OKEHAMPTON Running Club (ORC) took part in a busy and inspiring weekend of running which included ORC’s Roger Voaden achieving a long held ambition to complete 100 marathons and join the exclusive 100 Marathon Club.

He achieved this at the friendly Plym Trail Winter Series at Clearbrook near Yelverton after completing his 99th marathon on Saturday, finishing in 3.21.20. Two other ORCs also ran on Saturday, where unfortunately Geoff Hill had to cut his race short after becoming unwell. Monika Richards ran the full marathon, completing in 4.20.59.

Sunday saw perfect conditions with no wind and sunshine for Roger’s 100th. Andy Vallance, Jeremy Tandy and Rob Kelly were his escorts for the marathon, while Andrew Vernon, Geoff Hill, Jane and Derek Jackson and Monika Richards ran the half marathon. Roger came home in a time of 3.23.11.

Andrew Vernon and Geoff Hill put in great performances in the Half, coming home in first and second places respectively. Jane Jackson was in second lady position until the last 400m where she cramped so badly she had to stop and was overtaken by another lady, finishing eventually in 1.57.32 to complete her awards chart for the first time in six years. Monika ran a steady pace to finish the half in 2.00.45 while Derek finished in 2.21.30.

On Sunday ORCs ran in the Braunton 10 where there were two distance options on offer, the original Alby Tithecott 10 miler and the newer Steph Irwin 10k. Okehampton had two runners in the 10 miler and both put in outstanding runs with Jo Page storming round in 1.11.20 to be placed third lady, while Emma Dean set a huge PB in 1.19.33. In the 10k there were also great performances with Paul Evison setting a new club age group record and a PB with his time of 50.00 which earned him first MV65 too. The two lady runners both set new PBs with Christine Fritsch coming 2nd FV45 in 55.29 and Kathryn Volkelt-Igoe 3rd FV55 in 1.00.08.

Unfortunately at the First Chance 10k in Exeter, there was huge disappointment. All the competitors were notified on Friday that the course would be classified as NAD (not actual distance) and therefore the times would not count for records or awards purposes. Some runners chose to withdraw but two ORCs still took part with Mike Westland finishing in 54.28 and Jane Richardson in 57.36.

The previous day had seen some more great running by ORCs with two of the fast vets having a battle round the Tavy 5Kool 5k race. Paul Carter just managed to put a bit of distance between him and Stephen Sincock with Paul finishing in 19.04 and Stephen in 19.14, both running great races to be fifth and sixth respectively.

Five ORCs tried out the Tamar Lakes Parkrun on Saturday where Karen King set a new PB of 24.29 and Jo Page was second lady, Jo Bradford third and Karen King fourth.