THE traditional running race calendar is starting to open up now with athletes from Tavistock Athletic Club taking part in two half marathon races over the weekend.

Some will be using these as a training run for the upcoming spring marathons but, for others, the half marathon distance is ideal to offer a significant challenge and to test their winter fitness.

The Exeter half marathons are run over both Saturday and Sunday, organised by the Exeter City Community Trust. Starting and finishing at the Quay, the 13.1-mile route takes runners along the Quayside and Riverside Valley park.

Regular TAC training duo Mark West and Ian Collacott chose the Saturday race and, in spite of the poorer weather conditions, achieved great results. Running together they finished in a time of 1hr 26min 44s, in 32nd and 33rd places overall, out of nearly 550 finishers.

More significantly, Ian was 2nd in his M40 age category and Mark achieved 4th place in his M50 group.

In the Sunday race, which was blessed with sun and light winds, Grant Harvey ran a magnificent race to snatch 3rd place overall (and winning his M40 age category), amongst 336 runners, in a time of 1:18:48.

Further afield, TAC life member Adam Holland and Hannah Worth travelled to take on the Farnborough half marathon, also run on Sunday.

The course is one of the flattest and fastest in the south of England. Amid a such fast field, Adam finished 67th overall in a time of 1:18:53, whilst Hannah completed in 1:30:56, 11th in her F40 age category.

Pictured is Tavistock Athletic Club member Grant Harvey after his Exeter half marathon.