OKEHAMPTON Running Club members took part in some testing races at the weekend. On Saturday seven runners took on the incredibly tough Tsunami races organised by PureTrail where the options were a 36mile Ultra, a marathon and a 16miler using the most rugged, wild and remote sections of the Southwest coast path between Westward Ho! and Bude.

The name Tsunami referred to the effect the race was meant to have, with each distance starting at two hour intervals there was a tsunami-like effect, gathering more runners the further down the course they went. On an incredibly hot and humid day Robert Richards was the only ORC in the Ultra marathon that started in Westward Ho! but he had to retire at Hartland Quay feeling unwell. The marathon saw three ORCs, Jane Jackson, Christine Fritsch and Jo Turner, take on what has been acknowledged as the toughest marathon in the south west, with more than 5,600ft of ascent and the relentless, steep up and down being at its worst in the last 10 brutal miles.

Running together they made the cut-off point easily although Christine was already suffering the effects of the humid heat. All three achieved a time of 7 hours 55 minutes 28 seconds.

Three more ORCs ran the 16-miler, taking in the toughest section of the coast path and having over 3,200ft of ascent. Gill Spinney was first home for the club coming home in 3.52.44. Carole Cornwall and Katy Speak ran together and completed in 5.38.11.

Tempted by the draw of a visit to a National Trust property and cream tea at Coleton Fishacre. Janet White, Ruth Bushell, Kathryn Volkelt-Igoe  and Mags Jarvis visited the house and beautiful grounds then took part in the Coleton Footache race of just over six miles. The route took in three miles of the coast path south of Brixham. After reaching the World War Two gun batteries at Froward Point they climbed about 100m heading inland. The sting in the tail was another drop back down through the fields and final climb back up through the gardens to the finish. Mags was first to finish in 1.16.50 and was the first woman 60-64. Ruth and Kathryn finished in 1.26.27 and Janet completed the course in 1.29.01.

Endurance was all that mattered in a challenge completely new to any ORC, taken on by Jo Page this weekend when she took part in Endure 24, where, as part of a team of four, she ran a 24hour endurance race. Set in the scenic Wasing Park Estate, Aldermaston, it was a relay race over an 8k loop to be completed as many times as they could, starting at midday Saturday and finishing midday Sunday.

Jo thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of repeatedly running the same loop with only about two hour break in between her runs. By the end she had run an incredible 50 miles, with their team completing 135 miles in total.

Roger Voaden continued to make his way towards joining the 100 Marathon Club when he ran the Yeovil Marathon on Sunday. The two lap race starts and finished on the athletics track at RNAS Yeovilton and follows country lanes around the town. Roger had a good run, finishing in 3hrs 12min.

New ORC member Louise Jane completed her first ever race. Helped by the support of the club and her training runs, she completed the Rainbow Run in Exeter in 35.20 and now looks forward to improving her time and fitness.

There was a good turnout of ORCs at the weekly park run at the Tamar Lakes where some good times were posted by all, while some great runs were scored at the Run Exe 5k earlier in the week. Here four ORCs took part, with Jo Page (21.32), Jo Bradford (23.33) and Lotte Smith (28.34) all running PBs. Andy Vernon also ran a good time of 18.52 although not a PB.

The club held the first of its annual one mile time trials last week where Jo Bradford (6.27), Jackie Dawes (6.37), Jo Page (6.07), Gaz Williams (6.28), Jo Burrow (7.22) and Cam Whitelaw (7.29) all set new PBs, while Jane Jackson (6.44) and Mags Jarvis (7.04) gained their platinum awards for the distance – Jane setting a new club highest age graded percentage for ladies of 87.1%.