IT was a quiet weekend on the racing front for Okehampton Running Club members with just one ORC finding the incentive to get out and race on a grey and windy Sunday.

Nothing seems to deter Jo Page from having her weekly race and this time she travelled up to Weston-Super-Mare in Somerset to run the Weston Christmas Cracker 10K. Now in its 31st year, this is Weston AC’s largest race by far and people come back year after year to take part in the festive run. Such is the popularity of this race that entries sell out as early as September, with runners travelling from far and wide to line up with 2,000 others dressed as Santas, elves, reindeer, snowmen, penguins and angels.

The course includes sand, pavement and tarmac with the first four miles being run on the wet packed sand on the beach. Heavy overnight rain, a tide that had just turned before the race start and strong gusty winds made for challenging conditions and this was no easy fun run but a hotly contested, tough race. Dressed as a lady Santa Jo put in her usual great effort and came home in 43 minutes 30 seconds to be sixth senior lady and still managing to set a 54 second personal best.

The previous weekend, lone ORC Rob Cunnington took on the challenge of a night time race over open moorland when he ran the ten mile Burrator Noir on Saturday evening.

The course had to be changed slightly this year, although the overall distance remained the same.

This would be quite a tough race in the light and it was Rob’s first try at night running but he enjoyed the experience despite the relentless uphill climb on a rutted track from the start, finishing in 2hrs 15mins 01sec.