IN another busy weekend of races there were some outstanding performances from Okehampton Running Club members.

Saturday evening saw the the inaugural Nightjar Night Race held on the heaths around Bicton and Woodbury Common.

It is named after the the nocturnal bird that returns from Africa each summer to breed on these heaths.

There were two routes here, one of five miles and the other of over nine miles and six ORCs chose the shorter race while just one tackled the nine miles of running by head torch. There were huge successes for Okehampton with Hayden Bond setting the pace and finishing in a stunning time for an off road run at night of 33 minutes 36 seconds to win the race. Second ORC over the finish line was Jo Page with an equally impressive time of 36 minutes to win the first lady prize, also setting a new senior ladies club record for five miles.

Tom Andrew was next in 40.38, while Jo Bradford finished in in 42.54 to be second lady and first in her age category.

These four ORCs’ combined times were enough to win the team prize for Okehampton. The success of the club’s runners continued with Karen King taking third lady overall, second in the FV40 category and also setting a club record for the distance with her time of 44.28. Liam Keen thoroughly enjoyed his first race for some time, finishing in 53.39.

The lone ORC runner in the longer race was Mike Westland who crossed the line in 1.33.40.

A HUGE challenge was undertaken by Okehampton’s Gill Spinney when she ran the Salomon Ring of Steall Skyrace in Scotland on Saturday.

In the tradition of Skyrunning this race incorporates uncompromising mountain running, such as scrambling along mountain ridges with steep ascents, traverses and descents on technical and challenging terrain.

This year the event hosted the World Skyrunning Championships including the 29k Ring of Steall with 2,500m of ascent.

The race started and finished in Kinlochleven which sits at the foot of the Mamores in the coastal glen between Glencoe and Glen Nevis. In a race packed with top international runners Gill was not over-awed by the company she was in and enjoyed the atmosphere with the streets lined with cheering crowds ringing cowbells and clapping.

Her 18 mile race summited four Munro’s (Scottish Mountains over 3,000ft) with two ridges, including the Devil’s Ridge, a narrow track with sheer drops either side where there was a section of scrambling involved.

Gill finished in a time of 8.03.03, very tired but unscathed unlike many of the runners whose wounds bore testament to the difficulty of the terrain. This was the longest race Gill has ever run in terms of time but she has vowed to return next year.