THE hot and sunny weather of the Bank Holiday was not, however, ideal conditions for the tough off road races that many Okehampton Running Club members were taking part in over the weekend.

The third race in ORC’s summer series, the Oke Croak, was held on Saturday. Starting in Simmons Park the runners followed good paths out to the moors at Chapel Ford, then the well named ‘Goat Track’ took them on to pick up a path that continues on to Oke Tor, where they ran through a natural stone arch. After a descent down to the military ring road the going became tougher, as they ran across open moorland, contouring East Mill Tor before climbing to the top of Yes Tor. From there it was all downhill to Moorgate and back to Simmons Park via Klondyke corner and Ball Hill. There was a good turnout of ORC’s who took on this challenging 10-mile race. First home for the club was off-road specialist Rob Hicks, who ran a strong race in the heat, but was beaten into second by Dartmoor Runner’s Robert Waddy, who was not the only runner to mistake West Mill Tor for Yes Tor. Realising his error, he retraced his steps, climbed Yes Tor and overtook Rob Hicks on the run in from Moorgate to come first in 1 hour 25 minutes 48 seconds, with Rob Hicks a good second in 1.27.02. Club member Jo Bradford’s husband Paul was third male in 1.38.30.

The next ORC home was Mervyn Rice in 1.58.56, while his daughter Jenny, took the first lady prize in 1.51.42. New member Gill Spinney was the second lady in 2.21.15.

Other ORC times were; Jean Paul Quertier and Jason Ewing; 2.03.36, Phil Read; 2.10.15, Phil Spinney; 2.21.13, Debs Crome; (thirrd lady) 2.31.18, Hannah Ramsey; 2.31.19.

There was an even tougher challenge on the same day for the ORC’s who took part in PureTrail’s 34 mile ultra marathon, The Crossing, and the shorter half marathon, The Great Escape.

These races were run on paths and well marked trails, with The Crossing starting in Belstone and crossing the moor from north to south, while The Great Escape started in Princetown and encompassed the later stages of The Crossing, both finishing in South Brent.

Five ORC’s ran the Crossing, with Chris Turner, Charlie Galley and Lucy Marrison all taking on a trail ultra marathon for the first time. Charlie had completed the Three Peaks Challenge the only the weekend before, and he and Chris ran together, finishing in a good time of 6.43.26. Lucy ran with Jo Turner who had previously completed a 32 mile ultra, and despite the warm conditions, they enjoyed the experience and the beautiful scenery they were running through, completing in 8.46.20. Experienced ultra runner Ang Martin has only returned relatively recently from an injury but ran an impressive race to finish in 7.24.37.

The Great Escape saw eight members taking on the half marathon which started two hours later meaning the whole run was in warm conditions. Dartmoor specialist Katie Littlejohns was the first ORC home in this race running well to finish in 2.00.36. Mags Jarvis was the second ORC home running a terrific race to finish in 2.37.01 and coming second FV60.

Mags has Parkinson’s Disease and she decided to use this run to fundraise for the Parkinson’s UK charity. Mags’ daughter, Sarah, joined her for this and came down from her home in Liverpool to run the race too, finishing an impressive fourth overall and second lady in 1.43.26.

Mags continues to inspire every member of the Running Club with her determination to keep doing what she loves best, and her ability to keep training hard and achieve excellent results despite the onset of this debilitating illness is just outstanding. To date Mags has raised a great total of £2,350 with some more donations still coming in.

Other ORC times; Chris Fullford Brown; 2.40.32, Alison Holliday; 2.49.26, Danielle Fullford Brown; 2.52.19, Carole Cornwall; 3.00.58, Katy Speak; 3.02.19, Claire Sprague; 3.29.40.

The following day, ORC Ed Dumpleton took part in the Battle of Sedgemoor 10k, a well established fast and fairly flat race that takes the runners through the scenic rural countryside of the Somerset levels. Ed ran well and finished in 40.36 to set a new PB by 40 secs.

The previous weekend, lone ORC Andrew Vernon travelled to Torquay to run the Torbay Regatta 10k. Despite a strong headwind and a fall during the race, Andy finished in 40.34 to come second in his age category MV45.