THE mud lovers of Okehampton Running Club have been revelling in the recent wet conditions.

New Year’s day saw Rob Hicks, Will Lamerton, Paul Crease, Roger Voaden, Paul Carter, Merv Rice, Stuart May, Anne Binns and John Binns curing any excesses of the night before by running the Brown Willy Run from Jamaica Inn to the highest point of Bodmin Moor – not officially a race!

They joined hundreds of other runners who braved the seven miles of bottomless mud underfoot and fought the fierce headwind and rain on the homeward stretch.

Undeterred, several of them were out again at the weekend for the Frank Elford Westward Cross Country League at Westward Ho! making it a record turnout from ORC for this series.

The venue was on Northam Burrows, over several laps of flat but wet and boggy turf, enormous deep puddles and water filled ditches which made for a tough race. Happily the worst of the rain was over by the time the ladies’ race got underway.

The best performance of the day must have been that achieved by Rob and Claire Kelly. These two came along together with their twin babies; Rob did the child minding while Claire ran in the ladies’ race, they then swapped roles so that Rob could complete in the men’s race!

Results: Men — Andy Vallance 35 minutes 08 seconds, Paul Crease 35.33, Matt Pitson 37.26, Chris Turner 37.40, Nick Seccombe 38.50, Stuart May 41.20, Rob Kelly 41.59, Merv Rice 45.33. Ladies: Anne Binns 30.31, Marilyn Cooper 33.34, Mags Jarvis 35.52, Claire Kelly 35.54, Kerry Morashti 38.41, Marilyn Ley 41.00.