Exeter Summer Series
On Tuesday 4 ORC’s headed to Exeter for the 4th round of the 5k Summer Series, there are just 2 more rounds to come in August and September, with a medal to everyone who completes the series with a minimum of 4 out of the 6 races.
In a change from recent weeks, this race was held in heavy rain, far from ideal conditions to race in. All the runners agreed that the breeze was noticeably stronger on the second lap, but the relentless heavy rain all though the race made it had going.
In these conditions the ORC’s did well to achieve the following results:
Andrew Vernon 19.31 – 4th in his age category
Sophie Luxton 20.44 – 1st in her category
Claudine Benstead 20.51 – 2nd in her category and
Paul Evison 23.05 – 1st in his category. In fact, Paul’s time was 7 seconds faster than his last time at this distance, improving his currently held Club Record by that amount.
Otter Rail and River 10k
On Saturday sole ORC Lucy Gooding headed to Sidmouth for the Otter Rail and River 10k, a scenic off road run that starts and finishes at Tipton St John. Lucy achieved an unofficial time of 1:10, which after last week’s gruelling 50k she was very happy with!
Cosdon Hill Race
On Sunday we saw the popular ORC hosted Cosdon Hill race, part of the summer series of fell races held at the Belstone village fair event.
This traditional race has been going for many years, with runners taking their own line from Belstone Village to the beacon on top of Cosdon Hill (which can be seen from the start). They then race back to Belstone to finish on the green.
The distance is approx 3.1 miles with a climb of around 300m over rough open terrain. Many a race has been won or lost on the choice of route back to the finish!
This year, although there was some heavy rain just prior to the race, it cleared up and proved excellent conditions for running, with some sun and a mild breeze.
There were 15 juniors who headed off first with the U9’s and U11’s doing 2k and the U13’s and U15’s doing a 4k route. They ran well with Laurence Hicks the first boy and Margot Goodspeed the first girl home in the 2k route and Marlow Kirby and Elsie Goodspeed in the 4k.
45 seniors set off for this daunting challenge and first home in a time of 30:23 was Tim Lenton with Sam Priday the first ORC home in third place in a time of 31:59. They were followed by Tom Poland in 32:45, Joe Lane 34:46 and Stan Wood in 36:06 who was first in his age category.
Claire Grubb was the first ORC lady home in an excellent time of 40:44, the first time running in her ORC vest and she was followed by Claire Watkins in 41:21, first in her age category. This was a great result for Claire considering just last weekend she took on her first Ultra challenge, running 72k in the Through the Darkness event.
They were followed by Euan Ripper in 41:26, Mervyn Rice in 44:32 and Will Seviour in 46:51. Well done to all the runners.
