LAST weekend saw runners from Tavistock Athletic Club competing in both the Torbay Half Marathon and the Great Lanhydrock 10-miler.

James Crisp was the sole TAC entry for the tough off-road trail run set around the Lanydrock estate. This was James second race with the club and he ran strongly, finishing in 42nd position out of 262 competitors, in a time of 1hour 15minutes.

The race at Torbay attracted an entry of 1,300 plus runners, the two-lap traffic-free route being set from Paignton Green to Torquay and back. The weather was near-perfect and, unusually, all nine TAC entries gained an award for their age/time result. Andy Houghton excelled, finishing third in his M65+ group and gaining his fourth diamond award of the year.

Pete Bazley and Paul Marshall both gained gold awards, Pete being first club member to finish, fourth in his group and Paul knocking nearly two minutes off his 2009 time for the race.

Silver awards went to Graham De Val, Jackie Ralph and Ann Woodhouse. New member Graham has been putting in faster performances with every race he enters and in Torbay he bettered his recent Plymouth Half time by nearly two minutes. With consistent training, Jackie and Ann have both seen their fitness levels improve recently – Jackie, racing for the first time this year, finished eigth in age, while Ann was third in her category.

Caron De Val, Samantha Marshall and Lesley Cowie all gained bronze awards with Caron knocking more than six minutes off her previous time for the distance, Samantha improved by nearly four minutes, and Lesley ran a season's best time for a half marathon.