LAST weekend the grey skies and rain cleared away and there was blue sky and glorious sunshine even if there was a bitter wind.

Two races occupied the Okehampton Running Club members, the Exeter City 10k and the beautiful but tough Hameldown Races.

Like many of the fast, flat Exeter races, the 10k was sited at Duckes Meadow and Riverside Valley Park, using virtually a double lap of the Riverside Parkrun route but in reverse.

Five ORCs took the opportunity to test their speed here with some great individual performances. Rob Kelly proved he was over his recent calf injury to have an outstanding run coming home in second place overall in an impressive time of 37 minutes 16 seconds, improving on his fifth place last year.

Chris Turner was next home for the club, also gradually coming back to form after an injury and finishing in 44.50. Mike Westland has also struggled to get consistent training in with some persistent niggles so he was pleased with his time of 49.14. Ged Fitzgibbon was next home in 53.26 with Jane Richardson in 1 hour 04 minutes 54 seconds.

The clear skies and sunshine made for spectacular views for the runners of the Hameldown Races.

The Hameldown Hammer Half Marathon and the shorter Hameldown 7EVEN start and finish in Widecombe-In-The-Moor at the foot of the Hameldown ridge.

The first three miles of both races are a tough uphill slog at the top of which the 7EVEN runners do a loop around Grimspound and Hookney Tor before returning to the ridge to follow the path back down again.

From Grimspound the half marathon route takes the runners left down to Challacombe before turning north then east, skirting Hookney Tor to form the second half of the hammer head that gives the race its name. Here the biting cold wind was felt in full force before some shelter was found at Heathercombe, but the runners then had a second ascent of the Hameldown Ridge followed by a downhill return to Widecombe.

The conditions underfoot were much improved by the freezing temperatures but wet feet could still not be avoided in some places. Two ORCs took part in the shorter race and for both Liam Keen and Denise Horner this was their first taste of trail running. Both found it a bit tougher than expected but coped well with Denise finishing first of the two.

The Hammer had six Okehampton runners, two of these having never run a half marathon of any sort and for one it was also his first trail race. This did not stop Tom Andrew, relatively new to running, from being the first ORC home and deciding that he preferred this type of race to road running. Gill Spinney was more used to off-road running but had never done this distance before; however she ran strongly to be the next home.

Christine Fritsch, Jane Jackson and Mags Jarvis crossed the line together, Jane and Christine having run the whole race together and met up with Mags in the later stages.

Andy Humberstone had never run a race of this sort before, but ran really well and thoroughly enjoyed it.