A QUINTET OF Okehampton Running Club members took on the 5km and 10km distances at Saturday’s Roadford Lake Trails.

By popular demand, these races are a new addition to the calendar at Roadford by Sportiva Events and the courses loop round in a different direction to the autumn races.

Four ORCs ran the 10K with Rory Honeychurch finishing 3rd overall in 45:12, Lou Walsh in 58:11, Chris Fulford-Brown in 1:03:42 (1st MV70) and Pearl Barnes in 1:05:52 (2nd FV50). Mary Roberts ran the 5K finishing in 29:09 as 3rd female and 1st FV50.

Meanwhile, Gill Spinney travelled to Wales to compete in the Ultra Trail Snowdonia 50K by UTMB, which is a truly international race with almost 1200 runners from all over the world. Starting and finishing in Llanberis, it has four big ascents, climbing Snowdon twice then Mynydd Mawr and Moel Eilio, totalling 57km and a little over 3400m of ascent.

Gill first completed the race in 2023 then disaster struck in the 2024 race when she fractured her ankle descending the PYG track. This year was more successful and she finished 20 minutes faster than in 2023 in a time of 11hrs58 placing her 6th in her age category.

Erme Valley Harriers’ Ivybridge 10K took place on Saturday evening. Starting at Ivybridge Station car park and finishing at the rugby club, the race had a field of 600 runners from all over the SW taking part.

The course is relatively fast despite the steep hill from Bittaford to Moorhaven with the last 6kms being almost entirely downhill making for a speedy second half to the race! Andrew Vernon ran well on the undulating course in lovely conditions and was pleased to finish 1st MV55 in 40:09.

Elsewhere, duo Claire Grubb and Peter Roisetter took on Climb South West’s Devon Coast to Coast Ultramarathon, with a 38-hour time limit to complete it.

This is a 112-mile non-stop race crossing the whole county, starting in Wembury in the south and finishing in Lynmouth in the north and includes a full crossing of both Dartmoor and Exmoor.

Claire had been running well until the warm daytime weather conditions followed by cold conditions overnight and then foot issues took their toll. She took the difficult decision to pull out at West Anstey having covered an amazing 88 miles and whilst still achieving a personal best time over 50K!

Peter meanwhile pushed on and completed the full distance finishing on Sunday evening after an incredible 35hrs 32mins. He said it was the hardest race he had ever done and a massive personal achievement.

Last but not least, on Sunday, coach Rob Richards led the Cto50k Marathon event on yet another amazing weather day.

Departing from Okehampton, the group (pictured) ventured out onto Dartmoor in the scorching heat. This section of the route took them to Hangingstone Hill, Wild Tor and Kestor Rocks before they took on some well-earned food and drink near Scorhill.

They then embarked on a pleasurable hidden lane tour through Gidleigh, Throwleigh, South Zeal, South Tawton, Sticklepath and Belstone. They finally arrived back in Okehampton having covered almost 44kms with approx 1200m of ascent. For some of the group, this was the furthest they had ever run. A great achievement!