This weekend saw our runners leave the tarmac and compete in 3 different offroad runs….
The Green Lantern
Wild Running’s event, The Green Lantern, took place this Saturday. A nice mix of park trails, slippery mud, hills and tarmac for this mixed terrain Half Marathon around Exeter’s Green Circle. ORC members Jack Edwards and Lucy Gooding enjoyed this fab route.
Drogo 10
Several ORCs undertook this scenic route – Ellodi Stott, Geoff Hill, Rob Kelly, Jessie Guscott, Harriet Munday, Charlie Temperley and Mike Davies. After a pause of a year; THE DROGO 10 returned to much excitement from all runners! 10 miles of hilly, muddy cross-country terrain. Runners enjoyed stunning views of the Teign Valley and tackled the infamous Hunter’s Path Hill.
Westward League Cross Country (Newquay)
It was a still and mild grey day in Newquay for the second Westward League Cross Country fixture. The meeting was also the Cornish Championship so drew the best runners from our neighbours to the West.
The U13 kicked things off with two boys representing ORC. William Miles ran strongly on the first lap of their 3km course with Arthur Hicks just behind. Arthur’s experience with pacing paid off and he was able to move past William on the second lap but not able to advance his position further. Both boys are both still getting used to the increased distance now they have gone up an age category and will hopefully stay more in touch with the leaders at the next opportunity.
We had 4 ORC boys tackle the 1.6km U11 course. They changed positions amongst themselves but ran more or less as a 4 for the first lap. Within a strong field the ORCs had a race within a race. Stanley Hicks pulled away from his team mates but was unable to catch the boy in front. A strong last 300m saw Arthur Lane run past Will Bussell and Laurence Hicks won his battle to avoid finishing at the back of the field.
Finally the senior men’s race saw 7 ORCs on a very busy start line. An extra field was added to the course to increase the distance and the men ran 3 long laps and 2 smaller to total 8.7km. Over 100 places separated our first and last ORC which shows the size and strength of the field. Conditions were generally still good under foot leading to quick times which weren’t necessarily reflected in finishing positions with the strongest Cornish runners working hard to secure their spot in their county team. All the senior men agreed it was a good run and they had given a good account of themselves.
We look forward to taking a strong team to Devon for our own County Championships on 5th December. Hopefully some of our female runners will be available.
Final positions were:
U13 boys: Arthur Hicks 25th, William Miles 27th.
U11 boys: Stanley Hicks 20th, Arthur Lane 21st, William Bussell 22nd, Laurence Hicks 26th. Seniors: Male Sam Priday 32nd, Paul Crease 45th, Andy Vallance 75th, Rob Hicks 84th, Joe Lane 112th, Paul Carter 126th, Stuart Page 142nd
