It was a quiet weekend on the racing front for Okehampton Running Club members with just a couple of ORCs finding the incentive to get out and race in grey and windy conditions. Nothing seems to deter Jo Page from having her weekly race and this time she travelled up to Weston Super Mare to run the Weston Christmas Cracker 10k. Now in its 31st year, this is Weston AC’s largest race by far and people come back year after year to take part in the festive run. Such is the popularity of this race that entries sell out as early as September, with runners travelling from far and wide to line up with 2,000 others dressed as Santas, elves, reindeer, snowmen, penguins and angels. The course includes sand, pavement and tarmac with the first four miles being run on the wet packed sand on the beach. Heavy overnight rain, a tide that had just turned before the race start and strong gusty winds made for challenging conditions and this was no easy fun run but a hotly contested, tough race. Dressed as a lady Santa Jo put in her usual great effort and came home in 43.30 to be sixth senior lady and unbelievably still managing to set a 54 second PB!
Jane Richardson is another weekly racer, running a Parkrun most weekends when she isn’t competing elsewhere. After moving up a group in her training nights with the club, Jane’s running has been improving and she has knocked seconds off her 5k PB several times. This weekend saw another PB in pretty awful conditions when she completed the Exeter Parkrun in 28.04.
Thanks Jane for reporting.
