THIS weekend saw the Bere Alston Trekkers once again at Mudcrew’s Roseland August Trail – a series of challenging coastal runs of varying distances along the stunning South Cornwall coastal path.

The RAT as it is popularly known, incorporates four different distances, The Black Rat at 32 miles, The Red Rat at 20 miles, The White Rat at 11 miles and The Plague (green) at 100K – 64 miles.

All these routes follow the same part of coastline, with runners from different routes joining each other at different points along the way. Starting in Porthpean, the route takes competitors though stunning coastal scenery, over undulating paths, through fields, villages and surrounding countryside – and it is not for the faint hearted.

Tackling the Black RAT this year were Martin Head (7 hours 15 minutes 31 seconds), Murray Turner (8.21.25), Marcia Macey (8.47.54), Hilary Head (10.56.05), and Fiona Maddock (10.56.28).

The White RAT was taken on by Susan Williams (2.59.09), Samantha Harte-Latremouille (3.29.27) and Debbie Ashton (3.29.31).

Solo BAT Dave Dencer was forced to retire from the Plague due to injury having completed 16 arduous miles of the course.

Meanwhile, Northern BAT Andy Cowden went across the sea to Ireland to compete in a weekend of races in the Rock and Roll series of races in Dublin. Saturday saw a 5k run in which Andy ran in 23 minutes 38 seconds finishing 188th out of 1,756.

The next day saw Andy run in the half marathon in a time of 1.52.32 and finishing 1,392nd out of 5710 finishers.