon, and was pleased with his time of 86.12.
Autumn training is now in full swing at the club, and provided you can run for around half and hour, you are very welcome to join us.
Call 01822 612577 for more information, or visit the website http://www.tavistockathletics.co.uk">www.tavistockathletics.co.uk
The Tavy Seven road-race is on November 8 this year, with entry forms on the web-site, and for the first time ever, the club is organising a Santa Run to coincide with the switching on of the town's Christmas lights, on Friday, November 27.