SUNDAY was another busy day in the race calendar for members of Bere Alston Trekkers, both locally and further afield.

The inaugural Rollercoaster Race hosted by the Run Venture Trail Running Hub, home of Tamar Trail Runners, saw 13 BATs taking to the woodland trails in this tough new five mile waymarked and marshalled trail race incorporating five rollercoaster hills on forest tracks in the Tamar Valley AONB.

The Tamar Trails comprise 25km of improved multi-use trails, created as part of the Tamar Valley Mining Heritage Project. They open up parts of the Tamar Valley that were previously not accessible to the public, and runners enjoyed some steep descents and ascents with views over the Tamar Valley and beyond.

Husband and wife Francis Dix and Jennifer West were first over the finishing line for the BATs in 40.04.13 and 51.23.22 respectively, with the rest of the BATs finishing strongly. Andrew Bowden was the next home for the BATs in 43.50.79 followed by Martin Head 50.25.00, Pam Adams 54.28.83, Dave Adams 54.29.33, Janice Fuller 58.27.72, Hazel Bickley 58.28.02, Frances Morgan 1.00.26, Laura Hogan 1.00.26, Mel Greaves 1.00.27, Hilary Head 1.14.01 and Lisa Birch running as back marshall/sweep. This new race looks set to become a popular race in the list of local fixtures.

Meanwhile, at Bicton in East Devon, lone BAT Derek Hicks running his first race in 18 months flew the flag for the Trekkers at the Bicton Blister. The Bicton Blister is a 10 mile multi-terrain race on Woodbury Common in East Devon, starting and finishing at Bicton College in East Devon. The start and finish were short road sections, with the remainder of the race being on sandy, stony and muddy paths across the Commons of East Devon.

The Bicton Lite is the Bicton Blister’‘s little Brother, 4.5 miles same start and finish. Derek surpassed his own expectations, finishing the Blister in a blistering 1.41.42.

The next outing for the BATs will be at Wildnightrun’s ‘Burrator Noir’ on December 3.