OVER the weekend, runners from far and wide came down to compete in the UTMB Arc of Attrition series, choosing between four distances- Arc 100, Arc 50, Arc 25 or Arc 12.

On Saturday, January 24, Okehampton Running Club member Claire Grubb put in a superhuman performance, completing the 104 miles, with almost 7000m of elevation, in 31:53:15, 133rd overall, 12th lady and sixth in her age category 35-39W.

Claire said: ‘Rain, furious winds, and gusts all played havoc. This resulted in about 60%DNF rate. At Gwithian, I realised I could actually finish and possibly beat my previous time! (I did by an hour.)’

On Sunday, Keeley Phillips and Paul Rossiter, took on the Arc 25 event, while Luke Stannus completed the Arc 12.

The 25-mile race starts near St Ives, going through Godrevy beach, and onwards to the finish at Porthtown, challenging runners with an elevation of over 1240m.

Official timings are yet to be published. Luke Stannus, finished the Arc 12 in 1:50:21, coming 1st in his category.

Elsewhere on the Saturday, Pearl Barnes completed the Winter walk marathon in 6:52:14. Pearl described it as ‘a great event with great weather’.

The route is a 26-mile (42 km) figure of eight walk, starting & finishing at The Oval Cricket Ground in Vauxhall, with a stop off at the Oval for lunch.

Meanwhile and also on Saturday, several ORCs completed the Pagan Trails events, hosted by OuterEdge.

With the marathon measuring over 28 miles and the half being well over 14 miles, these events are not for the light-hearted.

In wintery Dartmoor conditions, runners will need to complete over 1500m of ascent for the marathon and almost 700m for the Half Marathon.

Claire Thompson completed the Half Marathon and Simon Partridge completed the full Marathon, with Ian Ripper and Ian volunteering as sweepers for the Marathon.

Moving onto Sunday and Jo Page competed in the Braunton 10 Mile event, hosted by North Devon Road Runners, finishing in 1:08:13 (unofficial time).

The Alby Tithecott Memorial Run and is a 10-mile road race, with 2 infamous climbs, designed to test the legs and spirit! It is one of NDRRs oldest and most popular races.

Jo said ‘It was a little soggy but had much better conditions than those who raced in various places yesterday. I had a good run in the hilly course. I came 1st female, ran 10-mile PB, 3-minute course PB & a FV40 club record’.

Last but by no means least, we return to Pearl who was clearly very busy.

After the winter walk marathon on Saturday, Pearl decided to take on another challenge the next day, completing the Run Through Crystal Palace 10k in 1:01:42, coming second in her category.

She said that the ‘Legs were feeling quite heavy and sporting two blisters...quite undulating and a lot of slippy mud, in road trainers so trying not to slip a bit tricky. But an iconic stadium and great event.’