ON Thursday, July 12, Bere Alston Trekkers Martin and Hilary Head joined Matthew Head and Tamar Trial Runner Dave Gale to take part in The Poldhu 10K, a 10K trail running race from Freedom Racing, the third event in a series of five summer sessions.

At the second time of asking the weather got the message, with the event being run in glorious sunshine. This multi terrain event starts on the beach at Poldhu Cove before the 10K race joins the South West Coast Path overlooking Mounts Bay and Penwith through Church Cove (as featured in TV’s Poldark) passing Gunwalloe heading towards Loe Bar, before turning inland on tracks and trails and a short section of road before rejoining the coastpath at Park Brean to head back to Poldhu Beach for the short ‘sandy sprint’ to the finish!

The event had a fabulous atmosphere and all 286 finishers (including the West Devon contingent) finished with smiles on their faces. Matthew finished in 53.09, Martin 58.46, Dave 1.05.23 and Hilary 01.24.46. The next of the summer sessions is at Godolphin in August.

On Saturday, solo lady BAT Fran Morgan ran the second edition of The Lydford Dash. Starting and finishing at the village fair, the five mile multi-terrain race was well attended despite the blisteringly hot conditions, and a couple of river crossings brought little in the way of relief. Fran crossed the line in 54.21 and claimed first in her age category.

On the same day, solo male BAT Dave Dencer supplemented his running kit with a wetsuit and a bike when he took to the road and sea at the Plymouth Triathlon.

This was Dave’s first triathlon, and incorporated a 1,500m swim, a 40K bike ride and a 10K run, all of which Dave completed in a time of approximately 3.45.00.

A team of BATs ran the Muddy Duck 10K Saturday evening. This popular off-road race hosted by Plymstock Road Runners sees competitors following a route around Radford Park with four river crossings which was enjoyed by over 250 finishers this year.

Flying the flag for the club were Tanya Argue, Shaun Hingston, Mel Greaves, Natasha Hingston, Melissa Pinfield, Sam Hart- Latremouille and Kelly Shaw. Official times were unavailable at the time of going to press.

Northern BAT Andy Cowden represented the BATs this week at the JCB Lakeside 5 on Thursday evening.

Now in its 35th year, this five mile race saw 500 runners and spectators starting the route at JCB’s picturesque world headquarters at Rochester.

The races rake funds for the NSPCC, JCB’s nominated charity. Andy finished his race in 51.03.