A BUSY weekend of races saw Okehampton Running Club members competing from Somerset down to Cornwall last week.

ORCs Heather and Adam Richards were at the Eden project, St Austell to join more than 500 runners taking part in the half marathon.

Muddy conditions combined with the steep hills and thunder storms on the day made this a tough race but despite this Heather loved the experience. She was less happy about losing the race between husband and wife with Adam finishing in 1.57.37, just in front of Heather in 2.00.35.

The beautiful hills of Exmoor were the setting for the Exmoor Stagger. This notoriously hard 16 mile off road race climbs from the town of Minehead up onto the moors and to the top of Dunkery Beacon, the highest point on Exmoor, before returning to Minehead via woodland paths, rough terrain and tracks, with another tortuously steep hill just five miles from home. With a total ascent of 3,627ft, plenty of mud and gale force winds on the exposed moors, this was not a race for the faint-hearted. Two ORCs, Nick Seccombe and Jane Jackson took it on with Nick coming home in a good time of 2.37.14 and Jane in 3.10.27.

There was a selection of distances to run at the Dartmoor Vale races with ORCs taking part in all of them. The event includes a marathon and half marathon run over the same courses. The route follows the roads of the Teign Valley to Chudleigh and back along lanes beside Ugbrooke Park. In the marathon Roger Voaden put in a superb performance coming third overall and also winning the MV45 category in a time of 3.07.31, with his training partner Paul Carter finishing in 3.19.29. In the half marathon, Robert Kelly, who has run three half marathons in as many weeks, still finished in a good time of 1.28.54. Detlef Schoenfeld ran well to finish in 1.44.10.

Claire Kelly and Rachel Voaden ran in the 10k race. Claire came home in 51.26, while Rachel Voaden was pleased with her time of 1.02.31.