This week club runners travelled wide and far to test their strength and fitness in a races of distances from 10 to 55K.
Ultra Trail Snowdonia
Gill Spinney and Katherine Hails travelled to Wales for the Ultra Trail Snowdonia, Katherine was running with the race with her husband. The course was about 55km with over 3300m of ascent, passing over Snowdon twice and then also Mynydd Mawr and Moel Eilio. It was hot and still so everyone was suffering with heat and out of the 1126 starters, 252 didn’t finish. Both Gill and Katherine faced their worst fears when they ran out of water between checkpoints one and two along with lots of others.
It was their first ultra marathon and they definitely picked a hard one. They amazingly
finished within about 8 mins of each other. Gill in 12.18.37 which put her in 657th place overall and 4th in her age category. Katherine did it in 12.26.59 which was 683rd overall.
Imerys Trail Marathon
Joanne Page took on Imerys Trail Marathon for the third time and described it as her toughest. It was wet underfoot and very hot. Despite the conditions she was 3rd female and 1st FV35 in an unofficial time of 3:56:34.
Bristol Half Marathon
A popular half marathon in the heart of Bristol was run by Eddie Kingdom. Eddie ran 1.30.25 to knock 5 seconds off his PB but was disappointed that he did not achieve sub 1.30.
Plymouth Half Marathon and 10k
Starting and finishing on the iconic Plymouth Hoe the half marathon takes runners out of the city around Saltram House estate and back to the city through the cobbled streets of the Barbican. First ORC home was Gary Letheren in 1.43.41 followed by Paul King in 2.06.12. Katie Craker also completed the undulating course in 2.21.42.
Achieving a Diamond award and a PB in the 10K event was Ged Fitzgibbon who also came 3rd in his age category with an admirable time of 51.15.
Crediton Crunch 10k
Three ORCs enjoyed the undulating, multi-terrain Crediton Crunch 10km trail race on Sunday. Organised by South West Road Runners and the Crediton Running Network, the race returns as an annual event after a break. It is 90% off-road and is run on trails, grassland, private parkland and quiet country lanes with most of the first half run on the Devonshire Heartland Way. After the recent rain the course was muddy in places!
Ian Ripper had a great race and was first ORC home followed by Claire Watkins who was third female overall winning a lovely wooden trophy and Andrew Thorne.
