FIVE Bats (Bere Alston Trekkers) will be taking on the tough challenge of the Dartmoor Discovery on Saturday. The Dartmoor Discovery is an ultrathon run around Dartmoor and is entirely on roads starting and finishing in Princetown. 

The current distance is 52.115 km (32 miles 674 yards). Entrants are required to have completed a marathon on an 'average' course in less than 5 hours (or something equivalent), there is a limit of 225 entries for the race where only 49 of these are women.

The main features of the race are the delightful countryside of Dartmoor and the associated hills. The total rise of the hills is about 1,200 metres (nearly 4,000ft). Because of the hills, times are typically about 50% longer than those of a flat marathon, even though the course is only 10 km longer than a marathon.

One of the Bats taking part is Dotty Allan. The Discovery is the third of three big events for Dotty this year, who is fund raising for FSID (The Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths). A number of Dotty's friends have had babies that have died within their first few months of life, others that have been born dead and others that have been born to early. Dotty feels that she has the ability, strength and determination to train for these events in any weather and to push herself to the absolute limit, and while doing this she would like to take the opportunity to raise money in memory of all these babies.

Dotty is running in memory of Tabitha, Maria, Emma, Lucy, Kate, Katy, Stephen, Oliver, Iven, Joseph and Ashleigh. 

If you would like to sponsor Dotty please visit http://www.justgiving.com/dotty-allan">www.justgiving.com/dotty-allan

The other Bats taking part in the Dartmoor Discovery are Murray Turner who is running for the Eve Appeal, Rachel Wood running for Oxfam, Steve Watson and Jon Eatly.