OKEHAMPTON Running Club members were taking on all sorts of distances in the last week or so.

Junior Sophie Casavieille-Lacaze was at Exeter Arena to run in the final meeting of the athletics season of the British Milers Club (BMC).

The BMC organises specialist middle distance track meetings designed for fast times and personal bests. The meeting featured 11 races, 100 finishers, and a 35% personal best (PB) rate across competitors.

Sophie was amongst those achieving a PB running an amazing sub-5min over 1500m in the U16 age category. Congratulations Sophie!

Meanwhile, Pete Roissetter headed to the outskirts of Plymouth for a 8-mile charity race in support of Bowel Cancer West.

Set in the private grounds and woods of the Newnham Park Estate, the two-lap course started at 7pm.

However, due to the overcast conditions, it got dark earlier than anticipated leaving some runners lost in the woods trying to navigate with only the torches on their phones!

Fortunately Pete had brought a proper torch and was able to assist his fellow runners. Pete was pleased to finish in 1hr24.

Moving on and Garry Wallace was in Dartmouth for the Regatta Road Race. This popular 5-mile race held to coincide with Regatta Week has been run since 1980 and is an annual pilgrimage for many, attracting runners from all over the South West.

This year, the race reverted to its original course starting at the iconic Dartmouth Boatfloat and heading through Dartmouth Town and up Weeke Hill and back using the Redlap loop.

Garry found the revised route with over 700ft of elevation tough going but was pleased with his finish time of 50mins on the hilly course.

Also on Saturday, new ORC member Ben Ranson took on the inaugural Manumit Dartmoor 50k Ultramarathon run in partnership with the Dartmoor Outdoor Festival and Dartmoor Search and Rescue.

The route was inspired by the first recorded perambulation of the Dartmoor Forest bounds completed by the 12 true knights commanded by King Henry III and is now one of the oldest long distance trails.

Whilst designed to be runnable, the route covered wild and exposed open moor with multiple tors to climb and rivers to cross. The course was unmarked with runners required to self-navigate using a provided GPX file.

As they set off at 6am, the weather was in full Dartmoor mode - wet, windy and foggy. After covering almost 56km with 5300ft of elevation, Ben finished 10th overall in 7hrs53. He likened conditions to being pressure washed in the face at times and thought it a tough but very enjoyable adventure.

Lastly, on a busy Saturday for racing, Deane Andrew was also at Newnham Park near Plymouth for the Devon and Cornwall Backyard Ultra, another event raising funds for Bowel Cancer West.

Here runners must complete a lap of the 4.167mile course (known as a yard) on the hour every hour until only one runner (the winner) remains. The route took runners through the undulating woods and grounds of the private Newnham Estate.

Deane has become something of an expert at this type of endurance event with this his third time on a start line.

Despite some biblical rain at times throughout the day and night, Deane completed 15 yards totalling 101km with almost 7000ft of elevation. He thought it was a really well organised event and lots of fun (on lap one anyway). Another amazing achievement!