At the Dartmoor Discovery last Sunday four Okehampton Runners took on the infamous hills of this 32 mile road ultra marathon. For three of them this was a return visit to a course they had all raced before, but for one this was a new venture into ultra marathon running. The race starts in Princetown and follows a single lap course through Dartmeet, Poundsgate, Widecombe in the Moor,and Postbridge before making its way back to the finish in Princetown. On a good day the countryside is beautiful with stunning scenery, but the hills are relentless, especially in the second half of the course. Rob Kelly loves this race and was first ORC home in a terrific time of 4.31.32, an improvement of nearly 12 minutes on his previous record for the course. Just one person sepa-rated him from Roger Voaden, the next ORC back, finishing in 4.34.21 and behind him was Paul Carter in 4.35.52. For Graham Bryant this was completely new territory, having never run an ultra marathon before, and although he found it tough he put in a great performance to come home in 5.04.44.
Many thanks to Jane Jackson for the report
