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Devon County Champs, Torbay & North Devon Halfs & More

Over the last week Okehampton Running Club members took part in a variety of races on three different terrains and also in a mixture of weather conditions.

On Wednesday June 21st Roger Voaden celebrated the longest day by winning the gold medal for the Vet 50 age group in the Devon County Championships 10,000m held on the track at Tavistock. He completed the race in 38:45.13, despite the extreme heat.

On the morning of Saturday June 24th a group of ORCs went to the Tamar Lakes parkrun. The runners were pleased that it was noticeably cooler than earlier in the week, with misty and slightly windy conditions. Chris Turner was first home and an excellent 3rd place overall in 19:08. He was followed by John Binns in 22:49, Jackie Dawes (3rd W45-49) in 24:47, Mags Jarvis (1 st W60-64) in 26:49. Geoff Hill ran with his daughter Shelby who achieved a new PB for the course and was the 1st girl aged 10 years in 32:52. Jackie and Chris also ran PB’s for the course.

On Sunday 25th there were two events that ORCs took part in. These were the Torbay Half Marathon and the North Devon Half Marathon. The Torbay Half Marathon got underway in cloudy conditions. The race followed a route along Torbay road from Paignton Green to Torquay and back, with a second lap before the finish just past Paignton Pier. The ORC runners found the course tough going but still did themselves proud. First home was Geoff Hill in 1:26:34 which was very close to his personal best and clearly the parkrun on the previous day was very beneficial! Ray Lawrence was 2nd ORC to finish with a time of 1:32:10. Mike Westland was delighted with his time of 1:58:35 as he was severely troubled by a knee problem in the second half of the race. Lora Medland finished in 2:05:41, just outside the time she achieved last year.

Tracey Mills, Katy Speak and Carole Cornwall took part in the North Devon Half Marathon which has quickly established itself as one of the most challenging and visually stunning events in the UK. It took place in the North Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, starting and finishing at Woolacombe.
The first 7 miles of the race was along the North Devon Coast path and it included running across the length of Croyde Beach. Here the race started in misty rain but finished in bright sunshine. Tracey was first to finish in 2:36:54 followed by Carole in 2:41:09 and Katy in 2:41:11, all very good times considering the difficulty of the route.

Many thanks to Mags for the run report.