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Westward XC, Manchester Half Marathon & Mission: Unbreakable

Westward Cross Country League

This weekend saw the start of the 2022/23 Charles Stanley Westward Cross Country League, with seven senior ORC’s heading off to Newnham Park in Plymouth, a new venue for this year.

The cross country league is a series of 6 races which take runners to different venues around the southwest, all of them are off road and no doubt bring back memories of school days running around fields!

The weather was very mild and dry for this first 5.3mile race, a welcome change as it’s very unusual for these events to be in the dry.

Paul Crease lead the men home in 39th position in a time of 33:24 followed by Andrew Vallance in 71st place, Robert Kelly 75th, Tom Poland 89th, Joe Lane 106th, Daniel Heggs 136th and Stuart Page 148th.

Stan Wood ran in the U15 race and was the 11th home in his group. He ran a strong race and was pleased with his time after nearly 6 months off from competition due to injury.

The next race in the series is on Sunday 13th November at Newquay.

Manchester Half Marathon

On Sunday Kate Wilson joined 11,000 other runners to take part in the Manchester half marathon. This is a fast, flat course and it was ideal conditions being cool and dry.

The runners were cheered round by, amongst others, a rock choir, a drumming group, an ear-splitting sound system (under a motorway bridge for extra loud effect!) a Brownie pack and an 80’s crooner. All great motivation for them!

Kate had a good race and was pleased with her time of 1:57:33.

Mission: Unbreakable

Also on Sunday, Katy Graves took part in Mission:Unbreakable, a 10k commando course filled with tough challenges and obstacles at North Molton in aid of North Devon Hospice. The event takes place on a specially designed course through fields, rivers and forests. The terrain is rugged with plenty of hills and mud to make it even tougher. 

Katy and her team completed the 10k challenge tackling the obstacles along the way – scaling heights, taking a leap of faith, tackling mud, fire, water and ice bath, a sheep dip, monkey bars and a slip n slide. A challenge not for the feint hearted, but it looks like they all enjoyed it!