On a glorious sunny Saturday at the Escot Estate, Ottery St Mary, 10 runners from Okehampton Running Club (ORC) took part in the Exeter Epic Trail 10k which was organised by Tough Runner UK. This event was previously held at Haldon Forest, but this year due to Covid restrictions it was decided Escot would be more suitable.
It was the idea venue for this event, which was truly atmospheric and the runners and supporters’ spirits were lifted being in these beautiful surroundings. Over 800 runners took part and there were twice as many supporters, but the event was very well managed with socially distanced runners setting off in 5 waves, 2 at a time with a 4 second gap.
Once again, the ORC’s did themselves proud with Tom Priday coming first in the Junior male category with an impressive time of 0.38.54 giving him the position of 6th overall. His brother TJ came in close behind gaining 4th in this category.
Jo Page and Mike Westland both had great runs coming 2nd in their respective categories. All in all, everyone was delighted to be out running competitively again and the weather and surroundings made it a perfect day.
Then, on Saturday night, Tom Andrews and Hayden Bond headed to South Brent to run in the Wild Night Run. With options of 5- or 10-mile routes both runners decided to do the 5 mile option.
This event had a rolling start format with a two hour start window, so with it being a staggered start the results were decided on chip times.
The event was very well organised and well signed, and there was even cake at the end!
Hayden did brilliantly and finished the race in a time of 0.38.37 coming home in 1st place and Tom finished in a very good time of 0.57.23 in 8th place.
Great running everyone!