LAST weekend was an extremely busy weekend for local running club Bere Alston Trekkers (Bats), with club members taking part in six events.

The main event of the weekend was the Hope 24 with 21 club members returning to Newnham Park in Plymouth for the second year.  The Hope is a 24 hour five mile trail run relay for soloists and teams of two, three, five and eight, in male, female or mixed categories with all proceeds to Hope for Children Charity.

The course consisted of some steep hills, muddy tracks littered with puddles, potholes and tree roots and some beautiful bluebell woods.  Team members ran between two and six laps each in order to keep the clock running for 24 hours. 

The Bat teams were: Bats in Flight — Dotty King, Philip King, Janice Fuller, Pam Adams, Dave Adams, Fran Morgan, Emma Dooney and Mel Greaves, who completed 26 laps/130 miles. The Bluebells — Heather Smith, Lisa Birch, Jacqui Stokes, Rebecca Mingo and Mike Smith, who completed 27 laps / 135 miles.

Cobra Kai: Matt Luckham, Derek Hicks, Toby Rankin, Dan Dooney and Fran Dix, who completed 30 laps / 150 miles. There were also three solo Bat runners — Ann Woodhouse who completed four laps/20 miles, Alen Guy who ran 12 laps/60 miles and Rachel Wood who ran a staggering 16 laps/80 miles to finish second overall for the ladies.

On Saturday evening, five club members took part in the Ivybridge 10k and on Sunday morning Andrew Bowden took part in the Bideford 10k and bettered his time from the evening before to run a new distance personal best of 44.42.

The Great Manchester Run is an annual 10 kilometre run through the streets of Greater Manchester and is the largest of its type in Europe with more than 40,000 runners. 

Taking part this year was lone Bat Steve Hill who ran a 10k personal best of 37.22 to finish 143rd overall.

Bats Kate Glanville and Sarah Cohen ventured to Cornwall to undertake the Trevonick 10 multi terrain race which covers approximately 10 miles, over numerous grass tracks, elements of the North Cornwall coastal path and common land on Cubert common ascending nearly 400 metres.

In extremely blustery conditions, Kate and Sarah both enjoyed the race with stunning views throughout and completed the race in 1.47.25.

On May 7 Bat Martin Head, left Devonport Royal Dockyard to run as part of a team relay to Twickenham Rugby Stadium to raise money for the Royal Navy Royal Marines Charity.

The team ran a total of 211 miles in pairs, over 31 legs in less than 36 hours, with each pair running circa 44 miles.

So far the team has raised more than £12,000 for the RNRMC and donations can be made via uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/babcockroad2twickers or by texting RTT to 70500.