IT was a fairly quiet week in terms of the number of Okehampton Running Club members taking part in races, but that does not diminish the achievements of those who did, who put in some great performances.

On Wednesday two ORC’s took part in the ‘Buy With Confidence’ Exeter 10k, held in the evening on Exeter Quay. This is another flat fast course on the footpaths and cycle tracks around the river Exe and Exeter Canal. Both had good runs and both clocked up new personal bests with Chris Turner finishing in 40 minutes 18 seconds and Mark Hawkins pleased with his time of 44.39, being in the middle of training for his first marathon.

Saturday saw a new event on the calendar, a double bill of distances organised by pureTrail. There was a choice of ’The Crossing’, an Ultra marathon starting from Belstone and crossing the moor from north to south, or ’The Great Escape’, a half marathon starting from Princetown and taking in the last 13.2 miles of the longer race.

Katie Littlejohns tackled the Great Escape which involves some tricky uphills despite having a largely downhill profile, crossing the head of the Erme valley and following the Abbots’ Way before the long downhill into South Brent. Dartmoor running is second nature to Katie and she had a great race, coming in third lady and 18th overall in a time of 2 hours 00 mins 56 seconds.

On Sunday a lone ORC, Ray Lawrence, took to the Welsh mountains to run the Snowdonia Trail Marathon. This immensely challenging race has over 1,685m of ascent and follows spectacular, scenic trails which circumnavigate Snowdon and eventually climb it at mile 19. Unfortunately a wet day, with thick fog and mist making for difficult, slippery conditions on the wet rock, meant Ray could not really appreciate the scenery. He still ran well though and was relieved to finish in a very good time of 5.52.28.