A beautiful sunny spring morning greeted the runners for the Bideford 10k on Sunday and, with only a slight headwind on the return along the Tarka trail, the running conditions were pretty good. There was record turnout of 1,100 runners there and we had seventeen members representing ORC. Always regarded as a fast course, the runners follow the slightly undulating road out to Instow before returning to Bideford on the Tarka Trail. This year, for the first time, the runners’ finishing straight was along the Quay walkway instead of the pavement, which meant not having to dodge pedestrians, bollards and a bus stop!
First ORC home in a great time of 41.18 was Mark Hawkins, his first race since the Madrid marathon 3 weeks ago and a PB by over 3 minutes. Not long after came ORC’s first lady, Katie Littlejohns with another PB of 42.43, just bettering her run here last year and taking the 3rd Senior Female prize. There were seven other Personal Best performances by Sarah Marvin; 44.23, Jo Bradford; 53.30, Ruth Bushell; 58.59, Rachel Holland; 59.47, Jo Burrow; 1.01.48, Jessica Corcoran; 1.02.16 and Claire Sprague; 1.04.06. This was Ed Dumpleton’s first 10k race having run only a half marathon and a 10miler before and he set an excellent time of 44.16. One of last September’s beginners, Elizabeth Baker, was running her first race of any sort. Her running has come on really well with the help of some training with her husband Mike and she completed in 1.04.07.
Other ORC times; Mike Baker; 43.27, Andrew Thorne; 44.05, Jackie Dawes; 50.21, Rachael Haydon; 58.30, Trace Mills; 59.46, Jane Richardson. The Okehampton Male Vets Team (Mark, Mike, Andrew and Ed) were placed second and the Senior Female Team (Katie, Sarah and Jackie) were also second.
While most of the club were running a short distance this week, prolific marathon runner Roger Voaden took a trip down to run the Imerys Trail Marathon. This is a tough multi terrain race covering farmland, sand roads and tracks, and, if you have the energy to appreciate it, some lovely scenery. The newly introduced cut-off times in the race didn’t trouble Roger, who is no stranger to this course and celebrated the running of his 60th marathon by finishing in an excellent time of 3.28.30, to come 6th overall.
Many thanks to Jane for the run report
