CASTLE Drogo was the venue for the Drogo 10 race hosted by South West Road Runners. Many Okehampton Running Club members were among those competing in a race not for the faint hearted with 10 miles of stony tracks and steep hills – the stiffest climb of all reserved for the last mile up the Hunter's Path back to the finish.

Steve Gentle led the ORC team home finishing 11th overall out of nearly 500 runners in a time of 1hr 08mins 38secs – an excellent performance on this terrain.

There were more good runs from Ben Bowler who was next in 1.21.16 followed Mervyn Rice 1.28.04, Jo Bowler 1.28.15, Tim Watson 1.28.16 and Detlef Schoenfeld 1.28.26.

Adrian Kettle although not well was determined to complete albeit in a far slower time than usual. Jo Camies, Ali Holliday and Tracy Martin ran the whole way together —a great effort from Tracey in her first Drogo 10.

Other times: Greg Miller 1.38.29, Adrian Kettle 1.43.26, Marilyn Cooper 1.44.10, Alan Luffingham 1.54.56, Jo Camies, Tracey Mills and Alison Holliday 1.58.34

At the same time three more members were tackling the Cornish Marathon – considered to be one of the toughest in the UK. Roger Voaden was the first ORC member home in 25th place in 3.17.14, closely followed by Paul Carter, 29th in 3.18.02 and Bryan Friend in 3.32.52.

ORC is now large enough to be allocated three places in the Virgin London Marathon.

The 'lucky' people this year are Claire Down, Laura Alm and Deborah Cunningham with Claire Kelly as reserve. For Claire this will be her first attempt at 26.2 miles. She has been trying for five years to get into London. Laura completed the Taunton Marathon earlier this year while Deborah has several marathons under her belt including this year's London Marathon and the New York Marathon.

19 ORCs completing this year's race, the club will once again be well represented in the capital next April — some members having been successful in the ballot, a good number being qualified Good for Age and others running for charity.